Had to hire a tree service, the trees were too tall and much to close to buildings (some mine, some neighbors) for me to even attempt felling them. Crew of two guys, one running the saw, and one running the Bobcat, as well as one guy who brought a 10- wheel dump truck to catch what came out of the chipper showed up today. Took down maybe 20, 30 maples (silver maple) and I kept the wood for firewood only because it was cheaper than if they carted it away. Silver maple is a fairly lousy firewood IMO but it was less than free so..... The back field at the start: Side of my driveway at the start: Bobcat feeding the chipper 1: Chipper feeding the truck: They filled that truck up twice! At the end, in the back: Finished on the side: The wood they left: Sideview: At a wild guess, I would say there was better than 2 cord there but hard to tell. Even the 'tree guys' passed on guessing how much was there. No matter, once bucked and split, it will go up my chimney like all the rest. Now on to construction (earth moving) equipment to dig out all the vegetation, stumps, rocks as well as grade both the land and the driveway. Brian
Sure is nice to have all that happen in one day! Will all the grading and stump removal happen before winter? How's your wrist?
Atta boy Brian. Wife and daughter are out of town this weekend. I am free both Saturday and Sunday morning (deer hunting in the afternoons) if you want some help getting it bucked up and split.
Oh it burns and all but really my firewood preference starts at oak and goes up. Silver maple has about 1/2 the heat of better species, does not coal and will not go overnight. To me it is sorta' like going shopping and having them fill the bags 1/2 way: I get to carry twice as many bags for the same amount of food. Brian
Thanks so much for the offer Dan but it is going to sit a while- heavy equipment is on its way and it will be a while before I can use the property, including the driveway. Good luck hunting!
Yes, expect construction co. arriving soonest. When he is done, I will need to hire a landscaper or rent a tractor and York rake to clean up the place and plant grass seed; the goal is to have the seed germinate before the first frost, which is maybe a month or six weeks out here. Might get away with a little frost if I cover the grass seed with straw or hay as I usually do anyway (easier to water and it keeps the birds from eating the seed, or in their opinions, lunch). And yes, it is OUTSTANDING to have it happen in one day. Not cheap but a tremendous amount of work done in a short time. Plus they are insured..... as well as skilled so it is a win / win. The very best part about hiring people as compared with doing things myself: they actually finish. Wrist is 100% as far as I can tell, thanks for asking. No pain, no problem and the limit to upward movement is not a hindrance in anything I have tried to do in the last six months. Seeing as you asked.... OFFTOPIC: when I had the surgery done, I asked for an additional screw (Easy Boys!) sort of as a souvenir. The surgeon agreed and then I had to chase him for six months. Finally, his 'office manager' (thank you Susan!) tracked one down and I picked it up. A truly fascinating piece of hardware. This is the first one I received (I slept through the entire 'delivery'): These are photos of the next one. Note not only the taper but the change in thread pitch- this is what causes the binding pressure in the bone without the screw having any part protruding, such as the driving head of most screws: They drill a small hole, then put a wire in the hole and slide the screw onto the wire while driving it in with what appears to be a Torx drive or similar. Note the cutting teeth on the front end: Lousy photo of the back of the screw, including the hole through it: Just as an aside, I ran R&D of a screw machine house for several years and Scout's honor, this is a very sophisticated screw. Not sure of the alloy: I was told it was titanium (probably 4-6 alloy IME) but the blue color is throwing me off as I have never seen titanium with any type of finish on it. The blue might also be a coating of some type. ?? Brian
Well, your first idea was probably what I will do- use the maple when I do not need a great deal or long duration heat, shoulder season, mild days, etc. I think I can also help myself out a bit by splitting this stuff much larger than I would oak- that should give longer burns and a bit more heat with less wood handling (Easy Boys!- not the 'good' kind of wood handling!). Plus a big part of my dislike of silver maple is not when used as firewood anyway, it is a terrible tree IMO. A 'pest' tree that sprouts up everywhere, a top- feeding tree with no tap root (they go over first in every hurricane while the oaks watch and snicker), they eat the nutrients all around them, killing both grass and any desirable plants, and finally, the roots grow above ground often, making them terrible to even mow around. And for dessert, they yield a ga-zillion leaves that people have to deal with with absolutely no benefit, at least around here. These maples do not even turn pretty colors in fall like some nearer you do. I will say they are easy to split but since I bought a hydraulic wood splitter I do not care about that anymore either. I used to despise elm for its [split-not] behavior when using wedges and a maul but with a wood splitter, elm is nice firewood. See you in two days, assuming you will be at Woodstock for the open house! Brian
BDF, I hate to call a fellow hoarder's ID into question, but are you sure that's silver maple? It looks an awful lot more like Norway from here between the bark and leaves. Norway being near sugar maple on the btu charts would make a great looking pile like you have there even greater! Either way, great to have the trees down and out of the way. I just had to hire out a big job also, and even with friendly pricing it was a wallet buster.
Norway maple leaves turn all yellow in the Fall. They also have a white milk sap that oozes out of the leaf stem if you pull one off.
Oh hey, no problem- I freely admit I do not know my tree species. Some species I can tell apart while standing, living trees but very few when cut and without leaves. In fact, there are really only two kinds of firewood to me: oak and [not oak]. But I have been told many times that these are silver maples by various 'tree guys' (arborists and tree service co. workers / owners) so just am assuming they are correct. As to my own observations, I find they are a 'pest' tree while living, and the wood is not very dense at all when CSS and dry- it looks and weighs like pine IME. Sugar maple is a much denser wood, fine for burning, as is rock maple and several other species of maple. But this stuff is only barely worth cutting up and using for firewood IMO. When dry it is very, very light, and turns gray very quickly- exactly like pine. But you may be absolutely correct and what I am calling 'silver maple' may indeed be something else. But whatever it is I still do not care for it..... Yes, this too was expensive but really we had no choice. Some trees were leaning in the wrong direction and so required equipment to fell in an acceptable direction. No friendly pricing here either, I paid full retail. But still, I am a happy customer as the job is done, nothing was damaged and I still have a great shot of having the rest of the grounds work done before frost. Brian
The leaves on the branches going into the chipper look more like norway maple big fat leaves than silver maple frilly ones. I've burned a little norway maple but it was always mixed in with other species. I've always enjoyed burning it just because it can be such an invasive species.
From looking at your stacks when they were all done I would say at least 2 cord. Like you said in the end it will all go up in, well hopefully in heat but not smoke.
