The same storm that scared the bejeebus out of me and threaten to blow me away to Oz also blew down a dead pine across the road to the little valley. I thought I had heard something crashing down in the storm and I was correct. So I used the little echo 330 to buck it up and hauled it to the house with the Old Girl. I filled both the rear carrier and front carrier. By the way, the leaning dead chestnut oak that I had asked about dropping is on the ground, thanks to a previous storm. I am glad as I was not looking forward to dropping it. It went down exactly where I wanted it to go; no hang up, completely on the ground.
Was there much sap? If not, then it's best to split it aSAP . Otherwise you'll need to wait until it saps out, which could take a few months.
No sap, that tree has been dead for some time. It was on the list to cut. I will split and moisture test and if ready, go ahead and use it and save my locust. Rains moving in so I stacked and covered for now.
Ok. If the sap isn't running out of it when you cut it, which is typical, then you should split it right away. If you don't split it right away, it will sap out shortly. Then you'll need to wait until it dries up, which could be weeks/ months, before it's not sappy any more. If it's cold put, ie below freezing, then you typically can cut and process right away. Cut a live pine down in summer, and it's going to be messy.
Love the wee tractor, sure comes in handy for a wee haul doesnt it. how much wood is it? half a cord?
Pine tree sap is especially sticky and attempts to heal cuts not too much unlike how blood clots to heal a cut in your skin and scab over. In not too much time from cutting rounds, especially when water is plentiful and the tree ir rich with fluids, the sap flows readily trying to heal the wounds. Handling rounds can be a very sticky proposal until they've dried out a little bit. Getting the rounds stacked quickly if you want them stacked is usually a good idea. Putting that work off until tomorrow is not. On Eastern White Pine the green bark of the younger parts of the tree bruise easily and the sap flows out readily. Not like water but like thick sticky syrup. It does not wash off easy. You can use it as a primitive glue, candle wax/fuel among many other uses. I usually wait a few weeks before splitting for the sap to dry out.
I see. Most interesting. I've never felled a tree and never got to a felled pine fast enough to see this phenomenon. I'll look out for it.
Pines must vary from region to region as they are a bit sappy here but not so bad. Pine is not only good shoulder season wood but also great deep winter wood. Many of us who live where softwoods reign and cold temps last many months heat our houses fine with pine. I use lodgepole pine, spruce for day time burning and then use slightly denser woods like larch and birch for overnights. Rest assured pine will heat your home during the deepest cold but it burns hot so dont day dream when you load the fire box and make sure you turn down your air when needed.
A pine tree I worked on yesterday: You can see what looks like little water droplets on the white sapwood between the red bark and the pink heartwood. They won't drip off, they're too thick and it's like glue. Sticky messy pine sap. If you get it on your hands you have to scrub and scrub and scrub and scrub and scrub to get it off. There won't be any on a dead tree. That took overnight to ooze out which is why I either stack the rounds right away after cutting them or just leave them on the ground where they fell for a couple weeks or months or handle them very very carefully.
I JUST made a thread about this. I just split a stack of white pine and my maul is completely covered in pitch. Won't do that again
Who cares about what's stuck on your wood clothes? When I'm wearing them and eating lunch, I don't use napkins. Haha
billb3 is really spot on with the white pine. I should post a pic my old leather wood cutting gloves from last year's white pine in the tree service freebies. That stuff is on the gloves. Really in the gloves. I purposely used an old pair of gloves as I knew what the outcome would be.
