You know, pictures or it didn't happen! Gotta have pictures, cuz y'all know we DO love pictures! So stick that camera in your pocket so you'll have it with you when there is an opportunity!
I actually tried! I cut a nice 30 inch Ash today, set up my tripod and everything and then...nothing...batteries went dead! It was a staving ash though. In the end it was 30" on the but, ran up to 30 feet with not a knot upon it, then got (2) 8 foot logs and a (1) 12 foot log (all with 6" trim of course). I probably would have got a little more out f it if I had cut (3) 10' logs because every bit of them was clear, but hey its a negligible amount.
Well, the next time you or Katie go into town, grab an 8 pack or so of batteries. Then post up some pictures so we can see and over them. Speaking for myself, I love seeing pictures of wood burning stoves, fire pits, piles and piles and piles of firewood, sheds full of firewood, and trees people have felled. Even splitters and axes! Action shots and video's are a plus! Get an extra 100 quatloos if you have a dog somewhere in the picture!
This was two of the pictures I took before my camera died of battery failure. The first was taken a ways back from the tree so you can see it towered above the treeline, and the second shows how big (remember the base is 30 inches in diameter) the tree is closer up, and how branch-free it was. It was a nice tree, worth about $377 for the saw logs, and another $30 for the top as hardwood pulp. Not bad for a half hour worth of work. Of course it took me, my father and my grandfather NOT cutting it until now, to get that much money for it. BTW: The skyline is clear behind it, not because it is cleared of wood, but because it is a big field used for agriculture.
I worked on a few trees on my own property this evening, I still have a huge mess of logs from the sewer company that I've slowly been picking at. Today I got a load of white oak and chestnut oak and one load of ash.
My crack has made a full recovery! Thank you!.. Funny thing is, I got lit up like a Christmas tree again today in the woods, I moved a log and started cutting it and WHAM! Out of nowhere they started pouring out of a hole right beside the log.. Got me 5 times on my left forearm. And they looked just like that pic you posted... I swear some people get poison oak or poison ivy, not me I can roll in the stuff and have zero symptoms. But I sure as chit seem to run into every dang nest of stinger things around
I ended up going to the hospital for my bee stings. They swelled my arm up so bad that it made driving my dozer hard (I have an old fashioned lever steer dozer still so I need to be able to move my elbows). Not being able to operate a bulldozer is NOT a life option. The swelling has gone down now fortunately so I am on the mend I think. They also put me on an antibiotic as a precaution. Last year I was welding the rudder at the shipyard I used to work at. This was for a US Navy Destroyer so it was pretty big in size, and a piece of slag fell down my shirt and burned my elbow. It soon got infected and they could not get a handle on the right antibiotics to give me. After 4 visits to the ER and with my arm swollen from finger tip to elbow, they finally had to give me antibiotics by IV every 12 hrs for 2 weeks otherwise I would have lost my arm. They would have admitted me, but they were full so I had to travel back and forth, not to mention the 2 hours it took for it to be pumped into me. I NEVER want to do that again!
I'm glad your on the mend man! I actually kinda feel crappy today as well. And I completely attribute it to getting nailed by them last evening in the woods. I'm really for cold temps!
Would love to have about 40 acres of that sort of wood! Actually would be fun sawing some lumber from that tree too. And speaking of that, I've always thought it a real shame that ash tends to split so easy. Have to keep that in mind when sawing.
Oh I have split more than my fair share. I have since learned to cut the sides before backing the back cut to reduce the hinge area. It keeps them from splitting but it does not keep them from rolling as they are on their way down! I got a few more this size, but with the Emerald Ash Borer in New Hampshire and closing in on us, my forester said take them down. And with much of the country decimated by the borer, the price for Ash has skyrocketed so it only makes sense too. If they are big they go into logs, if the are mid-sized they go for Mat Logs and if they are small they go for pulp, but I am on a mission to purge Ash from my woodlot. Its sad, I like Ash, but what can you do.
Here are a few that are more artsy then anything, but maybe you will like them. A different spin on logging so to speak, though no dog in the picture.
I guess I don't quite get this line of thinking...cut all the Ash down because the bug is coming...we have had the bug here 3-4 years now...lots of dead Ash trees...but some alive and well too. Cut 'em all down, they're gone. Leave 'em and see what happens...maybe some squeak through somehow...odds are slim I know...but maybe
I am not sure about other states, but in Maine anyway, when a disease or bug infestation takes over, the wood of that species is quarantined meaning you can't move it. If you can't move it, you can't sell it, and if you cannot sell it, it has no value. It does not matter if it has the disease or beetle or not, it just has to be the same kind of wood that could have it. For instance, the county I live in now is one of a few that has Japanese Bark Beatles that feeds upon High Bred Hack. Because of that I cannot sell that wood because of the quarantine, it ends up being worthless wood. All over the state you can see purple triangular Emerald Ash Borer traps that the Forest Service is monitoring to see when (not if) the Ash Borer gets here. They believe it may be in South Paris, Maine already. They are also putting money into a fund to remover street side trees that get killed by the beetle. I won't say the Maine Forest Service is ready for it, but it is preparing for it.
We are actually looking into becoming a Chestnut Plantation to help introduce blight resistant trees back into Maine. There are some huge manadates to the program, but where we live we have the most fertile soil in Maine. I did not say it is great, its just the best Maine has! So the forest service has calculated where the ideal soils are to grow Chestnut's and if we have that soil type, we would take on the burden of raising some chestnut trees. I say burden because if they are deemed NOT blight resistant, then you have to burn them. I don' want to go through all that if we have so-so soil for Chestnut's, but if it is ideal for Chestnut's, we would do our part to help reintroduce them. I hope that makes sense. I have a great working relationship with our State Foresters and also have on retainer, a private forester. As a side note, our forest is part of the American Tree Farm Program, certified under NRCS, and a certified under the Forest Stewardship Council. We have to play by a lot of rules! We are committed to forestry though where it makes sense to grow trees. In other areas, we are committed to agriculture.
Around here, the ash borer has seemed to slow down quite a bit. Some ash can grow immunity to EAB too. Cutting them all down gives them zero shot at survival.
The wood is not totally worthless, as in NY, the wood must be kiln heated to a certain temp for a specific time. And then it can be transported and sold. Might be different in Maine.
It was thought that the Emerald Ash Ovrer had no natural enemies, but that has been proven to be false. The Woodpecker has been shown to eat them, and may be able to control the population of EAB. Might be easier to introduce woodpeckers to an area to help slow down the proliferation of the EAB.
I just checked my Forest Management Plan and Ash consists of a large percentage of my woodlot by species; 12%! At that density I am not concerned about losing Ash forever. We have endured far to many diseases and pests in our woodlot for that line of thinking; the Japanese Bark Beetle that is currently killing our High Bred hack, the hackmatack blight that blew through 15 years ago, Spruce Budworm in the 1980's, the gypsy moth in the 1990's, etc. All took a toll on their respective tree species at the time, but they recovered. But we also lost a lot of potential income because we never harvested the trees until after their demise. That was the mistake. I am harvesting NOW so as to glean the most out of them before they are devastated. This is no different then a house wife taking the clothes off the line before a rain storm. Sure she can leave the clothes up until after it rains and then throw them in the dryer, but why wait when more gain can be gleaned prior to the fateful event simply by being proactive instead of reactive.
