Well, see, I just learned something else by hanging with you fine folks. Now that I know what Chinese elm bark looks like I’m fairly certain I’ve never seen one let alone burned any . I’ll try to use the correct name going forward
Update, wind gust up to 50mph today sustained 30mph seemed like a good idea to get this thing down. Worked at it for a while then walked away and let mother nature works its magic. You can see the boy just pushed it over, haha. More pictures to come.
SF Bay Area peninsula too. Grew up on a street lined with them. Two in our own yard. Very messy trees.
Bout as safe as i could hope for. Wasnt real sure on plan of attack to be honest. Used Milwaukee cordless pole saw with extension to cut through what i thought was the holding wood up top. That helped, but didnt do it. Used the pole saw to cut through the base as deep as it wood go all the way around the damaged half too. That seemed to be the ticket. Probably should have just gotten a regular saw, but wanted to stay as far away as possible.
Yep you are right about that. They are messy but when they are large they can create some really good shade.
Yup. That’s why the city planted so many. We trimmed ours and I remember the wood sizzling with water in our fireplace and my dad saying it wasn’t seasoned long enough. We didn’t have Firewood Hoarders club back then the to know better.
I was going to say it would be an interesting experiment to leave it and see how long it would stay standing for, but at the expense of it being a hazard tree with people better to get it down. Sometimes trees will surprise us and continue living on, even being compromised like that one. Enjoy the firewood.
I think it would have probably survived for quite a long time. There was still a lot of good wood holding it up. The fear of it falling without notice on a vehicle or kiddo playing would have bothered me. I think ill get the whole thing cut down and bucked up then get the stump ground down and replant something else next to it. Probably a hackberry as there are several random ones around the property that should be moved.