As promised, here are some of this weekend's management activities! Hit up the black locust gold mine this weekend. It's going to have to turn into a savings bank. There's so much to get back there - and I keep finding more! Dunno if it's a coincidence, but every time I've been back there in my FHC shirt, I've doubled the amount of downed and tipped over trees I've found in this stand! The spot I was in had 4 large trees down, within about a 20' radius. I think I'll try to clean up most of what's on the ground, but the rest is probably going to have to wait, since it rots so much slower than anything else. I left the main trunk of this one - probably 18-20" around, little short of 16'. I'll mill that one into lumber, and some new inner fenders for my wood hauler (thanks for the idea bogydave!) Had to cut it free from a bunch of pricker bushes, and there were a bunch of seedling ash and sugar maple trees underneath that were thanking me for that! This one was right next to it. You can kind of see another one in the background just behind the bushes. That one was mostly suspended off the ground, so I left it. That one broke off from this, so I grabbed it too. Figured I needed some falling practice, and I was right. I was kinda in a hurry with it, and I "duchman'd" it a little bit, and it stalled on the way down. Nothing the 36" wrecking bar couldn't handle; but I wouldn't want that to happen with a whole tree. Hauled 3 good sized loads out. The second one is probably the most I've ever had on the trailer, in terms of weight. Guess it's kinda hard to tell, but it had 12 "2-pack" bolts 12" and up, then a few a bit smaller but longer. Made about 40 rounds out of it. Managed to strip 99% of the bark off and leave it in the woods. The batch of locust in my avatar pic made a huge mess with all the bark that came off of it when I was splitting it. No pics of the last load or the stacks as it was getting dark. I'll post a pic in the morning.
Yeah, a good score indeed. I like the way you got alot of bark off of it before removal. BL bark is thick and wastes space. There's more useful BTU per load without bark.
Sweetness right there, I got in a stand like that a fews years ago, every time I looked again I found another one laying. That's the nice thing about locust it takes so long to rot.
Nice! I haven't been back in a couple years to a score site I have access to, but this year I can burn the stuff I got there last time, a couple of cords. It was stacked when I got it, and some that I picked up off the ground was already dry enough to go into the stove that day, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of your score is pretty dry as well. Bark falling off is a good sign. No BL on our property, unfortunately, but I've grabbed a little from the neighbors, as well as that score site. I told both of them it was good, long-burning wood, so they will probably want to keep more of their limited amounts for themselves. Oh well, anything as good as White Ash or better will serve my purposes nicely, so I'm not as obsessed with getting the primo stuff as I was several years back. Speaking of other uses....I need new gutters and it crossed my mind to see if my neighbor with the mill could make some out of BL logs. Might be a little heavier than the vinyl I have on there now...
The stuff looks read to burn. Great score (if you like high BTU , long & hot burning wood. ) Still looks warm there ? Leaves have long left the trees here .
What color FHC t-shirt were you wearing Shawn? I think I'm gonna try your luck in wearing mine in the woods soon. Nice looking pics on your BL score, keep up the good work!
Didn't check any of it on the MM, but some of the branches were definitely ready - you could tell by the weight. We had some frost overnight Saturday into Sunday, but it ended up being good firewood'n weather after the sun came up. The ash have dropped all thier leaves, and the maples are getting some really nice color. This stand is thick with BL, which haven't started to change yet. Wore the orange one first earlier in the week, and the black one Saturday. Think they all must be lucky!
Man, that IS a gold mine! BL bark is a dirty mess, when it falls off in the woods that is an added bonus! Nice haul buddy!
Updated pics of the stacks. Added a whole 'nother row of BL rounds, and topped off the other rows a bit as well. Some BL branches stacked on the ground next to the big log, and a small load of ash stacked on top of it, that I also hauled this weekend. Just 2 smaller trees that were mixed in with all the down pine and poplar I posted about last week. Gotta figure out how and where I'm gonna stack all this, but I have a general plan. Some of it will refill this years stacks, and for the rest, and year 3, I want to do a holzhausen. Probably on the other side of the house, if I can find a convenient access, fairly sunny spot. A 10' diameter, 5' high one should hold a bit over 3 cords, which I think should be enough fuel for the 'main' part of the season, minus shoulder. If I go that route, ill probably put the BL on the bottom, and top it off with red maple. I could make a 7' diameter one using a lot less pallets, but it would only hold 1.5. But that should be enough for a nice 'dead of winter' pile. Decisions, decisions!
Anybody within trucking range of CT/NY border & LI-sound., there's a few cords of BL that Sandy blew down. Most of it, we've bucked to 14-16". On a property managed by local Land Trust, who'd like to see it leave. Entry is okay for p/u trucks, not much bigger. Chainaws only with approval. Some of it will need noodling for loading. Probably a couple cords piled there in rounds. Interested- PM me.
20 years from now that locust would still not be rotted! Amazing how rot resistant locust it! Nice score!
I've run across a few dead standers that had some kind of core rot. Not sure what causes that but if you keep cutting, you usually get back into some solid wood fairly quickly. But yeah, the solid stuff won't rot for a long, long time. They used to make fences using Locust Post. I've found some on the ground with no bark and when I cut 'em the wood was brown, no longer yellow. That stuff tested sub-18 moisture.
I saw the same thing in some of the BL in my avatar pic. One of the trees looked like it must have fallen over onto the road, and the town or whoever pushed it back into the woods. The bottom 6' or so was almost completely buried in the dirt. I dug some of it out, and the rounds I cut up wanted to sort of "flake apart" along the growth rings. It was slimy and almost looked like black mold. All of the wood was still solid though! I have no idea how long these have been down. I know it lasts a long time, but I also know it won't last forever! Kinda wanted to check on it really. Well that, and watch you guys drool over my BL wealth..
Looks a lot like where I cut. Some of the trees have been down 20 years and are covered in moss...and still rock solid inside.
