Hey there! I don't have much time for the computer, but am finally getting some pictures up of some of the wood available on our place. The main types we have are locust and hedge (osage orange). We had horses as I was growing up, so always wanted more pasture, but the hedge and locust kept trying to take over, so I spent most of my youth trying to eradicate both of them! I spent many winters down in the pasture cutting up downed or problem trees, building burn piles, and burning them up. (My family calls my a pyro - they have always said mom liked a good fire! ) . We didn't have a wood stove (dad was an insurance agent and no way would he put one of those dangerous things in his house ) so I burned up all that wood in big piles when it was wet enough to do it without setting anything else on fire, like the pasture or the barn. This first picture is of the area I was working in last week. Two summers ago part of this locust came down and I cut and split it last winter and just stacked it there. You can see the tree is dead so this winter I will work on getting the rest of it down. This is another locust a few feet away from the other. I always grew up hearing these were black locust, but it is actually honey locust I believe. Has the big, gnarly 3-10 inch thorns. Always have to watch the truck tires and also the boots - they will go right into and through boot soles! See? I even have baby locusts! Isn't it cute? - except I have learned a bit and don't believe I will be cutting many of these cute babies down any more! Here is what I loaded up the other day - on a 95 degree day with 85% humidity! To the right of the bed you can see one of my many hedge trees.... These next pics are just of a bunch of different trees on the place. A lot of them have a locust in the middle, with hedge growing up and covering them all around. I think quite a few of the locust are dead now.... I don't think there is a repeat tree in any of those pictures! I also have a couple of trees that came down in storms this last spring that I need to clean up. The top of this one is laying right across one of the heaviest deer trails on the place. It would be nice to get it cut up before bow season, but I guess as thick as it is it just pinches the deer into a smaller through area there. This is of the same tree. The second picture shows it from the trunk angle and the first more from the top side of the tree. This tree has been dead for a while, and it finally came down. The leaves you see are from surrounding trees. Anyway, thought you all would like to see all the variety I have available. I have a lot of work to do....but I think there is enough available here to get a 3 year plan going. I just need to figure out a method or system to store and stack so that as I cut the wood I can put it in one place, then not have to touch it again until it is ready to use. Right now as I cut, I am putting the dead, very dry wood in one stack, but then all my oak, hedge, locust and other random stuff are all in the same stacks. But the locust will be ready to burn before the oak and so I will be sorting through stuff for the first couple of years. Once I get a couple of years ahead it won't matter, but now it makes for more work. Thanks for looking!
Great to put images to what you were describing in your other post. Nice playground you have there, and right you are, that's honey locust. Your wood rack at the end looks superb as well
I love Osage Orange and Honey Locust. I don't care for the thorns but they're interesting trees. I think Honey Locust would also make some good looking furniture/cabinetry with the pinkish heartwood. Both look good in my opinion. Nice work.
