We have a nice little cherry on our place. Timber is supposed to be cut maybe next week. I knew this tree would be scared in a different place, with all that big machinery. So we brought it home, so it can be comfortable in a safe space. I'll make sure to tuck it into a comfy tote soon...
Yep, but for some reason, our cherry boards seem to check worse. I've sawed some before, stacked and covered it....
Nice looking cherry! Not to derail your thread but I have a question….The cherry we have around here in Upstate SC we refer to as “wild cherry” and no one wants it around, in or close to where animals would graze as the dead leaves are said to be toxic to livestock. Anyway, none of them get very large and I am curious if it’s the same wood y’all are cutting? We have burned it in the past but DW says she doesn’t like it because of the odor when burning and it doesn’t burn as well as the red and white oak which is the bulk of our firewood. Could it be we were just not seasoning it long enough or is it a “different” variety of cherry? Thanks, and if moderator wants to move this it’s perfectly fine Ed
It's probably the same cherry, daddy called this wild cherry when Inwas young. The leaves are toxic to livestock when they wilt, I think it's something like cyanide. We love the smell of cherry burning and when it's split/drying. Makes great smoker wood. Should let it season at least 1 or more years. It doesn't have the same BTU's as oak. Dead standing, when the sap has rotted off, is some hard wood. This was some dead cherry burning...
We managed to rescue 2 more cherry trees from the loggers. Several of these logs are 15' long... They put 2 more to the side of the field for us...1 has a BIG girl on it. Then yesterday I found 2 more they had cut and I was able to pull them out with the tractor. I'll get pictures when we get them home.
Choke cherry is different. It is a native around here. Probably more of a shrub really. Never gets very big, 4” diameter is a big one and pretty rare in the wild. So not worth the effort for firewood but I’ve heard it can be used in the smoker. I’m a gonna have to try that soon.
If you are milling, do it sooner than later. Bark on, cherry logs, doesn't last long. The outside goes punky within a year. Once milled; stack with stickers and BAND it promptly. Cherry will twist and cup within a few hours. Even the short stuff makes nice decorative lumber. This 31 footer was milled into 2.5" slabs for bar tops, the shorter boards are for a hobbyist and a cherry mantle for a friend. The curved ends were cut off. It smells delicious when milling.
How nice! We don't grow cherry trees that big here, don't know why. Seems to be somewhat of an understory tree here. I do like to burn it.
Nice scores T.Jeff Veal ! I'll need to cut some cherry this winter. All this ash ash and more ash is a little boring. Elm and cherry don't have the BTU's of ash, but they make a lot better ghost flames than ash.
My wife inherited a cherry wood dining room set from (way) previous family generations. It's stained sort of dark and is some of the most beautiful wood furniture I've ever seen. That aside, we've had the good fortune to score tons of wild cherry that grows like weeds hereabouts for firewood and smoking wood. Being that apple wood for smoking is kinda 'tart' and that cherry is kinda 'sweet', a 50/50 mix of those gives the most intriguing smoke wood for pork I've found. That there is an excellent score for whatever do with it!
Decided it was time to tuck the cherry logs we brought to the safe space, into a safer resting spot. Sure is smelling good on the woodyard. I set up the splitter close to the logs and used the box on the tractor to move splits to rack... 1 rack done...with a few uglies in the middle A half rack done, few uglies too. Started on 2nd full rack...got 2 more rounds to split... Saved 4 long pieces for a friend, he wants to make some drums, he is very talented...
Got the 2 rounds and Then moved splitter back to the oak sheds. Since we had been working on cherry, decided to take the trailer down to the loggers loading yard and see what we could find. Better pictures of the huge burls... We had gotten 4 smaller trees put to the side Then found 2 more in the stack of logs they left. Looked around and found the butt cut off to the side... A nice trailer load...got 3 pieces with burls on them. Got maybe half the load bucked, ready for the splitter, before the storms moved in...
