We’ve had a big old sugar maple in our hedge row that’s been there for a looonnnggg time. It’s always had beautiful leaves in the fall and we’ve even tapped it a time or two. A few years back it lost a leader in a windstorm that was close to 30”! Made for some great firewood! Then two years ago it lost another that was over 24” again made for some nice firewood. It even fell into the corn field and destroyed a good bit of the neighbors corn. This past summer I noticed it had only a couple leaves and then they shriveled and died off. You could see the wood peckers getting to it and a few random branches falling off it. You could also see the bad spot down the center where the last leader had split out.
It was a decent day today so I decided to put it down. I knew it was going to be hollow in the center and probably full of wonderful stuff. I also figured the outsides would be a bit questionable in some spots so there was a bit of pucker factor with this one! I got a rope in it with my maasdam choked off to another tree. Made my face cut and plunged from both sides to leve a nice hinge. I had about 8-10” good wood on the low side and 6-8” on the high side then dirt!! Started cutting in from the back watching everything up and down stuck in some wedges tightened the puller and let her go!! Of course not quick enough for a video!
I always feel a little bad putting those big ones down, so much history if they could tell their stories. Looks like a fair amount if good firewood yet. I'm gonna say 4 cord if you save down to 3" rounds.
Exactly my feeling too! Then I get to that point of well it’s going to rot and be useless. It’s such a fine line. I’m going to try and blow the stump off so I can get a ring count. As far as cordage.... I’ll save everything down to 1-2” and stuff that’s not to punky. I’m thinking on bucking it down and the carving out the soft stuff inside the bottom section.
Does anyone save the good black dirt that one finds in the middle of the tree for potting plants at home?
Nice Saw! 100cc pioneer/ poulan pro is a BEAST. My first saw was a pioneer P61. Looks like you gonna have a healthy pile of firewood outa that big tree.
I've been surprised to find earthworms in that dirt. Mostly because the dirt wasn't in a trunk but a rotten section in a major limb almost fifteen feet off the ground. Having found earthworms on top of my firewood stacks I knew earthworms could climb but 15-20 feet up a tree seemed a bit much and apparently it is more likely a bird eating a worm covered with eggs or eggs attached to the bird were transported by the bird to that height. Similar in a way to fish eggs being transported by waterfoul from one lake to the next.
