View Full Version : testing --- just testing.
Leozinho
04-24-2011, 15:07
didn't work.
The Reaper
09-23-2014, 16:57
The treeline needs to be pushed back further from the house. :D
TR
The treeline needs to be pushed back further from the house. :D
TR
"Just give the word and I'll push it all the way back to China." :D
The Reaper
09-23-2014, 20:34
"Just give the word and I'll push it all the way back to China." :D
Excellent.
I see my efforts are not wasted. :D
TR
The treeline needs to be pushed back further from the house. :D
TR
I'm working on it. Its a boatload of trees.
The Reaper
09-24-2014, 09:16
I'm working on it. Its a boatload of trees.
Sell 'em.
TR
I'm working on it. Its a boatload of trees.
Sell 'em.
TR
Or just sponsor Mr. Harsey to come up for a week end ..... he HATES tress.
Just have plenty of fine cigars, chili and either Olympia or Rainer suds on hand.
:D
I'll probably sell some but I've been wanting one of these and I've found a guy who is upgrading to an LT 50 and is selling a nice used one --> LT 28 Woodmizer (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ1KNBPE5XY)
It's a pretty good deal. It'll keep two of the hands employed through the winter, trim back the tree line, and get me a bunch of lumber (I get 1/3 of what they cut, they sell 2/3). Plus the Amish will trade labor for hardwood beams and they're fond of ash. We have thousands of ash trees between us that have been girdled by emerald ash borers. I'd love to get a nice post and beam outbuilding or a couple of those gorgeous root cellars they build.
The Reaper
09-25-2014, 13:08
We did that with a bunch of pines a hurricane knocked down back on the family farm.
The planks that were racked up to dry warped like crazy and the insects got most of what was left.
I hope you have better luck with yours. Maybe hardwood will hold up better.
Dammit! Now we have wasted a test thread with good info. :D
TR
We don't have much softwood around here. They don't do well in our clay/humus soils over limestone.
The two small-scale commercial sawyers I've spoken to say that deadfall isn't worth processing. They only make lumber from live trees. I'm told in the summer it should be be processed within a week of felling or quality drops. In winter you have more time but frozen wood can be hard on the bandsaw blades, mostly from debris frozen into the bark, especially if the trunks have been skidded out from where they've been cut. The standing dead ash around here can be processed for structural lumber but it's often discolored/stained. Still is good for framing or siding especially if it's to be painted.
It's really a shame about the ash trees, they are some of the best looking trees in our forests. They weren't considered particularly valuable so they tend to be the oldest and biggest. The Amish love them for their post and beam construction though, they say they're stronger than oak and (ironically) resistant to insect damage.
BTW the University of Oregon has a wealth of info online for the small-scale sawyer. Their stuff on safely felling, limbing, and bucking is outstanding. I won't be doing it myself...more ways to kill yourself than a 250' deco dive.
Sorry to hear about your ash trees, the bores have not made it en mass to Iowa yet but have started to wreak some havoc. Hard to beat an ash for great shade.
Sorry to hear about your ash trees, the bores have not made it en mass to Iowa yet but have started to wreak some havoc. Hard to beat an ash for great shade.
I'm old enough to remember when we had elms, too. I don't think they'll be a green ash left. Some of the white ash seem resistant...
The Reaper
09-26-2014, 09:32
I'm waiting for someone to say they remember the chestnut as well.
TR
I'm waiting for someone to say they remember the chestnut as well.
TR
That would have to be the "Village Smithy" :D
I too remember the elms dying in the 60's due to Dutch Elm Disease, they have kind of made a comeback but I will never live long enough to see one with a trunk that is 6' across.
Golf1echo
10-26-2014, 17:11
I'm waiting for someone to say they remember the chestnut as well.
TR
What a tree, the Western Carolina forests were dominated by Chestnuts, Oak and Hickory trees who's canopy prevented the undergrowth from becoming so dense, a much different ecosystem than exists today. We saw them trying to make a come back but they are the first to die back from any drought. That wood was and is very water and moisture resistant, so you still see some of the last stumps in the woods. If you ever get to the Farm Museum just outside Cherokee, NC in the Smokey Mountain National Park you will see one of the finest examples of a chestnut cabin I can think of, reversed logs hand hewn and squared: http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/mfm.htm
http://www.romanticasheville.com/oconaluftee.htm There are many more because of that woods water resistance and the wormy chestnut wood is a delightful interior treatment still highly sought after!
It's the Hemlocks that are currently on the way out now back in Western NC which caught the Woolly Adelgids from nursery stock that came down from New York* . Which is a shame, they can be majestic trees and the old woodsmen used their bark for a very warming and enduring heat in camp fires and fireplace http://www.romanticasheville.com/hemlocks.htm. Give that a try if able, a good way to harvest the bark is with a longer branch fashioned like a big chisel, you will truly be surprised by the heat, glow, and enduring warmth!! see Horace Kephart's " Camping and Woodcraft" for an excellent resource on wood, it's qualities and uses...
On the bright side I do not see the beetle killed pines here in Colorado like there used to be. Thanks for the thoughts about the forests I miss!