We had a sweetgum tree that was well on the way out. At about 30 feet tall, only about 10 feet had leaves this year, and the very top to was obviously rotten. I took it down the day before yesterday. The trunk was about 18 inches in diameter, and the wood very hard. I'm guessing it could be rated as a hardwood, but from past experience, it's not something you want to place in a fireplace. It pops too much, and spreads embers. I dragged it in two pieces to the fire pile, and cut it into pieces easy to manage.
Yesterday, with a yes vote by all with a vote, I took down a willow tree on the edge of the pond. It started as a nuisance, was chopped away many times, but was abandoned after it kept coming back. The last few years had shown it wasn't healthy, and some limbs were failing.
Cutting this down was interesting. Due to the initial efforts to eradicate it, the resulting tree had nine trunks of varying sizes. The thickest was around 18 inches, and the thinnest around 6 inches. All sections were at least 20 long. With the pond down, getting around the tree was easy, and a tow strap attached to a side-by-side guaranteed those over the water wouldn't have to be fished out of the pond.
The tree was dragged to the burn pile, and we started stacking what I cut yesterday. We'd pull a section up to the pile, I'd whittle it down to manageable pieces, and it was stacked. We finished today, and now have a huge pile of trees to burn.
We haven't had much of any cold weather, but it will come. At that time, the pile will be lit, and we'll spend long evenings tending it, until it's all burned up.
Smart to do it now, when you can and it's relatively warm!
ReplyDeleteIt's been a little over 80 degrees for the last few days. It's a little uncomfortable, but better than the worst of Summer. The dry ground was the best thing. When the rain starts, doing what we did would lead to ruts in the yard.
DeleteVideos on makin charcoal are out there. The elm would be fine for that
ReplyDeleteI've never made charcoal. I don't use it very much, but the good oak, and other hardwoods, usually go to a nephew that sells firewood during the winter season.
DeleteI watched a professional cut an 80 foot pine tree down right next to a house. He climbed with ropes, and spikes, whittled away a few branches at a time, lowered larger limbs to the ground with a rope, and his young helpers dragged it to the curb. The base was around three feet in diameter, which he cut down to a few inches above the ground, and then ground the stump into shavings.
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