Feeling guilty about what the morning holds...

[4570Man]

You know hardwood and softwood has nothing to do with how hard the wood is, right?

Most people don’t and my experience is poplar is even worse firewood than pine.

 

[TractorGuy]

We have a large live oak over the rear of our house. Wife has pestered me to butcher it but I refuse. Our bedroom is on the front so no real danger of it hitting us if it fell and the tree looks healthy.

Had a story about a local woman that had a chainsaw artist work on the trunk of one of her trees. Artist carves art into fallen trees | News | wtxl.com

 

[MossRoad]

Balsa is a hardwood. Go figure. :laughing:

 

[Wakey]

Here is a link to a picture of our biggest tree which happens to be the second largest in the county actually.

Little Poplar in the back pasture. - Album on Imgur

That is a big one.. Nice dog too! I've got a couple of huge water oaks. (I think)

The tree house has been up there so long that the tree is growing over it where it is nailed in.


This one was wrecked by a tornado about 8 years ago. A local old timer told me this one made the other one look like a toy. I burned it in place this spring.


I have one more near the rear property line. I'll get in there this winter and clean out around it.

 

[flashpuppy]

That is a big one.. Nice dog too!

The arborist shot it with a rangefinder/arborist tool he has. He didn’t believe the height. He put spurs on and went up it to confirm. 155 feet. He said it is the biggest Poplar he has ever seen, by a lot.

Didn’t even realize the pooch was in the picture! She is one of seven at our place. Six of them live inside and the Great Pyrenees lives with her goats. We are dog people.

Man, you got some monster trees there as well!

 

[Jstpssng]

You must have a different variety of poplar trees where you live. The ones we have here are basically trash trees...lousy shade trees, mature ones are prone to damage (or at least shedding limbs) in storms and way too high water content to be good firewood. I suppose loggers chip them to sell to one of the biofuel power plants, but that's about all they're good for.

they're two altogether different trees. We have three prevalent types of poplar aspen on the east coast; trembling, bigtooth, and Balm of Gilead.Aspen Tree | All About Aspen Trees
Up here we sell a lot of it to the Louisiana Pacific mill where they make OSB out of it, and can mix up to 10% in a load of hardwood pulp.
I'll be finishing a load this weekend to sell to L-P.

There's a company downstate that makes apple ladders, Wooden Apple, Fruit, Orchard Picking Ladders - Baldwin Apple Ladders and his wood of choice is the Bigtooth aspen; he says there's a lot less defect.
If I'm in the top of a 20 foot ladder, I don't want it to have any defects in it.

What the OP had removed is a different species altogether.Yellow Poplar They are much bigger tree and one of the tallest hardwoods on this continent.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I didn't know that about softwood. So could I maybe assume that softwood is always coniferous?

Anything burns in the stove, but I'm sure not gonna waste my time, energy and money collecting and cutting pine or poplar. Just not enough BTUs to make it worthwhile. Leave that stuff for chipping or for the bon fire.

 

[DieselnHooters]

You must have a different variety of poplar trees where you live. The ones we have here are basically trash trees...lousy shade trees, mature ones are prone to damage (or at least shedding limbs) in storms and way too high water content to be good firewood. I suppose loggers chip them to sell to one of the biofuel power plants, but that's about all they're good for.

Its what I was thinking as well, there's different kinds of aspen/poplar on my lot and none are worth the effort or fuel to haul out. If they are anywhere close to valuable species they are dropped and rot where they fell, the larger ones I girdle so they turn as lightweight as cardboard before they eventually fall.


Flashpuppy it would be sadder if you had to remove some majestic sugar maple or some stately white oak, the kind of trees that gets to live 400 years or more.

 

[MossRoad]

Softwood is wood from gymnosperm trees such as pines and spruces.... that means naked seeds.

Hardwood is wood from dicot trees, that have flowers and seeds with shells, like acorns.

Hardwoods have pores in the wood. Softwoods don't.

Here's oak on top and pine on bottom



Most hardwoods are hard and most softwoods are soft, but as mentioned, balsa is a hardwood and it's very soft, while douglas fir is a softwood and it is pretty hard. However, the hardest softwood is still softer than most hardwoods.