Huge oak fell!

[MossRoad]

Wow, Moss, nice find!

Towards the bottom of the tree 2 rounds were so heavy I couldn't lift them with my little PT425. So I tipped them up on edge and cut them in half and parked them on each side of the trailer and drove up between them for the ride home.

The very bottom one I didn't bother cutting in half and just flipped it end over end a few times up the ramps and onto the trailer, where I could slide it to the front with the forks.

My little machine can lift 800# at the QA plate. So I figure each round was probably 600# or better.

20 year ago I could tip those rounds up on edge and roll them up the ramps onto the trailer or splitter by hand. Now I have a LOT of trouble getting them up on edge by hand. I tried it and did ONE in this batch. That HURT! Can't roll them more than a couple feet on flat ground, and I'd probably die trying to push them up the ramp.

You know the old saying about use it or lose it? I haven't been using it and I've lost it. Good thing I have the little machine.

 

[plowhog]

Oak is good heat but it leaves a lot of ash.

Larry, do you think that is from the bark? I'm asking because of a recent visit from a vendor who installed an upgraded wood stove insert in my fireplace.

I told him we only burn oak and madrone; he said it was OK to burn pine just don't burn the pine bark. He said "all" the pitch in pine is in the bark, so if you don't burn the bark you don't have the creosote problem in the flue. Never heard of that before.

We talked about madrone having virtually no ash or residue. He said it is because it has almost no bark.

 

[ovrszd]

Forestry experts say we have ten varieties of oak here in Missouri. My timbers have at least 6 of them. I don't know them by name but can recognize the differences. What I call Red Oak is the best for burning. What I call Scrub Oak is the worst.

I am Blessed with a large variety of tree species in my timbers. Hickory or Ash are better than Oak. But Oak takes third place.

That's very good of you to offer that tree to someone that burns wood. Your sign won't have to be up long. In my rural community "word of mouth" works very well.

 

[s219]

Larry, do you think that is from the bark? I'm asking because of a recent visit from a vendor who installed an upgraded wood stove insert in my fireplace.

I told him we only burn oak and madrone; he said it was OK to burn pine just don't burn the pine bark. He said "all" the pitch in pine is in the bark, so if you don't burn the bark you don't have the creosote problem in the flue. Never heard of that before.

We talked about madrone having virtually no ash or residue. He said it is because it has almost no bark.

I don't know about that theory of pitch in the bark, assuming pitch is what I think it is and related to the sap. I mill loads of pine here, and for sure the sticky sap is coming out of the wood itself, not the bark. When I fell a pine, within a few minutes the stump will be loaded with sap, and then later when milling and stacking the wood it's all over the lumber (by then the bark is long gone). I go through a lot of gloves and tape measures because of sap!

I burn a fair amount of pine here (about 1/4, the other 3/4 being oak/maple/hickory/gum/beech) and the trick is letting it dry long enough so that the moisture content is very low. I let it dry at least two years, sometimes longer. All wood has creosote, and all wood can cause chimney problems if it's not dry and/or if your fire is not hot enough. Both of those cause steam in the smoke to condense before getting all the way out of the chimney, and that is what causes creosote deposits. If the wood is dry and the fire is hot, the steam will make it out of the chimney without condensing, and it minimizes problems.

I was always told pine and other softwoods were a no-no for a stove/fireplace, but I am convinced it was coming from people that didn't dry their wood properly. I clean my own chimney and can attest that burning pine has not been a problem for me. The main downside is that it has much lower BTUs, so it takes about 3-4X more pine to get the same heat you'd get from oak. Volumetrically, it's not as efficient, which is something to consider if you do the work to split/stack/store the wood. A pine split takes the same amount of space as oak, but gives far less heat. We mainly use pine (and poplar) to start/restart fires or to occasionally goose a fire that might have slowed down.

 

[MossRoad]

Forestry experts say we have ten varieties of oak here in Missouri. My timbers have at least 6 of them. I don't know them by name but can recognize the differences. What I call Red Oak is the best for burning. What I call Scrub Oak is the worst.

I am Blessed with a large variety of tree species in my timbers. Hickory or Ash are better than Oak. But Oak takes third place.

That's very good of you to offer that tree to someone that burns wood. Your sign won't have to be up long. In my rural community "word of mouth" works very well.

We've got at least 17 species in Indiana. I know of at least 6-7 on our place as well, but that's because the forester planted them. I think there were only 3-4 on the place when we got it. Most of the place is black locust. Like 10,000 of them. That's my favorite firewood. As we thin out the locusts, we're freeing up sunlight for the maples on the front of the property and oaks on the back.

 

[beowulf]

All wood has creosote, and all wood can cause chimney problems if it's not dry and/or if your fire is not hot enough. Both of those cause steam in the smoke to condense before getting all the way out of the chimney, and that is what causes creosote deposits. If the wood is dry and the fire is hot, the steam will make it out of the chimney without condensing, and it minimizes problems.

We had our chimney swept/cleaned a couple of weeks ago. It had not been done for many years - I expected we would have a lot of build up of creosote, and I was thinking about installing a liner. I went up on the roof with the guy and when we opened up the chimney and shined a light down the guy said it was very clean - no creosote and only very light ash. He said it was because we had to be burning really dry wood. Same thing when we pulled out the insert. He said we did not really need a liner (there was a clay square flu all the way down - inside a brick chimney) if we kept burning dry wood. He said he could tell immediately when someone had been burning wet wood - those chimneys need to be cleaned at least every year.

BTW- it pays to shop for a 'sweep'. The guy I used is a local guy who does a lot of the work around here - charged me $120. I told him that did not seem like enough and offered to pay more but he said no. Before that, when I was having trouble getting ahold of this guy I had checked with a company in town and they quoted me $795 as a minimum - saying it could be more after they checked it out - and told me that was the senior discount.

 

[Fuddy1952]

NOW you're thinking!

She's so funny. After 50 years I knew what she'd say "you know...with all the huge oaks we have around here, that wouldn't be such a bad idea".

 

[bcp]

My experience with big logs is getting them split. Horsing a 5' diameter bolt into a splitter requires some real muscle, or maybe your grapple will do the job? Typically I lay them flat and split shakes off of them with a maul until they are small enough to handle.

You don't need to lift it to split it.

Bruce

 

[ericm979]

I told him we only burn oak and madrone; he said it was OK to burn pine just don't burn the pine bark. He said "all" the pitch in pine is in the bark, so if you don't burn the bark you don't have the creosote problem in the flue. Never heard of that before.

That's not true of some of the Douglas Fir I have cut and split.... big pockets of pitch all throughout the wood. Old trees seem to do this more than young ones. I ended up throwing out a lot of that pitchy fir when I saw how much it gunked up the stove.

 

[dmccarty]

...
Just pay attention to which way limbs are "loaded". Wood acts like a big spring. A second saw is handy incase you misjudge and pinch the bar.
...

You really don't need a second saw but you do need a second bar and chain.

Usually, when I pinch the saw, I can work it out, but there have been times I have had to take the saw off the pinched bar and chain. Then I would put on the spare bar and chain to free the pinched bar and chain.

Later,
Dan

 

[DieselBound]

I heard this one pop from about 1/8 mile away (while inside my house with all kinds of storm sounds going on). I'd measured it several years ago at 5 1/2' dia. I believe it was at least 125' tall. The shards sticking up are about 30' tall. Cottonwood, so no value for anything. It was a landmark tree. Sad about it giving up the ghost: but looking at the base of the trunk it is clear that it was punking out badly and wasn't longed for the world (no signs it was in trouble when it was up). Bothered more that it wiped out several Maples (turned them really ugly). I have a lot of Maple saplings in the area and have so far managed to free many of them. Need to get out with a saw to help free up some others. Entire mess won't be able to be cleaned up until well in to summer: I'm planning on renting an excavator for other work in which case I'll use it for this cleanup. There are some other large Cottonwood trees nearby (not in pic), and while they're as tall (or perhaps taller), they're not as massive as this one was. NOTE: for a bit of scale, that's my 95 lb dog there; it's really hard to convey the scale.

Here's what it once looked like:

Attachments

• 
  P1110590.JPG

  1.4 MB · Views: 792

 

[turnkey4099]

I need some more work to do. I looked out and this HUGE oak had fallen in the pasture. I bet it's 150 years old. I wanted wife raise be in tractor bucket but said "we'll both die" and went in house.
So I cut what I could, rolled over with tractor, cut so now all limbs off. I think I'll put a free oak firewood sign out on the road.
I bet it's 5ft across at base at least.View attachment 722550View attachment 722551View attachment 722552View attachment 722553

I cut one out of a farmers field. right at 48" butt. I got 3 cords + out of nothing but the top. I left the base log 25' about 30" at the top end. Farmper put an add on the internet and poeple came with equipment to haul it away. It was solid all the way and I didn't see any sign of rot even in the limbs I worked up. People will pay big money for a log like that.

 

[turnkey4099]

You really don't need a second saw but you do need a second bar and chain.

Usually, when I pinch the saw, I can work it out, but there have been times I have had to take the saw off the pinched bar and chain. Then I would put on the spare bar and chain to free the pinched bar and chain.

Later,
Dan

Right there is why I run all Stihl saws. The inboard clutch makes dropping the power head off a jammed bar a snap.

 

[Jstpssng]

My question for the OP... did it make a sound when it fell?

 

[Fuddy1952]

You really don't need a second saw but you do need a second bar and chain.

Usually, when I pinch the saw, I can work it out, but there have been times I have had to take the saw off the pinched bar and chain. Then I would put on the spare bar and chain to free the pinched bar and chain.

Later,
Dan

This is about 52" at base (picture shows part of the root, so not accurate).
With a large strap thrown up high I rolled it over again...but cutting that limb off pinched the saw, picked up with tractor bucket which almost rolled tractor so I improvised a support with a log.
Lot of pressure, I'll have "fun" cutting that off without tree rolling on me.

 

[MossRoad]

I heard this one pop from about 1/8 mile away (while inside my house with all kinds of storm sounds going on). I'd measured it several years ago at 5 1/2' dia. I believe it was at least 125' tall. The shards sticking up are about 30' tall. Cottonwood, so no value for anything. It was a landmark tree. Sad about it giving up the ghost: but looking at the base of the trunk it is clear that it was punking out badly and wasn't longed for the world (no signs it was in trouble when it was up). Bothered more that it wiped out several Maples (turned them really ugly). I have a lot of Maple saplings in the area and have so far managed to free many of them. Need to get out with a saw to help free up some others. Entire mess won't be able to be cleaned up until well in to summer: I'm planning on renting an excavator for other work in which case I'll use it for this cleanup. There are some other large Cottonwood trees nearby (not in pic), and while they're as tall (or perhaps taller), they're not as massive as this one was. NOTE: for a bit of scale, that's my 95 lb dog there; it's really hard to convey the scale.

View attachment 722671

Here's what it once looked like:

Attachments

• 
  P1110590.JPG

  1.4 MB · Views: 792

There's a 'bark' joke in there somewhere.

 

[Fuddy1952]

My question for the OP... did it make a sound when it fell?

Never heard a sound when it fell, weird because about 400 ft downhill from house.
Made really big holes in ground.

 

[MossRoad]

This is about 52" at base (picture shows part of the root, so not accurate).
With a large strap thrown up high I rolled it over again...but cutting that limb off pinched the saw, picked up with tractor bucket which almost rolled tractor so I improvised a support with a log.
Lot of pressure, I'll have "fun" cutting that off without tree rolling on me.View attachment 722675View attachment 722676View attachment 722677View attachment 722678

Man, that thing just snapped off at the base, didn't it? A few years ago a friend of mine gave me a huge maple that was about that size. It also just snapped off at the base and, unfortunately, fell on his house.

 

[Fuddy1952]

I'm resting in garage in my old recliner drinking Pepsi.