Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[Sawyer Rob]

My nephew came over today and among other things, we ran the BSM. I had this OLD pine log lying around for quite a few years and my wife asked me to saw out a few boards out for her. She said they didn't need to be great, so that's why I picked out the old log and got it loaded on the BSM.

Well, I was sure surprised when it turned out to be a very crooked walnut log! lol

All weathered and without bark, it sure looked like a pine to me!!

SR

 

[Hoobie]

I am just across the river from and north of Littleton, NH - in Waterford. It is hard to find good beech in our entire area. BBD is wide spread. But there are pockets of very nice beech. They seem to be in well proportioned Northern Hardwood Forests but, only here and there. I know of one area about 30 miles away. I don't know what the controlling factors are. Mine are typical and look like this before they reach 6".

View attachment 876599


They are hard to manage and control because they root sprout like crazy if you cut them and are very shade tolerant right from the start.

gg

Excellent post Gordon. This is a European disease in origin. It arrived, or rather was brought, from Europe in late 1800's. According to the tree disease guys I used to work with at the Dept. of Natural Resources beech saplings were brought to Halifax Nova Scotia as ornamentals carrying the disease. And since native beech had no immunity or natural controls the disease easily spread. It progressed from Nova Scotia up through New Brunswick into Quebec, Maine and on.
When I was a kid beech were plentiful and mostly clean. I am 74 and have watched the progression. Beech is 90% gone on my woodlot, but lots of sprouts.
They can hold on for years being sick. But when they start to go they go fast.

 

[John_Mc]

I hear so much about diseases and invasive plants brought to North America from overseas for which our native ecosystems have no resistance. I'm sure it must be a two-way street. We must have exported some plants, insects, or diseases which have become problems overseas. Has anyone heard of some? Perhaps some of our international members?

 

[Jstpssng]

My nephew came over today and among other things, we ran the BSM. I had this OLD pine log lying around for quite a few years and my wife asked me to saw out a few boards out for her. She said they didn't need to be great, so that's why I picked out the old log and got it loaded on the BSM.

Well, I was sure surprised when it turned out to be a very crooked walnut log! lol

All weathered and without bark, it sure looked like a pine to me!!

SR

Is that what she used for her project?

 

[DarkBlack]

However, if you dry your wood properly, the starting moisture content when green is not a factor.

Like I said, it rained, seemingly every other day here, last year. I couldn’t “properly” dry my wood, like in normal years. Normally I can get down to 18-19% come fall, but last fall the maple was only down to 21-22%. My beech and standing dead ash was measuring a good 18-19%, plus my beech isn’t rotting in the middle like so much of my larger maples, so I prefer beech

 

[DarkBlack]

What's affecting the Maples, and is it affecting all variants?

I’d like to know that too. It’s not just my land.
It used to be common around here that people would say you can never trust a pine, because white pine was notorious for snapping off, or uprooting during storms.
Now it’s maples. During even mild storms, people are having seemingly healthy looking maples break major limbs, or snap the trunk midway up during pretty mild winds. Everyone is scratching their heads. A lot of the time there’s hidden rot inside. Other times there isn’t and you wonder what is causing the brittleness

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Is that what she used for her project?

She is going to use the flitches for shelving in the breezeway, with cement blocks between them.

Best parts is, someday later when she is bored with her project, I can always take the flitches and make something else out of them. lol

SR

 

[arrow]

I hear so much about diseases and invasive plants brought to North America from overseas for which our native ecosystems have no resistance. I'm sure it must be a two-way street. We must have exported some plants, insects, or diseases which have become problems overseas. Has anyone heard of some? Perhaps some of our international members?

I’ve only heard of one instance where American soldiers were camped out in an Italian Provence during wwll . Amongst that forest found 60 years later, were a bunch of dead trees that they think was caused by the American soldiers transporting some disease pathogen l do not know the name of.
I know of no other instance similar or to the extent of the transposition the other way around carried over by insect invasion..

 

[arrow]

On my splitter, I don't lift or pull anything back, even on bigger pieces like this,

Instead I reach for the edge of the piece furthest away, and after it going through the 4-way wedge, I "flip it over" right back onto the splitters beam.

It's much easier doing it this way, it's faster and saves you a lot of work too, not having to lift the whole piece or pull the whole piece back.

It really saves my back...

SR

Hope you’re using a tool like a pickaroon or pulp hook.
Makes your description much easier to do.

 

[Eagle1]

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