Standing Storage

[Boyd Gathwright]

Standing Storage
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…. This is the time of the year I consider the standing storage I have around the property. There are two this year, one rather large locust and the other a medium locust tree. One has been intimidating a portion of our fence line for the past couple of years, the other was just plain dead and waiting to hit the ground. Although both of these trees could very well take out part of the fence line in a high windstorm. Not wanting to tempt fate any more than I already have, I decided I’d better do something before Mother Nature decides to do it for me. I’m not looking forward to repairing the fence line in the dead of winter; it’s just too cold for that kind of work around here. Since both of these trees are dead and within ten feet of the fence line, that poses a problem for using the tractor. The trees are leaning toward the fence and are close enough that it is difficult to get in between the fence and the trees with the tractor and push the trees back away, toward the woods, away from the fence line. In this case, I decided to come in at an angle and “push” with the bucket of the tractor. The smaller of the two trees went right down, clean as a whistle. The other tree was a bit more stubborn, first I pushed from one side then I would push from the other. To compound the problem, the tree was thickly covered with heavy vines. Pushing it was not really the problem, the vines were, and they held the tree up, keeping it from falling. So then I got in as close with the tractor and curled the backside of the bucket around the tree and pulled the tree down. Once down on the ground, I can push it out in the open where I can operate on it, cut it up with the chain saw. So I paralleled the tree on the ground and hooked it with the backside of the bucket once again and tried pulling it backward on out into the open, no go. Even though most of this tree was broken off at the trunk there was still enough attached that she just would not break loose. At this point, there was but one thing left to do and that was to cut the tree with a chain saw as near to the trunk as possible and that’s what I did. Went in with the tractor again, hooked the tree with the backside of the bucket once more and pulled most of it out. Finished the job by going around the other way and pushed it, head on, all the way clear of the wooded area. Then I took the backside of the bucket again and raked the tree of the heavy foliage, vines, and pushed them clear of the tree area. Since locust is a very hard wood, excellent for firewood and even better for fence posts, in the ground for about twenty years before deteriorating, but in this case I decided to use it for firewood. It was too big at the base for fence posts, about little over a foot to a foot and a half. For those of you that don’t get to do this sort of thing I thought you might enjoy reading about it. Sort of like I took all the work out and just left the story for you to read without the sweat.

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Enjoy, you may have to do this some day :eek: ;) .

<O:p</O:p

Boyd

[Jim Becker]

I like the concept of "standing storgage", Boyd. I guess it's accurate to say we have a bit of that on our property, although most of it isn't exactly dead. There are some dead standing trees that I'm reluctant to cut as they provide habitat to quite a few woodpeckers and other species...I'll only remove them if they become unstable since they are in the woods, anyway. There is one area that I plan on thinning out which will likely provide another year's worth of firewood for the woodstove. (We're light users, so it doesn't take a lot for that, however...)

[Jerry Olexa]

Love your "standing storage" idea and what's more enjoyable than taking down some trees, cutting it up and then later enjoying its warmth by the fire..And its already seasoned ready to be burned..

[Boyd Gathwright]

Hello Jim,
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…. For years we used to live on a mountaintop and when the season came either small single or multi-engine planes or even helicopters would come in at tree top level and spray for gypsy moths and either the trees that were not sprayed or the one’s that were missed ended up as standing storage. In the beginning, we cut them down as soon as we identified them as being dead, only to realize that we were quickly running out of space to store all this wood, which in most cases was oak. So we tried letting them stand until we needed the wood and that was ok for a while. After all, it kept the oak high and dry and from rotting out and if you didn’t let them stand too long it seasoned the wood and helped removed the bark and allowed the Pileated woodpeckers to pilferage all the bugs, beautifully colored birds in our region. But if you left it standing too long all you ended up with, most of the time, were very soft and wholly trees and not much else to burn. So as a result of all these experiences, I try to allow the dead trees to stand as long as I dare. At least, until I have considered the time it’s going to take and where I ‘m going to store all the wood.

<O:p</O:p

Good luck on your thinning out ;).

<O:p</O:p

Boyd
.

I like the concept of "standing storgage", Boyd. I guess it's accurate to say we have a bit of that on our property, although most of it isn't exactly dead. There are some dead standing trees that I'm reluctant to cut as they provide habitat to quite a few woodpeckers and other species...I'll only remove them if they become unstable since they are in the woods, anyway. There is one area that I plan on thinning out which will likely provide another year's worth of firewood for the woodstove. (We're light users, so it doesn't take a lot for that, however...)

[Boyd Gathwright]

Yes Jerry, By leaving the dead trees stand, usually one to two years and sometimes times longer if you’re lucky, it frees up your ground area until your ready for it. Many a cold day, usually around freezing, I have been sweating profusely trying to cut up a tree and get it stacked, and sometimes with a dull or almost dull chain on the chainsaw. If you have a saw that is powerful enough it doesn’t matter if the chain is a little dull, you just keep right on cutting. We used to have stacks of wood almost six feet tall and several feet long. In some cases, during usage, before you got to the last piece, you had a certain amount of rottage and/or a strong wind would blow part or all of a given section of your woodpile over or the wind and the ultraviolet rays from the sun would destroy your non-ultraviolet plastic covering you kept on top so the water from rain and/or snow would not drip down between the split logs. The wind over time really plays havoc with a woodpile. What it does, it constantly massages the logs until it eventually works the pile to fall over either in whole or in part, and we used to get some pretty good wind storms. And along with this we would have an occasional visiting snake, just like motel six. I have not had this happen to me but I have had others tell me they have carried firewood into the house only to discover that they brought a little friend in with them, snake, and the heat from inside the house brought him to life and that’s when the real fun started. The big thing about firewood is keeping it dry until you are ready to burn it.

Hope your next fire in the fireplace is a comfortable one ;) .


Boyd
.

Love your "standing storage" idea and what's more enjoyable than taking down some trees, cutting it up and then later enjoying its warmth by the fire..And its already seasoned ready to be burned..