Jim Laumann
03-05-2012, 1:27 PM
I had a whole bunch of cherry (in tree form) come my way - way, way, way way to much cherry for me to ever use....
Last Weds night, I got a phone call from my son - telling me about a farmer he knows having cleaned out a fence line over the winter, and that there were a couple of trees for the taking. I got farmers name and number, and then called the president of the turning club I joined about a about a year ago.I offered the lumber to the club - as a plain give away or as fund raiser for the club - ie $1 a chunk. Duff, our president agreed.
So I contacted the farmer, and obtained the location of the trees. Thursday morning I eyeballed the site, and on Sat, looked at the trees - looked like cherry to me. I took pics, sent them on to Duff - and he agreed - it's cherry. So now came the logistics of the chore....complicated by the weather.We had a mild winter, little snow and lots of warm spells during the winter - on top of a dry late summer/fall - hence there was little frost in the ground. Last Tues, it started raining - thru Friday morning - over a inch of rain. This took what frost was in the ground out, and due to the warm temps, had turned the soil in the field to mud. We had to get the trees out of the field and soon, as spring planting is right around the corner.
Luckily, the temp dropped all day Friday, and the overnight hours, in to Sat morning. Sat morning, the temp was 23F, and we had a strong NW wind - it was cold - the ground was froze again to a depth of about 3". We had to get those trees out of the field while it was cold, so that we could use "heavy equipment" (my tractor & loader) to help w/ the work.
So on Sat afternoon, we went for it. Duff made some strategic cuts on the trees, and did the hook ups for me, while I did the dragging to a grassy patch near the road. It was cold, but we got the job done. The tree's are out of the field, and we got the brush cleaned up - at least that which we were able to break out of the frozen ground.
Yesterday (Sunday) - it warmed up enough (31F), that the frost started to thaw, and the field got muddy - we couldn't have done it. The balance of this week, it's forecast to get progessively warmer - and more rain is in the forecast.
The "couple" of trees turned out to be 3 of them - big, bigger and bigger still
Tree 1 - 46" circumfrence, 14" dia
226306226307
Tree 2 - 61" circumfrence, 19" dia
226308226309
Tree 3 - 65" circumfrence, 20" dia
226305226304
I don't know if all 3 of these will be come turning blocks - there is a chance that some will get taken to mill - as we have some nice logs....The log we got from tree 1 is 13' long, tree 2's is 21' long. Tree 3 was so big, it required multiple cuts - out of it, we got logs of 12, 9 and 8'. This does not count any of the crown wood - lots of blanks in them.
Jim
Last Weds night, I got a phone call from my son - telling me about a farmer he knows having cleaned out a fence line over the winter, and that there were a couple of trees for the taking. I got farmers name and number, and then called the president of the turning club I joined about a about a year ago.I offered the lumber to the club - as a plain give away or as fund raiser for the club - ie $1 a chunk. Duff, our president agreed.
So I contacted the farmer, and obtained the location of the trees. Thursday morning I eyeballed the site, and on Sat, looked at the trees - looked like cherry to me. I took pics, sent them on to Duff - and he agreed - it's cherry. So now came the logistics of the chore....complicated by the weather.We had a mild winter, little snow and lots of warm spells during the winter - on top of a dry late summer/fall - hence there was little frost in the ground. Last Tues, it started raining - thru Friday morning - over a inch of rain. This took what frost was in the ground out, and due to the warm temps, had turned the soil in the field to mud. We had to get the trees out of the field and soon, as spring planting is right around the corner.
Luckily, the temp dropped all day Friday, and the overnight hours, in to Sat morning. Sat morning, the temp was 23F, and we had a strong NW wind - it was cold - the ground was froze again to a depth of about 3". We had to get those trees out of the field while it was cold, so that we could use "heavy equipment" (my tractor & loader) to help w/ the work.
So on Sat afternoon, we went for it. Duff made some strategic cuts on the trees, and did the hook ups for me, while I did the dragging to a grassy patch near the road. It was cold, but we got the job done. The tree's are out of the field, and we got the brush cleaned up - at least that which we were able to break out of the frozen ground.
Yesterday (Sunday) - it warmed up enough (31F), that the frost started to thaw, and the field got muddy - we couldn't have done it. The balance of this week, it's forecast to get progessively warmer - and more rain is in the forecast.
The "couple" of trees turned out to be 3 of them - big, bigger and bigger still
Tree 1 - 46" circumfrence, 14" dia
226306226307
Tree 2 - 61" circumfrence, 19" dia
226308226309
Tree 3 - 65" circumfrence, 20" dia
226305226304
I don't know if all 3 of these will be come turning blocks - there is a chance that some will get taken to mill - as we have some nice logs....The log we got from tree 1 is 13' long, tree 2's is 21' long. Tree 3 was so big, it required multiple cuts - out of it, we got logs of 12, 9 and 8'. This does not count any of the crown wood - lots of blanks in them.
Jim