I saw what I thought was a dead White Ash pretty close to the road, and was going to drop it for neighbor/member maflake to work up and add to his stacks. He's got a fair amount of Red Oak splits left over which will be great next Fall, and some rounds which won't do him any good. He wants to stack some quick-dry, asap.
I never got out of the car, just looked from the road (pretty darned close to the tree.) When I got over there to drop it today I saw a hole in the base of the trunk, and was focused on the cuts and the condition of the hinge. Best thing to do would have been to tie/pull it down but the worst that could have happened was that I would have had to get it off the road before traffic started picking up later in the afternoon. I made a shallow face cut to retain as much hinge wood as possible, made the backcut, and wedged 'er over. Once it was safely down, I started seeing the ominous signs. Looked at the hinge, etc, and said 'Oh, no!' Looked at the bark and sure enough, saw the tell-tale light gray color deep in the furrows, and the flat ridge tops. 'Nerts!'
The only positive is that when this one eventually fell, it was going across the road, and could have been a minor inconvenience for all of us upstream.
'Oh, well, at least I can get the small Persimmon I had to cut before I dropped the 'Ash.' So I start bucking the trunk from the bottom up. I get to where the trunk branches out and see leaves. 'What the....?? Those are Black Tupelo leaves! You have got to be kidding me!'
I went ahead and took what I had bucked; I felt bad enough cutting the live Blackgum, which is a good wildlife/bee tree...woulda felt worse not taking the wood. That tree also had a big hole at the base, one of the main branches was dead, but it may have lasted quite a while, who knows? The two Black Tupes that I previously IDed had nowhere near that blocky and chunky of bark. Then I walked over to two bonafide Persimmons back at the house, and yes the bark is chunky and blocky, but different. Live and learn. I may have a lot more Blackgum and a lot less Persimmon on the premises than I thought...
From what I was able to find with the search, I need to get this split, stacked and covered quick...supposed to rot fast. I split some OK with a maul, so I guess it's not as bad as the Sweetgum horror stories I've heard...
I never got out of the car, just looked from the road (pretty darned close to the tree.) When I got over there to drop it today I saw a hole in the base of the trunk, and was focused on the cuts and the condition of the hinge. Best thing to do would have been to tie/pull it down but the worst that could have happened was that I would have had to get it off the road before traffic started picking up later in the afternoon. I made a shallow face cut to retain as much hinge wood as possible, made the backcut, and wedged 'er over. Once it was safely down, I started seeing the ominous signs. Looked at the hinge, etc, and said 'Oh, no!' Looked at the bark and sure enough, saw the tell-tale light gray color deep in the furrows, and the flat ridge tops. 'Nerts!'
The only positive is that when this one eventually fell, it was going across the road, and could have been a minor inconvenience for all of us upstream.
'Oh, well, at least I can get the small Persimmon I had to cut before I dropped the 'Ash.' So I start bucking the trunk from the bottom up. I get to where the trunk branches out and see leaves. 'What the....?? Those are Black Tupelo leaves! You have got to be kidding me!'
I went ahead and took what I had bucked; I felt bad enough cutting the live Blackgum, which is a good wildlife/bee tree...woulda felt worse not taking the wood. That tree also had a big hole at the base, one of the main branches was dead, but it may have lasted quite a while, who knows? The two Black Tupes that I previously IDed had nowhere near that blocky and chunky of bark. Then I walked over to two bonafide Persimmons back at the house, and yes the bark is chunky and blocky, but different. Live and learn. I may have a lot more Blackgum and a lot less Persimmon on the premises than I thought...From what I was able to find with the search, I need to get this split, stacked and covered quick...supposed to rot fast. I split some OK with a maul, so I guess it's not as bad as the Sweetgum horror stories I've heard...
There can be lots of variation in the appearance of the leaves, though. Lots of dew on these as well...
Cortisone shots were administered in many of those cases, but I don't think they deal them out as freely now as they did back in the day.
