Turned out to be a decent little score...

Last year I saw a down Black Cherry by the side of the road about two miles from the house, and stopped to talk to the guy. Turned out it was on his neighbor, but I saw that this guy had a couple of dead BL right on the road. I got permission from the neighbor to get the Cherry but hadn't gotten back there yet, when I saw that the two BLs had fallen. I didn't get with the guy for several weeks, and he cut up some of the smaller limbs for himself. I left him a message about the rest, and he called back a few days later. He said he would give me half the BL if I cut it up and left him the smaller stuff. The first day there, he pulled in as I was loading and said to just leave him the smaller tree, so I ended up getting about 2/3 of the BL.I got a total of three lightly-loaded trailers' worth, and went ahead and cleaned up the debris, just to be nice. I also left him a little Cherry. The second day over there, I hadn't kept an eye on the weather but I lucked out; Got the last load on the trailer, loaded the saw and tools, and pulled out just as a big storm hit. It knocked out a lot of power in town, tore down several trees, but we got off easy out here with just a few down branches.
Here's the Cherry, and my faithful companion (one of them, anyway.)

First load of BL. Threw down a couple pallets but with BL, who really needs 'em??

Last load.

Got a little bonus collateral damage, a small sickamore. Inspector said "Why did you bring this??" Well, it's been a while since I messed with it, I just wanted to see if it was as bad to split as I remember. I'll probably leave most of it in rounds and let it sit for a few years...

Rebelduckman said:

gotta hurry up and get my wood finished, it's getting hot down here!

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Yep, she's heatin' up...humid right now, too. I've got a lot of cordage to be stacked so I'll be working hot again this year, trying to get everyone a couple years ahead. It's been an elusive goal so far. Maybe this summer...

Hickorynut said:

Hey Woody, just across the river here in ky. Black cherry and locust is what I burn together quite often. Need to season a couple years at most. They make a good combination.

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The Cherry was down for a while, mostly off the ground for eight months at least but how much longer, I don't know. Doesn't seem very heavy. The meter will tell the tale. The bark was falling off the BL but it was pretty heavy. I will leave it 'til '15 at least. I have a couple cords of it ready to go for this year.

splitoak said:

I scored a couple big sic trees...so far hasent been bad to split with x27...hackberry was far worse

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Huh. I don't recall much talk about Hackberry being bad to split. There is a fair bit of Hack around here. There's a decent-sized one at my MIL's that fell from the neighbor's yard into a Red Maple in her yard, and hung up. I haven't figured out how to get it down yet, and nobody's concerned since it is way in the back, but I'll get to see how it splits at some point...

midwestcoast said:

Nice looking stuff. And always good to know people with trees!

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I've been scrounging stuff that we don't have a lot of on the property, like the quick-drying Cherry, soft Maple etc. as well as BL. We do have a lot of Tulip, so I need to give that stuff a chance instead of passing it up. Once I can get a couple years ahead on the in-laws, then I can start feeding Oak into the rotation...and all the Ash that will get hit by the borer soon. Getting wood on site is less hassle than hooking up the trailer, etc. Off-site, I look for nearby scrounges and then try to contact the people to see if anyone is taking the wood.

If it gets too hot for you you can tow that splitter up here where it's a little cooler!

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Doesn't matter how hot it gets here, I have to keep cutting, splitting and stacking!

Paulywalnut said:

That sycamore can be tough splitting. It dries very light too.

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I'm seeing about the same as Elm for BTU, around 19.5, so I wouldn't expect it to be as light as, say, Tulip....