I usually cut only standing dead, or down trees. Never a living tree. Of course, unless it's storm damage, the trees I take down are often punky and might also have rotten spots. But recently I spotted a tree in our woods that still had leaves though it had dropped a lot of larger limbs. In other words, it was dying. So, I figured, why not? The tree, a large post oak about 35 feet tall and about 26 inch diameter at the stump, was surrounded by scrub oak, yaupon, vines, etc. So, I had to clear out a landing zone and safe working area, plus I had to clear escape paths radiating off of the stump area. Once that was all done, I put my Stihl MS390 to that tree. My cuts were good and the tree fell just where I wanted it to. I trimmed the limbs off of the trunk and removed them from the area, then buck it up to 20 inch lengths, which fit my VC Vigilant nicely. I noodled the standing stump than made my horizontal cuts just about the ground. I wasn't going to leave that good wood in the ground. You can see in the photo of the split stump evidence of core rot but there was little evidence of rot higher up in the tree.
The limb wood, for the most part is already pretty dry and a lot of it will be burnable this winter if needed. The trunk wood oozed water on the splitter. It is very wet and heavy and will need AT LEAST two full years to be burnable. Depending on how hot our summers will be (SE Texas, just west of Houston) it could take three years, though I have had very wet oak go to less than 20% MC in nine months in the summer of 2011 when we had over 100 days of 100+ degree temps and strong westerly winds all summer.
I stacked the splits in a single row that will catch the sun from late morning til almost sunset, plus will catch the prevailing West/SW winds. The stacks measured out to about 65 cubic feet so about 2/3 or a cord.
I'm beat!
The limb wood, for the most part is already pretty dry and a lot of it will be burnable this winter if needed. The trunk wood oozed water on the splitter. It is very wet and heavy and will need AT LEAST two full years to be burnable. Depending on how hot our summers will be (SE Texas, just west of Houston) it could take three years, though I have had very wet oak go to less than 20% MC in nine months in the summer of 2011 when we had over 100 days of 100+ degree temps and strong westerly winds all summer.
I stacked the splits in a single row that will catch the sun from late morning til almost sunset, plus will catch the prevailing West/SW winds. The stacks measured out to about 65 cubic feet so about 2/3 or a cord.
I'm beat!
