2 Big Scores

I have had 2 huge scores the past few months.

The first in my own back yard. I had a huge hackberry with a rotten trunk. I decided to have it taken it down last summer before it came down on it' s own. The tree service ground up all the small stuff and cut the larger wood into about 4 foot sections. Cutting and splitting was my early morning chore from Thanksgiving until mid-January. I also had them drop a huge almost dead maple in the pasture for the same reason. I'll get to that in the spring. The trunk is off the ground so I don't have to worry much about it rotting by then.

The next was an oak in my daughter's suburban back yard. A wind storm in late January blew down the main trunk. It was perfectly aligned with the house about 20 ft back, from one edge of the yard all the way across the back of the house to the other lot line. The lot is 80 feet wide. If the wind would have been from the northwest rather than directly from the west, it would have crushed the house. They had the 2 smaller trunks taken down. The tree service said they would have charged an extra $2000 to remove the wood. The city took the small stuff from the curb. The burnable wood filled my 4-horse trailer 2 1/2 times. I left some of the smaller stuff for my SIL who wants to make a fire ring. His friend who helped 2 days took an SUV load home each day.

Pictures to show it actually happened.

Hackberry before and after.

The hackberry is the tree directly behind the house. It sure is different with it gone.



The tree from the side yard. It was due east of the house, it used to shade the house and our new porch most of the morning.


Now you see why it had to go. The trunk and one large branch was more rotten than solid. That branch would sway and creak way too much even in a moderate breeze.



All that tree fits into one holz hausen. It's 8ft across. I can just reach the top ring with my arm streched up. so it's about 9ft to the very top. It's not oak, but it will keep me warm in a few years.


Talking of oak, the results of the tree from my daughter's house.


It's sitting on 6 pallets piled about 4 ft high.


It took most of a day to fill the trailer. It all had to be moved manually from the back yard. Unloading took an hour or so. Just roll the rounds out the back of the trailer on to the pallets.



The main trunk was about 24" across. My Sthil FarmBoss did 90% of the cutting. My SIL's friend had a Sthil 391, but the bar was bent so it wouldn't cut straight. I kept him cutting small stuff so he wouldn't ruin the big rounds.

We had to split some of it to move it. Rolling the round or using the garden cart made 'easy work' of getting all but the largest rounds into the trailer.

I may rent a splitter. But first I'll have to find a milk crate.


The No Hunting sign surfaced when I split 2 of the trunks apart. I'm so glad that I didn't hit it with the saw.


Larry.

Hello Larry, That was a huge hackberry tree. Do you know how much wood you got just from that tree after stacked ? I live in Rockvale just about 30 miles from you and I have a couple of those big trees around close to the house I'm kinda worried about. I know they need to be cut down. Anyway just wanted to say hello and like the pictures you posted.

That Hackberry had been around for a while! Eh? Nice work Larry! How did that Hackberry split? What did you use to split it? Thanks for sharing the story and the pics. Great work.

DAY-UM!! That IS a monster for a hackberry!! Do you have a ring count? Curious how old that tree is......

One things for sure, there's a CHITLOAD of BTU's in those piles there!!

Show-off...very nice haul!

Very nice!! If that No Hunting sign was completely hidden the wood cutting Gods were certainly with you to miss it completely!! Good for you. Did you find any other weird and wonderful in this trees cutting them up. Seems pretty common to have random steel in large old trees that are shading yards.

He spent hours with his metal detector hoping for Gold. Any luck Larry?

Thanks for stopping by Larry and sharing all those nice pictures
Nice work on the Holtzhousan and well

That is one one BIG hackberry! Good work!

I figure the hackberry was a bit over 3 cords, maybe 3 1/4. I also have 8 or 9 50# feed bags of odds and ends sitting in the in the barn breezeway.

Coltfever - Don't wait to have a hackberry taken down, especially if it is near the house. They rot quickly and have a habit of dropping large limbs even on nice days. Mine wouldn't have hit the house, but we use that part of the yard a lot. It cost me $500 to get that tree on the ground and that removed a huge worry.

I split with an 8# maul and wedges when needed. Hackberry usually splits pretty easily, especially in 16" rounds. I consider my 22 acres my fitness room so I usually keep power equipment usage to just what is absolutely needed. Mostly I split it in the morning between sunrise and going to work. I usually got 1 or 2 garden carts full each morning.

I don't have a ring count. The main trunk wasn't solid all the way to the middle anywhere.

Larry.

Awesome score Larry and fun pics to look at, especially the sign in the round

Nice score. Should keep you warm for a log time.
Nice pictures

Like the wood hauling trailer too

That's one big Hackberry. I took one down a couple of months ago and got 2-3 cords but it wasn't that big.

We sold the horses last June, so it has become a wood hauler and a tree hauler for my nursery business. I do need to get something else more suited to what I need now.

Most of the main trunk was unburnable. I sure I would have gotten another cord if it was all solid wood.

Larry.

That is ALOT of wood! Glad to see you are going to put it to good use! Awesome pics by the way.

WOW, that was a massive tree!

Very cool, thanks for sharing!