An old boy comes down

Thats a big one! :bug:

Yea there's not much an 088 would knock out. I run a 41 inch bar you just let it roll and eat on it own. 50 inch+ from one side.

I'm always slightly saddened to see old trees come down........

I have often counted the rings, and thought of events that have happened over the life of the tree.

But I can soon get over that, with the thought of those cosy warm evenings spent burning all that wood ;-)

Well BG, that should give you some good heat for it's last lease on life. Then all you'll have is the stump and some sawdust left. I like the inspector. We are finally blessed with a few of those here as they moved in just year or two ago. Love seeing them especially also with the red headed and the red bellied.

It's a nice story and the end results are even better, you will heat your home with it. As far as the woodpecker goes, I hope finds some snacks in there before the splitter takes over. I have a morning visitor that likes my cornerboards lately, and they are PVC.

Good amount of fire wood.
No you have more sunny areas to garden.
Woody's not to happy, "Where that tree that was full of bugs? I swear it was here at dinner time yesterday! "

I've taken down some big trees near the house and I'd have to say after the last three years' weather it was the right call. But I'm still mad they're gone.

My paternal grandmother has 6 or 8 big "water maples," as dad calls them, in and around her yard. They have HUGE bases on them, then after you get up about 8' they're nothing but limbs. Long, spindly limbs that break off easy in wind and ice storms. They are quite dangerous, actually. There's a lot of good fuel in the base, but based on their locations, you have to have the tree guys out.

That ole boy looks like it will make some good fuel, BG. Good call on taking it down in a controlled fashion as opposed to waiting for it to come down in an uncontrolled fashion. ;-)

Too funny. That woodpecker is like, what the hell happened here?

Great story, and while your burning it, let those years roll on bye. Glad everything worked out. Congrats.

Great story. You could get someone to turn a bowl out of the maple and you will always have a keep sake even after the fire goes out.

Lotsa heat outta that one!

We have lots of Pileated woodpeckers around here. They dig huge deep holes in the trees looking for bugs. I took a close up pic of one once, couldn't believe how wide the beak was - like a 1/4" chisel! Got a big cedar right next to the house with about 15 pileated holes in it, prolly gonna cut it down before it falls on the house...

Nice idea, I always like the idea of a reminder of a well loved tree after it's passing

Bigleaf Maple is excellent wood to turn,the burls look & work especially nice.Pretty much inbetween Silver Maple & Sugar Maple density wise.

Wow, I love this thread - I also had to take down a maple a year and a half ago that I am still sad about, and we have been burning it except for the big rounds which we weren't able to split - they are rotting back there now.
I LOVE the woodpecker pics!
And lastly, thistle, you sound like someone who might be able to answer some ?s I have regarding wood turning. When we took down our tree I was hoping to get someone to turn some of it. In the parts we split, there were some lovely brown and tan areas, that would have made lovely vessels (or guitars!)
There are a couple woodturners that come around each year or two and if I had any idea how to save some of the wood, I sure would love to give it to them to turn something out of it that I could buy. But how do you do that? How big do you save it, or how small would still work? If it starts to check, is that too late? What's the proper way to store or keep the wood, and for how long?

If you prefer, I can PM you!

Great pics of the woodpecker.

It's always sad to see one of the old ones go . . . especially when you consider how long they've been around . . . but at least it is being used and isn't just rotting away somewhere.

Guy here in Maine had a hobby of making pens out of wood . . . something else you might consider.

Know what you mean there, I have a good few years worth of jobs lined up, not including the huge list drawn up by Mrs woodchip for my retirement ;-)

BG,
I turn both pens and bowls. If you would like something done PM me. I'd be happy to do it for you...no cost. I can send you a few pics of past work if you wish.

Brian