A first for me...

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Tar12

Minister of Fire
Dec 9, 2016
1,867
Indiana
Received a phone call asking if I would care to have a Oak? DUH! I show up the next morning with my dump trailer and saws and take a good look at the tree and the leaves were not like any traditional oak leaves that i had ever seen! I am like what is he trying to pull? He assured me it was Oak but I wasnt buying it until the first piece hit the ground and I split it...it was Oak! Live Oak! I had never heard of it until this day! Not very common around me at all or I just didnt know what it was! I know now! I have almost all of it hauled home...guesstimating around 4-4.5 cord....cant wait to burn some! Very dense and oh so heavy!
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Dead oak now. Looks healthy. Why did they want it down?
 
Received a phone call asking if I would care to have a Oak? DUH! I show up the next morning with my dump trailer and saws and take a good look at the tree and the leaves were not like any traditional oak leaves that i had ever seen! I am like what is he trying to pull? He assured me it was Oak but I wasnt buying it until the first piece hit the ground and I split it...it was Oak! Live Oak! I had never heard of it until this day! Not very common around me at all or I just didnt know what it was! I know now! I have almost all of it hauled home...guesstimating around 4-4.5 cord....cant wait to burn some! Very dense and oh so heavy!
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From Wikipedia

The name live oak comes from the fact that evergreen oaks remain green and "live" throughout winter, when other oaks are dormant and leafless. The name is used mainly in North America, where evergreen oaks are widespread in warmer areas along the Atlantic coast from southeast Virginia to Florida, west along the Gulf Coast to Louisiana and Mexico, and across the southwest to California.
 
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Dead oak now. Looks healthy. Why did they want it down?
You cant tell from the picture but half of the top had already fallen due to rot...the broken stub is hidden amongst the lower dense foliage...I think i have a picture of this..
 
Begreen....
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The upper left trunk broke off while he was limbing it down...it was a dangerous tree.
 
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We have live oak all along the Georgia coast. Huge 200 year old trees 4 foot diameter, loaded up with Spanish moss.
 
Southern Indiana is basically the deep south :) Live oak's range just barely gets into Indiana looking at some searches online.
 
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Surprising the variety of oaks out there in different environments.
I visited Phoenix. Someone said the trees in the yard were oaks, and of course I didn't believe them. Little things, spade shaped leaves, then I saw acorns. And rattle snakes, sidewinders and javelinas. Hmm.
South Carolina, lots of live oaks there. And armadillos and alligators.
Up here it's burr,white and red oaks, and white tails, bears, and wolves.
 
That was a young Live Oak. Maryland's oldest known tree was a Live Oak in Wye Mills until age took it's toll a few decades ago at over 400 years old. Wood was used to make furniture for the State House in Annapolis. Quite a few seedling were propagated from it so it's genes live on.
 
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In my neck of the woods it is mostly white oak, plenty of beech, some soft maples which I totally adore since I can get them seasoned in about 10 months or less. I end up having to burn my oak at around 25 plus percent moisture content most of the time. I just can't seem to get ahead.. felling cutting splitting and stacking makes me want to just use my electric heat.. my body can't take much labor anymore.
 
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Man, you hit the jackpot! >> Bucking in the yard sure beats going into the woods.
Looks healthy.
To me, leaves look thin in areas.
Live Oak is rated really high on BTU charts I've seen, quite a bit higher than White Oak.
The Audubon Guide says that the first forests owned by the government were Live Oak, because it was important for shipbuilding...must be tough, dense wood.
 
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Man, you hit the jackpot! >> Bucking in the yard sure beats going into the woods.To me, leaves look thin in areas.
Live Oak is rated really high on BTU charts I've seen, quite a bit higher than White Oak.
The Audubon Guide says that the first forests owned by the government were Live Oak, because it was important for shipbuilding...must be tough, dense wood.
It is tough and dense and incredibly heavy....I brought every last stick of it home!
 
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It is fascinating to see the giant live oaks on the Ga. coast, like St. Simons Island.
The English king loved these trees for ship building. The huge trunk goes up about 10 feet, and then a huge branch that goes out parallel to the ground.
It was this huge joint, where the branch comes out from the trunk, that the English ship builders wanted, they would hew that joint down to more or less of an L shape, maybe five feet on each leg, and 15 inches thick.
These were used on the frame of the ship where the floor met the walls, they needed dozens of these joints to build the British warships.
King Henry VIII had already whacked all the oak trees in England in 1540, so they loved this new stockpile of huge oaks.

Got the masts in Maine, some kind of fir tree or pine tree.
 
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Big beautiful live oaks are all over New Orleans and the surrounding plantations. They are so old that there are complete living colonies of epiphytes growing exclusively on them. The second one is the oldest in NOLA. It's about 240 yrs old.
big-oak.jpg 240-yr-old-bora-oak.jpg
 
It is fascinating to see the giant live oaks on the Ga. coast, like St. Simons Island.
The English king loved these trees for ship building. The huge trunk goes up about 10 feet, and then a huge branch that goes out parallel to the ground.
It was this huge joint, where the branch comes out from the trunk, that the English ship builders wanted, they would hew that joint down to more or less of an L shape, maybe five feet on each leg, and 15 inches thick.
These were used on the frame of the ship where the floor met the walls, they needed dozens of these joints to build the British warships.
King Henry VIII had already whacked all the oak trees in England in 1540, so they loved this new stockpile of huge oaks.

Got the masts in Maine, some kind of fir tree or pine tree.

Balsam Fir, White Cedar, White Pine, and several spruce species were popular for masts and other lumber. The mostly straight trunks lend themselves to poles and masts. It's hard to find mature cedar around here anymore. I've read some places that oak is becoming endangered or already is.