Bummer of a Day

[Firefighter938]

A friend has some property he had logged a couple of years ago, and the tops have been sitting in the woods since. Last year I cut a few cords out of it with plans to go back.

Today I made plans to go up to his property and cut another cord. He lives 10 miles away so I'll make a day of it, or so I thought. It has been wet here so he skid a couple of monster trees to a high spot I could reach. The trees were mostly barkless.

I get to them and am excited, "there's a cord or maybe two in these trees." The logging company took ash, oak, hard maple, and walnut so I thought I had a good chance at some nice wood.
As I am looking them over I notice they are nice logs and I'm surprised the loggers didn't take them.
First cut I see why. Cottonwood. I cut a trailer full and took it just for giggles. Then I touched my chain with the dirt and quite.
Not all was lost though. I did see a good sized Osage tree with a fairly large dead limb so I cut it and threw it on a stack.

Then I went home and turned a bunch of rounds into a couple of stacks of wood.

 

[Applesister]

That sucks, I cut cottonwood because I don't want it in my horse pasture. Although it burns cleaner than Aspen. Oddly.
I think about pioneers moving west and only having cottonwood to burn, to cook with...feed their horses with and I dont feel so bad for myself.
The upside is its as easy as it gets to process. Its the low standard.

 

[Firefighter938]

I did spend the rest of the day turning this into this.

 

[Sconnie Burner]

I don't mind cottonwood too much other than the ton of ashes it leaves in the stove. Its a decent shoulder wood especially when you start getting the itch to get the stove running when the temps are too warm too actually have it running! It does process pretty easily, a touch stringy but not bad.

 

[Jags]

I did spend the rest of the day turning this into this.

That is a very respectable accomplishment. Nicely done.

 

[ssevy]

Just a big thanks to whoever first invented the cinder block/ two by four method of wood piling. Stable and inexpensive way to get the wood up good and high with plenty of airflow. Love it!