How does this happen, and I had a great day scrounging.

[Flavo]

I went out to a CL scrounge but a guy was already on that stuff. I passed a couple downed trees on the earlier part of my journey so I went back to them and got to cuttin.
One of the coolest scrounges though was yesterday. I have been eye balling a tree that was in a semi precarious position ever since I moved out here. It was sort of on a hill and a little hung up. Seemed a bit past my skill level at this point. Anyway, when I was driving by it yesterday the town crew was cutting it up and making nice neet stacks for me on the side of the road. They said I could take it all but would need to wait for them to clear out. That's the 1st pic and why I asked how does this happen?
How does that red get in there?

not a bad amount of chunks from cutting them to a better length. Will make some sweet yard fire wood.

These were the next 2 trees that I got later today.

I think I lucked out w/ about 3/4 of a cord from it all. Like I said, sweet day scrounging.

 

[smokinj]

lol Welcome to boxelder!

 

[Flavo]

Wow, the btu's are right up there w/ pine :long:

Oh well, At this point I will take what I can get I guess. I went through 4-5 cords this year. So far I have just under 3 cords and I am still burning. A decent amount of that is oak too. So the cord count is actually lower. Gotta keep cutting. I found 10 or so smaller straight tress (all in the same spot) that I can pretty much back right up to. I'll go get those next weekend. Wish I knew what those were. I hope my tree IDing skills get noticeably better before too long.
Any advice on how to hone those skills? I try to look at all the ID threads on here but it is real slow going for me so far.

 

[Thistle]

Its some kind of fungus that causes those reddish or pink areas.Good pieces with a high percentage of red and/or burl clusters will bring top $$$ on ebay from woodturners,sculptors & other tradespeople.I've seen 3 x 12 x 12 blocks sell for up to $200 in the past several months.Very soft wood,hard to cut real cleanly,takes lots of sanding,but can be worth the effort sometimes.Purdy stuff if used with care,some looks like its aflame almost.

 

[smokinj]

Its some kind of fungus that causes those reddish or pink areas.Good pieces with a high percentage of red and/or burl clusters will bring top $$$ on ebay from woodturners,sculptors & other tradespeople.I've seen 3 x 12 x 12 blocks sell for up to $200 in the past several months.Very soft wood,hard to cut real cleanly,takes lots of sanding,but can be worth the effort sometimes.Purdy stuff if used with care,some looks like its aflame almost.

Ok If you can turn that into tuner wood I coming to your house I really need your help! :coolsmirk: Oh for big money I mean....2hundos

 

[homebrewz]

Yep, that red is a telltale sign of box elder, a species of maple. Its good shoulder season wood. It tends to rot quickly so split and stack it soon and get it off the ground. It will dry quickly too.

Thistle, that's interesting about the desirable pieces. Didn't know that.

 

[Flavo]

You can bet I'll be looking more closely then usual before I split each piece.

 

[weatherguy]

I just asked about some that I has a couple weeks ago, didnt know it was worth money, maybe better to sell it and buy some oak.

 

[holland_patrick]

Sorry you didn't get on the CL stuff.. but it looked like you did good anyways

 

[Flavo]

Probably better I didn't. 1/2 of the rounds that were there were huge. Maybe they would have split easy or not. I have no clue as I have never tried splitting anything bigger then maybe 2+' across. Another load of almost seasoned maple would've been great though. I pretty good load of seasoned maple from a foreclosure home (empty) a couple weeks ago. A big branch had come done.

 

[Thistle]

Its some kind of fungus that causes those reddish or pink areas.Good pieces with a high percentage of red and/or burl clusters will bring top $$$ on ebay from woodturners,sculptors & other tradespeople.I've seen 3 x 12 x 12 blocks sell for up to $200 in the past several months.Very soft wood,hard to cut real cleanly,takes lots of sanding,but can be worth the effort sometimes.Purdy stuff if used with care,some looks like its aflame almost.

Ok If you can turn that into tuner wood I coming to your house I really need your help! :coolsmirk: Oh for big money I mean....2hundos

There's some of it around here,dont know any very close though.LOL I WISH I could find a gold mine like that sometime.I did find 1 medium sized dead leaner about 15 yrs back over in neighbor to parents acreage (until that neighbor died & his farm was sold,Dad & I had permission to cut anywhere on that 60 acres of timber,its changed hands & been split into at least 2 parcels since then - all fenced off & verboten for me or others to even go for a walk hunting Morels or anything) That sucks,but what can you do lol

Check this out -guy in Ohio has some cool stuff from time to time.Gets things in sporadicly,whatever he's cutting recently - like us I guess haha (broken link removed to http://cgi.ebay.com/SUPER-HUGE-Flame-Boxelder-end-cut-table-top-Piece-V-/110662509157?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c3ffe265)