RE: Good news, bad news

[firefighterjake]

The Good News: I found an insured guy to take down a tree that a pileated woodpecker had gone to town on that was fairly close to my house . . . for $200.

The Bad News (OK, maybe not all that bad): It was only a pine tree. I have plans to make kindling out of it . . . lots and lots of kindling.

 

[Squisher]

It must be a pretty easy tree? For a tree company I mean. I had my own for a decade. $200 doesn't go far for a insured legit business. As a leave debris I'd be looking to be knocking it out in under an hour on site. Are they leaving it all or chipping the limbs?

 

[begreen]

Pine is fine for shoulder season burning. I'd leave the bulk in stove length rounds and split it. Not much need for kindling when burning 24/7.

 

[jetsam]

Pine is fine for shoulder season burning. I'd leave the bulk in stove length rounds and split it. Not much need for kindling when burning 24/7.

I use little pieces and branchwood every day to jam in the cracks after I load up the splits. (Well, 5 days a week... I don't play Tetris with the stove on my days off, or on warm days.)

I use pine all year... Any time I am down to low coals after a long burn, it's pine time...any time I have too many oak coals, it's pine time!

In shoulder season, I also use pine to get my oak going in a hurry, or by itself for a fast hot burn. It's such a convenient wood... It dries fast, it burns fast, and you don't have to shovel out a bunch of crud later.

I also used it a lot this fall- since I have so much pine around me, I did a lot of 12+ hour very low burns with it to help stretch my oak supply. You do need the right stove to pull that off.

 

[firefighterjake]

It must be a pretty easy tree? For a tree company I mean. I had my own for a decade. $200 doesn't go far for a insured legit business. As a leave debris I'd be looking to be knocking it out in under an hour on site. Are they leaving it all or chipping the limbs?

I think the guy took all of 45 minutes and was contracted only to bring it down to the ground -- no clean up, no bucking. He has a construction business for his main job and does tree climbing/cutting like this on the side (although he admitted at times this "hobby" can keep him quite busy.) He is a one-man guy with tree climbing spikes and a couple of saws.

Up this way there are a lot of guys who do a little of this, a little of that to get by . . . not all are insured, but what this does is keep prices relatively affordable. That said, I asked two other guys who do the same thing . . . one insured guy was looking for $700 (he had to rent a bucket truck from a buddy which was part of the expense) and another guy (a co-worker who is currently not insured) was willing to take down two trees via directional felling for $800. Honestly, I thought all three prices were fair -- but I really liked the price and workmanship of the one guy . . . and will be hiring him again to bring down some more pines around the house.

All three guys looked at the tree and figured it was pretty easy . . . me . . . I am not confident in my felling technique to insure the tree I cut will go where I want it to go 100% of the time so I was willing to pay for this one.

 

[firefighterjake]

I've got a fair charge of pine already for shoulder season burning . . . and need to eventually replenish my kindling . . . I like using kindling . . . to be honest I use it a lot more than I need to since I will often throw some on the coals in the morning to get the fire going sooner vs. my wife who is much more patient and will toss on some small splits and wait.

That said . . . I suspect after an hour or two of splitting kindling I will grow bored and start to split up some larger stuff for the shoulder seasons.

 

[kennyp2339]

I've got a fair charge of pine already

No cat house were damaged right?

 

[peakbagger]

Technically the woodpecker didn't kill the tree, it was already full of ants and the woodpeckers just took advantage of the meal.

 

[firefighterjake]

No cat house were damaged right?

Tree was in the front . . . cat house is in the back.

 

[firefighterjake]

Technically the woodpecker didn't kill the tree, it was already full of ants and the woodpeckers just took advantage of the meal.

Well technically the tree was still alive . . . but it was just a matter of time before it came down due to the pileated woodpecker looking for the ant buffet.

But yes . . . the work was done by a boring beetle which allowed ants access to the inner part of the tree.