Should I claim this Hemlock?

[yinpin]

On Saturday night we had some brutal winds much like the rest of the country. Lost a few shutters on the house but luckily for me most of my trees are still bare of leaves and I didn't loose any trees this time. My neighbor has a strip of Hemlock's that separate our yards and she had some come down. Luckily they fell in front of the house and these are the only ones that came down. She was scared and mentioned that she is going to cut them all down so they don't fall on the house. Her trees, her house she can do what she wants but I hope she doesn't.

Anyway, she is having a tree guy come out to quote the clean up and removal of these trees. I don't typically do anything with softwood but I am going to start selling bundled firewood an I am wondering if I should split these and keep it for that next summer. I can burn some as well in the fire pit or in the wood insert once dry enough. They are a perfect size for bucking and splitting. I told her to let me know what the tree company is going to charge. The boys are off for spring break this week and they can earn some money loading the trailer up of the branches and helping me at the dump to unload. I am hoping the root balls fall back into the hole or can be encouraged by a tow strap to do so.

Worth messing with these for free? Worth messing with them for payment?

 

[begreen]

I would. It burns ok and will be good for most of the time in Maryland's milder climate. Split it, stack it, and season it for at least 6 months, and it should be ok to burn. It will have a lower BTU content than good hardwood, but it still will provide good heat. Free wood is almost free heat.

 

[yinpin]

I have enlisted the help of my 14 and 9 year old and they are going to load the trailer with all the debris and cut limbs. They are also responsible for unloading at the dump.m and filling the trailer with the rounds. For this child labor, they will be handsomely rewarded! Trying to get these boys in the mindset of working for some spending money!

I will start limbing tomorrow.

 

[GrumpyDad]

On Saturday night we had some brutal winds much like the rest of the country. Lost a few shutters on the house but luckily for me most of my trees are still bare of leaves and I didn't loose any trees this time. My neighbor has a strip of Hemlock's that separate our yards and she had some come down. Luckily they fell in front of the house and these are the only ones that came down. She was scared and mentioned that she is going to cut them all down so they don't fall on the house. Her trees, her house she can do what she wants but I hope she doesn't.

Anyway, she is having a tree guy come out to quote the clean up and removal of these trees. I don't typically do anything with softwood but I am going to start selling bundled firewood an I am wondering if I should split these and keep it for that next summer. I can burn some as well in the fire pit or in the wood insert once dry enough. They are a perfect size for bucking and splitting. I told her to let me know what the tree company is going to charge. The boys are off for spring break this week and they can earn some money loading the trailer up of the branches and helping me at the dump to unload. I am hoping the root balls fall back into the hole or can be encouraged by a tow strap to do so.

Worth messing with these for free? Worth messing with them for payment?

View attachment 311724 View attachment 311725

I have been using pine for my firepits, mostly due to a misaligned belief that I shouldnt burn pine inside. It burns nicely. It takes off fast and creates a nice flame. It also produces nice heat. Two of the main reasons you have an outdoor firepit. Heat/Flame Beer/Brisket

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Free wood is always nice! Free wood you can sell to campers in bundles is even better!

 

[Newbie78]

It's an almost ridiculous question.

It's literally right next door
It's easy cutting
conveniently, you have help.

you should have already started in order to "lay claim" on it...

it's wood. It burns.

 

[Garbanzo62]

I have some smaller hemlock, that is drying. I also have a few trees still standing. We do have a Blight in the area that affects Hemlocks so I might have some additional wood to cut. As far as I am concerned, cut it, dry it, burn it

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Probably wooly adelgid. They suck the sap out of the tree.

 

[GrumpyDad]

I have some smaller hemlock, that is drying. I also have a few trees still standing. We do have a Blight in the area that affects Hemlocks so I might have some additional wood to cut. As far as I am concerned, cut it, dry it, burn it

Where my cabin is some smart guy decided to plant white pine all over. Well it's all end of life and I'm the benefactor. Most of it requires an expensive service to cut down in between oak maple and cherry. So happy. Vile weed.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Interesting you call it a weed. Wars have been fought over the tall, straight growing, strong, but light weight wood.

 

[Prof]

I burned hemlock almost exclusively this winter. Hemlock does have low BTUs, but it is non-resinous, so no mess. It cuts easy and splits OK. I don't go out of my way to get it, but if it is easy, I snap it up!

 

[Ashful]

It's going to depend on your local situation. Here, there's more hardwood available to split than hours to do it, so I'd not bother splitting and stacking any softwood. But if I didn't have a backlog of hardwood always waiting to be split, then... maybe.

 

[GrumpyDad]

Interesting you call it a weed. Wars have been fought over the tall, straight growing, strong, but light weight wood.

Really?
Well no need for anyone to fight over my pine. Come on over and get it. Dozens of trees surrounded by buildings. Bring a crane.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Sure, imagine if national security depended on things like masts. If you use too heavy a wood, the ship will be less stable.

British timber trade - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Ashful]

Really?
Well no need for anyone to fight over my pine. Come on over and get it. Dozens of trees surrounded by buildings. Bring a crane.

I own, sail, and race antique wood boats, although we invariably toss the original wooden spars and replace with modern hardware, in order to be competitive with the rest of the class. That said, I don't think I've ever seen a pine spar. Spruce, yes... but not pine.

 

[thewoodlands]

On Saturday night we had some brutal winds much like the rest of the country. Lost a few shutters on the house but luckily for me most of my trees are still bare of leaves and I didn't loose any trees this time. My neighbor has a strip of Hemlock's that separate our yards and she had some come down. Luckily they fell in front of the house and these are the only ones that came down. She was scared and mentioned that she is going to cut them all down so they don't fall on the house. Her trees, her house she can do what she wants but I hope she doesn't.

Anyway, she is having a tree guy come out to quote the clean up and removal of these trees. I don't typically do anything with softwood but I am going to start selling bundled firewood an I am wondering if I should split these and keep it for that next summer. I can burn some as well in the fire pit or in the wood insert once dry enough. They are a perfect size for bucking and splitting. I told her to let me know what the tree company is going to charge. The boys are off for spring break this week and they can earn some money loading the trailer up of the branches and helping me at the dump to unload. I am hoping the root balls fall back into the hole or can be encouraged by a tow strap to do so.

Worth messing with these for free? Worth messing with them for payment?

View attachment 311724 View attachment 311725

Before we started taking down dead pine on our house lot that we burn during the shoulder season, we burned hemlock during shoulder season in the fall and spring.

It looks like you have good access to it and you would be helping out a neighbor.

 

[GrumpyDad]

I own, sail, and race antique wood boats, although we invariably toss the original wooden spars and replace with modern hardware, in order to be competitive with the rest of the class. That said, I don't think I've ever seen a pine spar. Spruce, yes... but not pine.

Sailing was always quite the mystery to me. Seems quite interesting. Alas, I am landlocked.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

The White Pine Acts – Who Knew? - Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project

The British government made it illegal for colonials to cut down white pine trees over 24 inches in diameter—preserving the trees for use as masts on British naval ships.

connecticuthistory.org

The pine tree riot

Pine Tree Riot - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Ashful]

The pine tree riot

That's interesting. Between it's propensity to rot very quickly, and its very low strength and flexural resistance, you'd think pine a terrible wood for mast making, but I guess they win on size alone? Pines do grow big!

As noted, among smaller boats made in the early 20th century, wooden masts are usually spruce. Fir seems like another good candidate, reasonably rot resistant, light, and very strong. But... pine? sheesh... terrible wood for anything but cheap flooring!

Likewise with hulls. If not building war ships out of oak or merchants out of mahogany, fir seems to be the softwood of choice, when you need something cheap, light, and somewhat rot resistant. The earliest boats in the class I used to race were mahogany outers with fir inners, before switching to all mahogany in the late 1940's.

In the 18th century, white pine was used for cheap flooring in PA. The private areas of the 1775 addition to my house are all white pine. The public areas (eg. front foyer) were done in yellow pine, which I'm told was more expensive, although I've never verified this. I can say the white pine wears and wallows much faster than the yellow pine, you can see the traffic patterns in our white pine floors from them being dished in those areas, whereas the yellow pine remains relatively flat.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Adirondack guide boats use spruce roots for the knees and white pine for the hull.

I think we do a lot of second guessing what they did then as we have access to woods they didn't have access to, and glues they didn't have access to. If you can't glue a mast up, and you want to go up 220ft (USS Constitution) you have few options. Eastern US gives you white pine and tulip poplar, lol. Imagine what a shipwright used to hide glue or fish glue would give up for a couple gallons of Tightbond 3! Just being able to glue up a mast from defect free material would rock their world! It'd be stronger and could be hollow so it'd save a lot on weight!

BTW, the tallest tree in England is a Douglas Fir. It's a long way from home!

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I'm surprised they didn't go crazy with wide chestnut in your area. Supposedly it was 25% of your forests.

 

[Garbanzo62]

I own, sail, and race antique wood boats, although we invariably toss the original wooden spars and replace with modern hardware, in order to be competitive with the rest of the class. That said, I don't think I've ever seen a pine spar. Spruce, yes... but not pine.

You must be familiar with the boat Dorade.. My Brother in law sailed on that when they won the Transpac

 

[Ashful]

I'm surprised they didn't go crazy with wide chestnut in your area. Supposedly it was 25% of your forests.

Yeah, you'd think! Maybe they did in some areas or economic classes, at some time. What I see in the houses I or my extended family has owned, is probably only a small cross-section of a very wide desparity of what has existed here over the last 450 years. All of the houses I've owned or can remember in this area have had floors made from various softwoods, mostly white or yellow pine. They've been built and owned by English Quakers, Scottish Protestants, and German Menonites, each from different parts of Europe, and bringing their own building and stylistic traditions with them.

And to the OP, I know two people who have floored their homes in self-harvested hemlock, but I don't think its use for that purpose has ever been very common.

As to ships masts, those with which I'm most familiar and which I believe to be most common were rarely one piece of wood, in anything but light racing boats or small craft. The ships of the line had masts raised in 2 - 4 short sections, stepped one atop the other, which is another reason I don't see any benefit in them using pine. You'd want light, but strong, and we had abundance of many species beating pine on strength to weight ratio. They weren't glue laminated, but they were keyed into one another mortise and tenon style, with standing rigging at each point to keep the whole works standing straight. But I will admit I know more about rigging than choice of species, I'm only speculating on that.

You must be familiar with the boat Dorade.. My Brother in law sailed on that when they won the Transpac

No, I had to look that up, but it looks very interesting! We have several similar antique boat rescue org's down here:

OUR SHIPS | Philadelphia Ship Guild

www.philashipguild.org

The guy who runs that one and I have shown up on the same sites to haul out large groups of downed trees, more than once.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I found a documentary on the white pine! It talks in detail about the mast trade!

 

[Simonkenton]

Southern Yellow Pine is used extensively in construction. If you go to the Home Depot here, all the pressure treated 2x10s are SYP. A Yellow pine 2x10 is nearly as strong as oak. Plus SYP readily takes the pressure treating.

I built my log cabin from White Pine. Not nearly as strong as SYP, it is nevertheless very good for cabin logs. There being no Yellow Pine near here, I also made the rafters from white pine, but had to make them huge! 4 x 10, and 22 feet long. Plenty strong. Heavy.