Sum beech...that's SOME BEECH!

[ScotO]

A month or so ago I helped out some people on the other side of town when a microburst hit.....ended up getting a ton of wood from tops and a blown down beech. Well, another huge beech on their property lost it's top, which destroyed the roof on their house, during that storm...

Long story short, the insurance adjuster said that the damaged beech (which was a 70' tree, around 36-40" diameter at the base, and only around 8' from the house with a heavy lean towards it) had to come down or they would be having problems with the insurance claim....a local insured arborist with a 60' bucket truck took the tree down, piece by piece, the whole way to the ground (due to the heavy lean).

Thanks to the help I gave them a month ago, they called me up just before we left for vacation and asked me if I wanted the wood (around 1 1/2-2 cord total). They said when I got back, to come and get it! We came home from vacation a couple days early due to the big storm that hit the east coast, and I went down and got started on that tree this afternoon.

My youngest son and I set up the splitter and went straight to work.....I wasn't about to try and load 400lb beech rounds into the truck! If you've never dealt with green beech rounds, they are HEAVY SOB's!!



several piles of smaller rounds (from the limbs and branches) are sitting around the yard.....second and third pics are of the main trunk...



I was really proud of my 12yr old son....he's becoming quite the worker. He loaded the entire truck by himself.....Overkill-style!!



Offloading the first load. I have at least one, maybe one and a half loads, to get tomorrow.....
Yeah, I'm a firewood hoarder for sure!!

 

[Paulywalnut]

That just looks like some tough splitting. Definitely need a hydraulic. Did you carve
your name in any of the pieces? We used to do that to beech when the kids were little.

 

[ScotO]

That just looks like some tough splitting. Definitely need a hydraulic. Did you carve
your name in any of the pieces? We used to do that to beech when the kids were little.

There were lots of carvings in the trunk from eons ago....they weren't legible anymore. I did the same thing when I was young....beech bark was one of the best ones to carve your name in, as it would last for many, many years and still be legible......

It wasnt' too bad splitting, but some of the pieces were pretty stringy......I love having the splitter, it makes life a little easier. My son loves to help run the splitter, and he's getting darn good at it too. knows not to retract it too far past the length of the split and when he sees that the split has 'popped', he knows he can retract it, which speeds up cycle time...

 

[thewoodlands]

That's a nice haul S.O., I always like splitting beech, just something about hearing that POP!

 

[ScotO]

That's a nice haul S.O., I always like splitting beech, just something about hearing that POP!

Yes sir!! We've got at least one more load like that, maybe even two, we're going to get tomorrow morning. I love the look of beech....me and the homeowner were admiring the grain in that tree. It would make some great looking flooring or butcher block countertop........

 

[Capetownkg]

Good to know about it being heavy cause I have a beech tree down back in the woods. Not as big as that but I will need to think of a strategy for getting the wood up and out. Do you know how it is splitting by hand?

 

[ScotO]

Good to know about it being heavy cause I have a beech tree down back in the woods. Not as big as that but I will need to think of a strategy for getting the wood up and out. Do you know how it is splitting by hand?

it can be done, but it can be tough. The heartwood tends to be stringy in some of it. Try and split it up when it's still green and wet. Let those rounds dry out and you're gonna probably have your hands full!

 

[jeffesonm]

I split a bunch of beech by hand late last year and it was no trouble. Not as easy as oak but wasn't bad as all.

 

[paul bunion]

Looks like the bark disease hasn't made it your way yet. Nice smooth bark. The beech that I have run into lately have all been miserable to split, stringy and twisted grain.

 

[gzecc]

A month or so ago I helped out some people on the other side of town when a microburst hit.....ended up getting a ton of wood from tops and a blown down beech. Well, another huge beech on their property lost it's top, which destroyed the roof on their house, during that storm...

Long story short, the insurance adjuster said that the damaged beech (which was a 70' tree, around 36-40" diameter at the base, and only around 8' from the house with a heavy lean towards it) had to come down or they would be having problems with the insurance claim....a local insured arborist with a 60' bucket truck took the tree down, piece by piece, the whole way to the ground (due to the heavy lean).

Thanks to the help I gave them a month ago, they called me up just before we left for vacation and asked me if I wanted the wood (around 1 1/2-2 cord total). They said when I got back, to come and get it! We came home from vacation a couple days early due to the big storm that hit the east coast, and I went down and got started on that tree this afternoon.

My youngest son and I set up the splitter and went straight to work.....I wasn't about to try and load 400lb beech rounds into the truck! If you've never dealt with green beech rounds, they are HEAVY SOB's!!

View attachment 104416

several piles of smaller rounds (from the limbs and branches) are sitting around the yard.....second and third pics are of the main trunk...

View attachment 104417 View attachment 104418 View attachment 104419

I was really proud of my 12yr old son....he's becoming quite the worker. He loaded the entire truck by himself.....Overkill-style!!

View attachment 104420 View attachment 104421 View attachment 104422

Offloading the first load. I have at least one, maybe one and a half loads, to get tomorrow.....
Yeah, I'm a firewood hoarder for sure!!

View attachment 104423 View attachment 104424

With a pick up truck you can't just roll those rounds up?

 

[NH_Wood]

Good for you! That's some beautiful wood and good to have a hard working boy! Cheers!

 

[Woody Stover]

That stuff looks great!
You and your helper are setting a great hoarding example.

 

[NortheastAl]

Nice load, Scotty. Teachin' the youngin' right! Always a good thing.

Those splits look a little on the long side from the pics. Hope you don't have to cut them down to fit.

 

[mywaynow]

Love the Beech. Like mentioned though, there is no wood heavier than green Beech. My trailer has hauled many a load of Oak, and full to the top of the rails. When I picked up the Beech I scrounged, the trailer was only loaded partially, due to the obvious wieght stress. Worth the effort though, and mine split nicely.

 

[USMC80]

Huge rounds! I would have split them on site like you did too

 

[Billybonfire]

Great haul Scotty, lots of nice square splits, my favourite .

 

[ScotO]

Nice load, Scotty. Teachin' the youngin' right! Always a good thing.

Those splits look a little on the long side from the pics. Hope you don't have to cut them down to fit.

Good eye, Al! Yes, the guy who did the tree job made some of those rounds pretty long, but they'll fit in the Napoleon NZ300 nicely....so I left them on the long side and I'll just use them in the fireplace.

That's one of the problems of scrounging 'already bucked' wood......the guy cutting the tree usually just hacks it into semi-manageable pieces, not caring about size consistency. But, I guess you can't be too picky.....its almost two months of heat for free!!

 

[fireview2788]

You gotta love a day at the beech.

fv

 

[ScotO]

Great haul Scotty, lots of nice square splits, my favourite .

Thanks Billy!! I like to make lots and lots of 'square' splits.....makes cribbing and cross-tying the ends of the stacks very easy to do.

Getting ready to head out the door to do load #2. I'll post pics later. Some of this next load is going to be huge crotches of the trunk, I'll be taking the 051 to the job to noodle them up into nice, square pieces.....

 

[ScotO]

You gotta love a day at the beech.

fv

Good one! Now that you say that, I came home from 'da beach, and went right back to 'da beech!!

 

[PA. Woodsman]

That is an OUTSTANDING SCORE Scotty, great stuff....always reminds me of elephant skin lol! We have some here East of you but I don't get a chance to get much of it for fuelwood, but when I do I grab it. Interesting how when splitting some of the pieces kind of "crack" and don't want to split smoothly, but it burns very nice with a nice lively flame.

Scores like that are ones to remember.....

 

[muncybob]

Great score!! It's nice to have a score so close to home that you can take the splitter there and get the truck loaded a bit easier than trying to roll/lift rounds into it....esp when you have a helper like Overkill Jr.

 

[basod]

Looks like some of the monster's I see down in the creek bottoms around here some 3-4' across.

Wish I could capture some of the BTU's outside and store for the winter it was 96F with a heat index 112 yesterday - not firewood gathering weather
Hope you're staying hydrated

 

[bogydave]

SO's scrounging ? ?
Nice score!
Nice straight grain wood, it'll stack nice

 

[NickDL]

Nice score & great bonding time with your son.