Today's Entertainment

[MTY]

 

[JimBear]

This was Thursday’s entertainment:
Osage Orange aka Hedge



This was Wednesday’s entertainment:
Cherry


Hopefully Friday’s entertainment will be a load of Slippery Elm.

 

[Jags]

If there was a choice I would leave the elm lay and go back for more Osage. Just say’in.

 

[JimBear]

If there was a choice I would leave the elm lay and go back for more Osage. Just say’in.

There is a choice: the Red Elm is easy pickins & already debarked & ready to burn, the Hedge pile is going to be there till next summer, easily accessible & I have another 3/8 mile of Hedge to take out & what doesn’t make posts will be firewood so there will be no shortage of it. The choice is : Be a pig & take it all.

 

[weatherguy]

I'd love to try some hedge, you Midwesterners are lucky to have it, the best I have is hickory and if lucky a bit of hop hornbeam which is rare.

 

[tadmaz]

I've never seen hedge in my life. I'm from Chicago and live in SE Wisconsin now.

pbio209 / Harris, J - Osage-orange

 

[JimBear]

Today’s entertainment was costly:
Blown radiator hose, may as well replace both ( well all 3, since the bottom hose is a 2 piece hose) while doing it.

I did manage to get some Slippery Elm today about a 1/3 of what’s there.

 

[JimBear]

I've never seen hedge in my life. I'm from Chicago and live in SE Wisconsin now.

pbio209 / Harris, J - Osage-orange

Aren’t SE Wisconsin & Chicago pretty much all ran together now??

 

[MTY]

They have trees in Iowa?

 

[JimBear]

They have trees in Iowa?

There are a few left that haven’t been dozed out for farm land, urban sprawl & “green energy” wind turdines or uh I mean turbines. Nothing like northern Idaho though, beautiful area last time I was up there. Hope to get back out there again soon.

 

[heavy hammer]

Nice looking wood should have plenty of heat. Are you clearing the land or is someone else?

 

[JimBear]

The hedge is left over from a fence line I cleaned out for a friend last winter, the Cherry is out of a fence line I am going to cut hedge posts out of for my Dad & brother, I got about 1/2 cord of Hackberry from it & figure there is 2-3 cord of Mulberry plus whatever hedge is left over after I cut posts. The Red Elm is from a friends farm, I helped them work cattle & saw them laying on the ground when we were getting the cows in.

 

[Sawset]

Elm here has so far splits the easiest, kind of like staight grain cherry. Still trying to figure all this out about knarly elm being so difficult. Slippery, red elm, younger older, branchy straight, hmm. Something's up. Its a little lite, but not by far.
Lots of locust here for posts. Used to be used a lot decades ago. Very few pastures anymore - posts from the 40s-50s are about gone.

 

[Woody Stover]

If there was a choice I would leave the elm lay and go back for more Osage. Just say’in.

Well yeah, ordinarily I would, but this is Red (Slippery) Elm. Tell me I'm crazy, but I love it. It's only maybe 22 mBTU or so but splits a lot easier than American, is rot-resistant, almost no sapwood, and beautiful color to the split wood. Smells good when split wet.

Dutch Elm usually gets 'em early but I found this 19-incher several years ago.

My score this spring, waiting to be split and stacked. Blow-down that was still rooted, wood sopping wet:

I've burned a lot of Red in the last five years. OTOH, here is some Hedge I got then, still sitting there.

 

[Sawset]

but splits a lot easier than American

Usually I only pay attention when they are good and dead. Maybe that's parts of the straight grain thing going on.

 

[Woody Stover]

Usually I only pay attention when they are good and dead. Maybe that's parts of the straight grain thing going on.

I haven't really split much American by hand, but the ones I did a few rounds of were dead with no bark, and pretty small. I'm going on what they say about tough-splitting Elm. The Red wasn't exactly easy to split for this old man but yeah, it does have nice, straight grain on these woods Reds I get. I should have tried to split the wet Red rounds in the second-last pic..mighta been easy, who knows? I'll grab one and give it a shot..only been sitting maybe 4-5 months.

 

[heavy hammer]

It is hard to turn down anything free. I like elm, some of it can be difficult to split but I think it puts out pretty good heat. Nice scores all around!

 

[Woody Stover]

Aren’t SE Wisconsin & Chicago pretty much all ran together now??

He lives near my brother, in a beautiful area of rolling glacial terrain that the Illinois flat-landers can only dream of.

I like elm, some of it can be difficult to split but I think it puts out pretty good heat.

Red's output I would estimate to be about half way between American Elm and White Ash. It's got some heft to it.

the Red Elm is easy pickins & already debarked & ready to burn....saw them laying on the ground when we were getting the cows in.

Yeah, I grab a lot of dead-standers with the bark off but you can also pick 'em up off the ground and they have held up very well, as illustrated by your pics.

 

[Sawset]

beautiful area of rolling glacial terrain that the Illinois flat-landers can only dream of.

The overpasses do have some nice views there. Noticed that even the weather patterns are different at the higher elevations.

 

[Woody Stover]

The overpasses do have some nice views there. Noticed that even the weather patterns are different at the higher elevations.

Pretty nice where you are, sitting in the southern unit of the kettle moraine. Not quite as dramatic elevation changes as around Holy Hill where my bro is, but your area is great as well. It wasn't where I grew up with them, but my folks ended up getting a house on the old GG, maybe seven miles from Palmyra. I'm quite familiar with the area.
Down here, we are only about ten miles out of town, but several hundred feet higher, and I know what you mean about those differences. I can be in town and it's pouring rain, drive back home and I'm on dry pavement before I get here. It's also maybe five degrees cooler with more woods around, and it's breezier. I think the woods also holds moisture so it may be more humid than in town. Hey, maybe I should have my wood drying at a buddy's house in town!