Black walnut tree...

[uggabugga]

Originally Posted by fisheye

Possibly it was just a very gnarly cherry tree? I used to burn 16 cords of wood a year - that is a lot of work. I got tired of wood over the years. I installed oil hot water heat and got away from electric heat years ago. I even sold my wood burner and got rid of the fireplace insert. I did not want to look back. We still have two fireplaces - which we only burn on special occasions.

I’m in northeastern PA. I also have apple and pear trees. After I got rid of the cherries; I did not have as many problems with the apple and pear trees - I still sprayed the fruit trees. I almost forgot that I had peaches about that time. The peach trees died off over the years - they also had problems with the tent caterpillars.

16 cords, holy moly! that is a bunch of wood. especially if you were cutting/splitting it all yourself, i can see why you might get a little tired of that. i went thru maybe 5 cords last winter as my only heating source [excluding using the oil furnace for my hot water] and thought that was alot. if i was in NEPA i would be heating with anthracite - which i'm trying to do here in MD on a limited basis but it would be so much easier to obtain in PA.

I have been trying to find my old portable sawmill man for my mother’s walnut. So far I have not had any success. I am hoping to get some decent furniture lumber out of the tree. Have you ever considered having one of your trees cut for lumber to make furniture? You have plenty of Amish and Mennonite cabinet /furniture makers in Indiana. The idea of having the entire history of the wood, with the furniture, really appealed to us.

i think it is very cool that you have the 'whole history of the wood,' as you say, with the furniture that was made from it, but i hadn't considered the possibility for myself. unfortunately i no longer live in amish country; you're right, that would have been a great idea to try putting one of them on a project from one of my own trees.

as it happens, i lost 3 red oaks ranging from 50-70 feet when irene hit here last month - good solid trees that just couldn't stay upright in the waterlogged soil
//www.city-data.com/forum/20683935-post573.html
some excellent wood there but it would take some doing to get it from the ground where it is now, to the lumber mill.

[fisheye]

Originally Posted by uggabugga

16 cords, holy moly! that is a bunch of wood. especially if you were cutting/splitting it all yourself, i can see why you might get a little tired of that. i went thru maybe 5 cords last winter as my only heating source [excluding using the oil furnace for my hot water] and thought that was alot. if i was in NEPA i would be heating with anthracite - which i'm trying to do here in MD on a limited basis but it would be so much easier to obtain in PA.

Our trees are not very thick in the mountains. 16 cords is about equivalent to clear cutting one acre of forest. That would take me almost a month of all my “free” time to gather. For the time being we are happy with our oil. But; I am only an hour, at the most, from the coal mines.
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i think it is very cool that you have the 'whole history of the wood,' as you say, with the furniture that was made from it, but i hadn't considered the possibility for myself. unfortunately i no longer live in amish country; you're right, that would have been a great idea to try putting one of them on a project from one of my own trees.

as it happens, i lost 3 red oaks ranging from 50-70 feet when irene hit here last month - good solid trees that just couldn't stay upright in the waterlogged soil
//www.city-data.com/forum/20683935-post573.html
some excellent wood there but it would take some doing to get it from the ground where it is now, to the lumber mill.

You are probably as close to my PA Mennonite cabinet maker as I am. I drove about two hours to take him the wood. He lives close to the East/West PA Turnpike and Route 222. The people that originally cut up my cherry tree brought the sawmill to the tree. It all depends on how good you can get back to your trees. Your trees were nice and straight and looked like they were easy splitting. We lucked out with Irene and we had only some limbs down - but we were out of power for three and a half days.

[fisheye]

Sorry, I have part of my reply hidden in your quote - I did not get my multi-quote figured out very good!

[uggabugga]

Originally Posted by fisheye

Sorry, I have part of my reply hidden in your quote - I did not get my multi-quote figured out very good!

no problem, it just requires a little copy/paste

Our trees are not very thick in the mountains. 16 cords is about equivalent to clear cutting one acre of forest. That would take me almost a month of all my “free” time to gather. For the time being we are happy with our oil. But; I am only an hour, at the most, from the coal mines.

i guess it depends on what all falls under what you mean by 'gather' but cutting, splitting, stacking and moving that much wood would keep me occupied for a very long time. my oil heat works fine, i just don't like paying as much for it as it costs to keep the place warm during the winter, as i always had natural gas as a backup before.

You are probably as close to my PA Mennonite cabinet maker as I am. I drove about two hours to take him the wood. He lives close to the East/West PA Turnpike and Route 222. The people that originally cut up my cherry tree brought the sawmill to the tree. It all depends on how good you can get back to your trees. Your trees were nice and straight and looked like they were easy splitting. We lucked out with Irene and we had only some limbs down - but we were out of power for three and a half days.

the turnpike and 222, would that be near allentown?
yes, there is some very good wood there that really should be used for something better than just ending up as smoke. it's pretty dense forest so the trees are forced to grow straight up just to get some sunlight. my neighbor suggested i look into selling them to someone that would lumber them out but i have no idea where to start with that, assuming that's what i decided to do. it does make more sense to bring the mill to the trees than vice versa if the lumber is going to stay put anyway.

[fisheye]

"i guess it depends on what all falls under what you mean by 'gather' but cutting, splitting, stacking and moving that much wood would keep me occupied for a very long time. my oil heat works fine, i just don't like paying as much for it as it costs to keep the place warm during the winter, as i always had natural gas as a backup before."

To me gather means: Drop the tree, top the tree, skid the tree free of the tops, cut and split, load the truck, and take home and cover to season. I sold firewood many years ago. I try to minimize the number of times I actually have to lift the logs. A cord of green oak weights about 4000 pounds - far overweight for half ton pickup trucks. It is a lot of weight and a lot of lifting - wood heats you many times over again.



"the turnpike and 222, would that be near allentown?
yes, there is some very good wood there that really should be used for something better than just ending up as smoke. it's pretty dense forest so the trees are forced to grow straight up just to get some sunlight. my neighbor suggested i look into selling them to someone that would lumber them out but i have no idea where to start with that, assuming that's what i decided to do. it does make more sense to bring the mill to the trees than vice versa if the lumber is going to stay put anyway."

Actually; my wood worker is located between Reamstown and Bowmansville. That is about forty miles in your direction from Allentown. I don’t know if anybody has a portable sawmill in your area? You could try asking people that sell firewood - if there are no portable mills in your local directory. If you would be interested; I could send you the name of Mennonite that I went to . He was young when I first met him and I have not used him for several years. He had a friend that did the kiln drying of my lumber.

He also made one piece for us out of American chestnut. Native American chestnut is almost impossible to find today. I had one tree that lost it’s top - but was eighteen inches on the base (that is a very large native tree; even though they once got up to five foot in diameter).

Don't worry - I'll get the hang of multi-quote one of these days (just a little slow)!

[uggabugga]

Originally Posted by fisheye

To me gather means: Drop the tree, top the tree, skid the tree free of the tops, cut and split, load the truck, and take home and cover to season. I sold firewood many years ago. I try to minimize the number of times I actually have to lift the logs. A cord of green oak weights about 4000 pounds - far overweight for half ton pickup trucks. It is a lot of weight and a lot of lifting - wood heats you many times over again.

wow, it's that heavy? you obviously have a lot of experience with cutting firewood. my main experience come in at the point where the tree is down and needs to be cut, split, hauled and covered.

Actually; my wood worker is located between Reamstown and Bowmansville. That is about forty miles in your direction from Allentown. I don’t know if anybody has a portable sawmill in your area? You could try asking people that sell firewood - if there are no portable mills in your local directory. If you would be interested; I could send you the name of Mennonite that I went to . He was young when I first met him and I have not used him for several years. He had a friend that did the kiln drying of my lumber.

i suppose there must be someone with a portable mill around here somewhere- i bet i could ask the guy i bought slab wood from last winter, he might know.
yeah, if you could PM me that fellow's name i might be interested in talking with him. mennonites can use email if i recall correctly, right?

He also made one piece for us out of American chestnut. Native American chestnut is almost impossible to find today. I had one tree that lost it’s top - but was eighteen inches on the base (that is a very large native tree; even though they once got up to five foot in diameter).

is it still alive now? i know they're supposed to keep coming back from the roots over and over again even after the chestnut blight kills them off. i sure would loved to have seen some of those giant chestnuts before they were all killed off or chopped down
very near where i work they have planted a bunch of chestnut hybrids that are 99%+ American chestnut plus a tiny percent chinese chestnut, hopefully retaining just the part that make the chinese types resistant to chestnut canker. i hope they make it and this tree can make a comeback.

Don't worry - I'll get the hang of multi-quote one of these days (just a little slow)!

aw, you're doing fine.

what you can do, rather than put quotation marks around what i wrote, is put quote boxes on each end:

[quote] at the beginning, and [/quote) at the end <-- except replace that last ) with a ] (if i were to write it correctly, the software on this forum would make everything between the quote boxes come up as an actual quote, and the quote boxes would disappear, which would make this even harder to follow than it probably already is

[fisheye]

[wow, it's that heavy? you obviously have a lot of experience with cutting firewood. my main experience come in at the point where the tree is down and needs to be cut, split, hauled and covered.]

I just found this one link: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/weigt-wood-d_821.html
It shows the weight of different woods both green and air dried. Actually I was off on my recollection of green oak - they list green red oak as 4886 pounds and white oak would even be heavier.

[is it still alive now? i know they're supposed to keep coming back from the roots over and over again even after the chestnut blight kills them off. i sure would loved to have seen some of those giant chestnuts before they were all killed off or chopped down
very near where i work they have planted a bunch of chestnut hybrids that are 99%+ American chestnut plus a tiny percent chinese chestnut, hopefully retaining just the part that make the chinese types resistant to chestnut canker. i hope they make it and this tree can make a comeback.]

The American Chestnut is still currently alive - but loosing ground fast. I had removed the dead top - about fifteen feet off the ground. It continues to die from the top down. You mentioned the chestnut hybrids - I communicated with Sara Fitzsimmions in charge of the American Chestnut tree breeding program at Penn State. I even sent her leaf samples to verify that our chestnut tree was a native American (which she did). For a while she was interested in using our tree - but it started dying. The top, that I had sawed into lumber, had worms - it gave the lumber plenty of character.