Dropped a 60" cottonwood today

[StihltheOne]

Holy buckets these things get big!! I am a going to sleep tonight.... We cut, ripped, and loaded about 6+ cords of soaking wet wood from this giant today alone prawly 9+ to go. What a monster we can have all of these that we want, I think I counted 22 giants, many would dwarf this one!! I know its knot the best wood, but its free, and remember... it is after all a hardlywood according to the folks that know.

 

[ericjeeper]

Cool score

It is really heavy now. But by the this time next year it will be light as a feather. LOL

 

[HUSKYMAN]

Isnt it cool burying a big bar in that wood and watching the water just pour out with the saw chips?

Eric is right, its way heavier now. However dry cottonwood is pretty tough to split unless its frozen. Pick your poison

 

[Wood Junkie]

You can cut up as many as you want? That's alot of wood! Are they dying or dead? Just curious, I was listening to NPR radio this week and a couple in Wyoming had around 100 of their large cotton wood trees poisoned by the companies mining out methane in that area. I guess it's a common thing going on out there, any connection?

 

[habanero]

Dad and I worked up a ~4 ft diameter cottonwood that had blown down in a storm back when I was in high school. It had blown down and was blocked up in August I believe, and we didn't get around to splitting it until probably about the next July. Even then, there was still water running out the end of the log when we were splitting them. Not fun to split, either!

 

[StihltheOne]

These trees are still alive, mostly. I know the history of them, in 1907 the building, now a labor house, was a school bldg. The teacher had all of the students walk to the river and dip up a small tree and plant it around the new school. Pretty cool story that goes along with it. Any how the man that farms this his family had been there since... well a long time! He is about 85 or so, really nice man. The trees are near, and falling onto the old school and on his new house 2 blew over last year and this one was about to, he is worried about them falling down on his world, lots of widow makers haning up there. WE guess that there is 200 plus cords in them easy. No connection to any mining, oil activity. I am thinking 880 for this project as I may need 48" plus of bar, some of the trees go 7' or more ish...What an honor to help this man, I respect the story and trees, but as he says, it is time for new ones to have thier time.

 

[tomtrees58]

we have a lot on LI NY we put wood in dumper tom trees

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Those stumps will sucker up and start new trees.

That stuff will heat you well, since you'll have too haul a lot more in to burn. But then the only "true" hardwoods you have out there are scrub oak

I think the beest part is helping the old man out with his problem. That is best warmth it will give you

 

[StihltheOne]

I hope that I can visit with the old man a while during this project, I suspect that this will take me longer that he will be around. I figure that if I work on it as I can, I may be years playing around with these giants. I will have to measure some of the really big ones, We are a guessing 240"+ circumfrence. I don't know if my 660 will be enough for all of this, wadda you guys think, will it pull a 40+ bar for hours at a time?

 

[Wood Junkie]

That's a cool story, sounds like you'll be busy for a while! I love hearing stories from old people. My great grandma live to be around 105,she still had all her mental capabilities. I could listen to her stories for hours.

 

[eguinn]

Cottonwoods

Those damn things can get big! We had one in our front yard by our house in Granite Falls, Wa some years back. I was glad to get that thing on the ground, as we where cutting you could see sparks coming off the chain from all the sand and crap it had collected in the bark from all the years growing. This tree was 75 or 80 ft tall and 3 to 4 ft thru on the stump, about 50 ft up was a major fork and guess what, it was almost completely rotted at that fork, in fact it split right at that fork when the tree hit the ground. When this stuff dries it is just like paper, when you burn it , the wood burns a little slower than paper but not much. I put an ad in the paper, Free Firewood You Haul, that stuff was gone in 3 days. One good thing is it sounds like you have a lot of it to burn, if I had as much of it to cut as you do I would I would keep a couple of spare chains around as mine got dull quik from all the crap in the bark. Good Luck, Ed

 

[olyman]

wellllll, tho many have said its junk, ive burnt many a cottonwood. and unless its rotten, it burns much better than soft maple--which i burn a lot of in the start of the season. and the wood i split--wasnt light by any stretch of the imagination when it was dry-------my 2 cents

 

[blizzard]

Pics?

Got some pictures of these trees? I'd like to see them.

 

[StihltheOne]

I will hafta see if I can figre out how to do the picture thing, I would love to share fotos of the giants!!

 

[Snowchief]

yeah, cottonwood has a bad rap but I've had nothing but good luck with it. I cleaned a few storm casualties off my friend's land a year ago and the stuff seasons fast and heats great. He let me stack it there for a few months so it wasn't like hauling a truckload of lead.

Only strange thing was how smelly it was just sittin in the racks. My downwind neighbors even commented ("fragrant" is what they called it) but they never said a word about the loads of cedar and tamarack I've had through here.

Good luck with those things, post up some pictures.

 

[StihltheOne]

we started the splitting today, looks like about 3 cords so far, Holy buckets, it is a little overwhelming when I look at the project as a whole. Yer right, it is about like lead right now. I have some from a 48"er that I dropped last spring, it is dry and ready, I bet that it weighs 25% of what it did wet. My poor ol chevy was a shaking under the load!! Oh are those front tires supposed to be touching???

 

[SPED]

we started the splitting today, looks like about 3 cords so far, Holy buckets, it is a little overwhelming when I look at the project as a whole. Yer right, it is about like lead right now. I have some from a 48"er that I dropped last spring, it is dry and ready, I bet that it weighs 25% of what it did wet. My poor ol chevy was a shaking under the load!! Oh are those front tires supposed to be touching???

If the front tires are touching you aren't loaded yet.. don't even need power steering with a good load of wood in the bed

 

[farmer]

I had a big cottonwood milled. If you have a building project in mind and a portable sawmill available its something to think about. Make them a full 2x4 2x8 etc and it is as good or better than the crap in the lumberyard.

 

[StihltheOne]

Kind of a funny story about front tires. I had a load on the ol chev last year, I mean a real load! Keep in mind that this is a half ton, when I came up onto the road, it was a bit of an incline, the front end did come up offa da ground, so I guess that is a full load eh?

 

[SPED]

Kind of a funny story about front tires. I had a load on the ol chev last year, I mean a real load! Keep in mind that this is a half ton, when I came up onto the road, it was a bit of an incline, the front end did come up offa da ground, so I guess that is a full load eh?

Oh man scary feeling isn't it? We did that in my dads 3/4 ton dodge once, loaded it full of gravel, the pit had a shovel on all you want for 10 bucks deal, and man did we get our moneys worth. Had to take it easy starting off on inclines. Raised the front tires only an inch or so on a big incline starting off a little too fast, but man that is a baaaad feeling. Plus side, you could steer with your pinky