2 big ol cottowoods

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I have one waiting for me, it is about 6' dbh I would guess at this point, buckets it is a big one, I just have not tackled it yet, as it is not going anywhere. I have enough wood for SEVERAL years already stacked. The worst part about the next big one is that it had a tree house in it, can you say nails.... I will take a metal detector to it and mark what I can with paint and hope for the best. I have a bunch of used up chains that I will cut the first 15' of the stump with. I could not begin to guess how much wood in this thing..... a bunch. Then a bit more. Kinda sad to take down the giants, but it is about time for it, I believe that it will be dead in the next 5 years or so, just looking at it. It likely has cottonwood borers in it.
 
STLfirewood said:
Here is a picture of a cottonwood that I took down. Very big tree for me. 7ft across.

Scott
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cant put my finger on it but something ain't rite about that stump.:hmm3grin2orange: biggest tree i cut was 67'' and i know where there is an old giant lying down. what is the crown spread? if it is the distance from one sind of the tree to the other on the top theres a few around here close but not quite.
 
I do tree removal also. That was in a park for a city close to St. Louis. They ground it in a tub grinder. I was only hauling 5 pieces in a dump trailer at a time. Thank god for a skid steer and a grapple to load them. The tree was around 130ft tall. We set bull ropes 75ft up and pull it. It had a bit of a back lean.

Scott
 
StihltheOne said:
I dropped 2, 36 inch dbh cottonwoods Sun. Man it was like up town. The big giants are dead, dry, white and were standing tall. They both came down just perfectly, was quite proud of myself. It was one of those days, good one!! My 36 inch bar just peeked through so I was able to get it all from one side. I set them down so gentle that it was almost like I knew what I was doing, I even got a atta boy from my wife. I cut over 4 cords out of them, man I was one tired dog at the end of the day. I know that most of you will turn up your nose at cottonwood, but in these parts it is a real treat. I have somein the stoves right now, man it makes a ton of heat. These two were # 2 and 3 of the four that have to go. Only one more and were finished. I believe that we are at about 8 cords so far with one tree left. SCORE!
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:clap: Kick### Stihltheone there is nothing like the sound of a big dead cotton wood hitting the ground, and they are heavy if you drop a dead cottonwood where you want it your doing good! As for the naysayers about burning cotton wood ! Whatever :confused:
 
mowoodchopper said:
:clap: Kick### Stihltheone there is nothing like the sound of a big dead cotton wood hitting the ground, and they are heavy if you drop a dead cottonwood where you want it your doing good! As for the naysayers about burning cotton wood ! Whatever :confused:
Click to expand...

I agree, my motto is "burn is burn".

Kyle
 
I really like the cottonwood, I can fill up the blaze king and it will make really good heat for 8-10 hours. That is darn good for free eh?
 
Maybe there are more species of Cottonwood that don't suck? Cause the stuff we have here in Kalifornia is worthless. I mean it, WORTHLESS. I put a couple seasoned pieces on a camp fire we made a month ago at night out in the dez and the next morning that junk was still sitting there smoldering, smelling like garbage. Maybe a real arborist can tell us the difference in species....? Poplar is the same if not worse...Chinese elm too....maybe we are talking about different stuff?
 
Henry G. said:
Maybe there are more species of Cottonwood that don't suck? Cause the stuff we have here in Kalifornia is worthless. I mean it, WORTHLESS. I put a couple seasoned pieces on a camp fire we made a month ago at night out in the dez and the next morning that junk was still sitting there smoldering, smelling like garbage. Maybe a real arborist can tell us the difference in species....? Poplar is the same if not worse...Chinese elm too....maybe we are talking about different stuff?
Click to expand...

I am not sure if there are different species my self, but am a bit puzzled, I have never seen anything except for a pile of used firewood in the am. One thing about cottonwood is the amount of water that it will hold, maybe it was not as dry as you thought, it will soak up rain water really bad too, man that has me puzzled.:cheers:
 
well there are different species i just dont know the names. around here we have 2. one has real THICH bark on it and usually the stump doesnt get over 40' tall. the other is taller but has a very thin bark on it almost like skin. i know my grandpa likes the thin skin stuff he says burns better but if he wants night wood we usually have to go out and find the thick barked stuff for the knots. i know that down here in the desert where a cord of wood can season in as little as 3 months(if its warm) then cottonwood can be some hellacious wood. i know that people dont like it compared to other hardwoods but i compared it to eucalypus and it didnt perform any better just left a few more coals in the stove.
 
Injun
Around here all we have are the "river" or native cottoneood and the new cottonless variety. The cottonless do not seem to be as dense, compared to the old growth monsters, I have burned plenty of both, you are right about the knotty stuff, GOOOOODDD stuff, not if you have to split it though, that is where the blaze king and 660 come in handy, just rip it to a good size that will fit. It is almost like I planned it that way, eh?
 
StihltheOne said:
Injun
Around here all we have are the "river" or native cottoneood and the new cottonless variety. The cottonless do not seem to be as dense, compared to the old growth monsters, I have burned plenty of both, you are right about the knotty stuff, GOOOOODDD stuff, not if you have to split it though, that is where the blaze king and 660 come in handy, just rip it to a good size that will fit. It is almost like I planned it that way, eh?
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lol yep those hardwood burners can have their oak lol jk but yeah he likes to get out his 024 and go out and cut up his ''night wood''.i wish we had cottonless there wouldnt be so many fire calls.but oh well keeps me busy.
 
Lots o people do not like the stuff, good for me. Most people do not have the right stove to burn it and the right saw to cut the big stuff. I get more wood because I am the guy "that has that big ol saw". I like watching the look on peoples faces when I show up to cut up the big tree that fell in the storm. A couple hours with one cutting and one loading and we are out of there, they just look at me like "maybe I should have charged him for all that wood, I thought that it would have taken a lot longer than that". I just smile and say thanks. I have one more big dead standing that I will drop on Friday. Seems like a good way to work off thanksgiving dinner eh? It should have 2.5 cords in it. Really cool wood, no bark, white and easy on chains!! We weighed one load that we took out and it weighed 8600 lbs. The last load was much larger, mind you, this stuff is bone dry. Man, I am not sure what to do with this find, I have enough wood for at least 2 years already, but this stuff is really nice and could not bring myself to sell it. I wood sell some of the other, but it is already in back of my shop, and hard to get back out of there. Of well, I guess that I will just have to just look at it for a while.
 
StihltheOne said:
Lots o people do not like the stuff, good for me. Most people do not have the right stove to burn it and the right saw to cut the big stuff. I get more wood because I am the guy "that has that big ol saw". I like watching the look on peoples faces when I show up to cut up the big tree that fell in the storm. A couple hours with one cutting and one loading and we are out of there, they just look at me like "maybe I should have charged him for all that wood, I thought that it would have taken a lot longer than that". I just smile and say thanks. I have one more big dead standing that I will drop on Friday. Seems like a good way to work off thanksgiving dinner eh? It should have 2.5 cords in it. Really cool wood, no bark, white and easy on chains!! We weighed one load that we took out and it weighed 8600 lbs. The last load was much larger, mind you, this stuff is bone dry. Man, I am not sure what to do with this find, I have enough wood for at least 2 years already, but this stuff is really nice and could not bring myself to sell it. I wood sell some of the other, but it is already in back of my shop, and hard to get back out of there. Of well, I guess that I will just have to just look at it for a while.
Click to expand...

lol thats awesome. luckily where i get my wood i can knock a big tree down and luckily no one around here has a big saw like mine so its safe. i just take the small dead stuff off the top and when i need a lot of wood just go cut up the trunk.:greenchainsaw: glad to hear other people out there like cottonwood.
 
Out where these big trees are, it is what we call little Beruit, kinda hillbilly heaven, trailer house, junk cars, etc. Lots of burners around there as well as many wood "rats". I know that if I left so much as a twig it would be gone by the time I got back. The tree is safe as long as it is standing, but it is one of those, cut, load and run deals.:cheers:
 
StihltheOne said:
Out where these big trees are, it is what we call little Beruit, kinda hillbilly heaven, trailer house, junk cars, etc. Lots of burners around there as well as many wood "rats". I know that if I left so much as a twig it would be gone by the time I got back. The tree is safe as long as it is standing, but it is one of those, cut, load and run deals.:cheers:
Click to expand...

yeah sucks sometimes but i know some peoole today beat me to a big tree but luckily there littl husky couldnt cut the real big stuff. i am getting up early in the morn to get it.:greenchainsaw:
 
I guess in our area we burn what we have!
If we had oak/hickory ect. (we would pass on the cottonwood also.)
At least we get to see the SUN in the winter and have 65 degree days at the end of November!,(unlike staying inside your house like a cave dweller in the winter months).
A lot of Russian Olive there in WY/CO also, none smell all the good when burning ,but i am inside usually when i have a fire going!
Cottonwood (bottoms)have torn the I beam on my splitter,i rip them anymore.(toss them in the fireplace,split the upper wood for the wood stove.)
A lot of folks from here kind of don't know our semi desert climate it's hard to find a tree to begin with! and cottonwood will out burn sagebrush.
It shure beats seeing the propane guy that has $$ signs for eyeballs.
Mark
 

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