This big, long dead, Red Oak that had fallen over in a storm, but snagged firmly in another Oak finally fell earlier this week. Kind of a gift from Mother Nature:
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Unfortunately, it blocked one of my main retrieve trails. Fortunately, the weather leading into this Memorial Day weekend has been unseasonably perfect. Mid 40's in the morning, high 50's in the afternoons.
So, I got out my Dolmar 510 with an 18" bar, perfect length for this old log and bucked it. Cutting about 80% of the way through from the top, then making a complete cut where the log bridges my rock hill top, rolling it over and finishing the cuts.
Warning - Long 4 minute video of a guy cutting a log. But, it demonstrates my efforts to keep the tip out of the rocky ground and cut another day:
This morning, I am splitting. I thought I was finished cutting firewood for this season. But you take what you get. This tree was broken off about 8' up from the base, and hanging here for several years. Drawing no moisture from the ground. It showed about 22% MM, and now that it's split, should be good for late winter burning next year.
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As always, my Security Officer has my back.
That's my favorite wood. dead standing oak. My question is, do you ever take of that jacket?
Sounds like ring shake, I don't know what causes it. Nothing bad to say about red oak except I wish there were not so many dead onesI thought this stuff would split easy, it looked straight grained on the outside and it pretty well is. But a lot of the pieces have a distinct core in the middle which separates from the sapwood and screws up the splits. I actually knocked a perfect looking branch out of one round, it's like a tree growing inside a tree. I have seen this with other red oaks, but it's very pronounced with this one. It's also very stringy and could use more drying before it's split, but I'm impatient with more loads to come. I will get more pics when I go out to split again.
I actually like how it smells but it does dry very, very slow.
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