38120- I have never run into saws getting gummed up from green ash. Green/wet has always cut faster for me with no issues. Dead stuff tends to dull the chains faster but NOTHING like dead osage will do.
Vibes- They will find those little ones too after all the bigger stuff is gone. They started on the bigger ones here first. Took longer for them to completely die off than the 10 inch and unders. I had a spot where there was a bunch of 1 inch and unders growing and they looked fine a year ago. Now they are mostly dead and shed leaves all through the summer. Toast.
Butch- I'm in your boat. I'm loaded up but wanted to get all the stuff I could off the ground first. Standing dead is in "air" storage till I have space. I refuse to stack outside in the weather and don't like tarps. 100 cord under roof now.
Had some other projects that got priority but still plugging along when I can.
Here is our old IH backhoe. Kinda smaller but it gets the job done. It's a diesel as well so doesn't use much fuel. It's sadistically fun to root out these honeysuckle and throw them to the side.
Worked my way down through this section. There are a few live trees in here so I worked around them. saving them if at all possible. Maple, walnut, Mulberry, hackberry and black locust.
The honeysuckle were larger here and had a higher canopy. Made less digging as there were fewer smaller ones.
Most of them averaged 5 - 8 inches in diameter. Here is a clump that had 12 inches solid at the wide point.
Wood adds up quick with these and they are long, slinky and straight. I burn this stuff in my shop stove once dried out. Goes quick but makes quick heat and it's better than burning it in a pile, chipping or piling up an mess. Too big for any brush hog I have to chew up.
This gives you an idea of the canopy. Put it along side the truck to give it some scale. Average is 16 - 20 ft and some get a lot bigger. COMPLETEY shades the ground out and nothing can grow there. Just keeps going up to get light, building on itself. I had just a few 3-5 inch trees that somehow made it through. They are so top heavy that now they have leaned over without the honeysuckle holding them up like a support system.