Nice neighbor!

JayinNY

Well-known Member

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My next door neighbor who just bought the house in August, but lived across the street from me with his buddy let me cut down a dead elm today maybe 22" diameter, I think my Stihl ms 460 had it on the ground in less than 30 seconds, I love that saw!! I like cutting wood in the spring or winter, I can't make firewood when it's 90 * out. You can see the wood splitter on the back of the tractor, I cut the tree down split it and put in the basement, So this should last me about a week and a half, he has 2 more dead ash trees I have to get, I burned threw all the wood I had, it's been such a crazy fall and winter! My neighbor heats with wood pellets, he said he burned threw 5 tons and he's now out of pellets!
How's is you wood holding out, or what ever you heat with?
Ps pics will not be right for the compuker users!
 
My dad has been cutting trees so an irrigation pivot can make a full circle. They just dig the trees with the excavator and he cuts the logs and then hauled home on the semi trailer.

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Using a ms 461 and ms441 magnum
 

I gave a standing sick tree to my neighbor since I don't heat with wood, I just wanted it gone. He and his son had it down and just finishing putting the tops on my burn pile when I got home from somewhere. It was around 20 inches, and judging by the marks left on the stump it probably took them over thirty minutes to get it down.
 
Man, would an insurance company go berserk over all of that wood piled in contact with a wood burning stove!
 
My next door neighbor who just bought the house in August, but lived across the street from me with his buddy let me cut down a dead elm today maybe 22" diameter, I think my Stihl ms 460 had it on the ground in less than 30 seconds,

I see that elm had been dead for awhile and the bark had begun to fall off.
My Dad always told me that was the only way elm would be good for firewood and I have proved him right many times over the years.

If you take those two small diameter pieces in front of the stove and strike them together you will get a nice "ring".

I cut one this winter that had been dead for a couple of years.
It was nicely seasoned except for the first log which still had moisture. That piece was real stringy and made the splitter "grunt".
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Yes it was dead for a few years, that Dutch elm
really killed a lot of elms around here, lots of dead
ash too. The elms burn the best after being dead for
awhile, and they do make nice ring when you hit
then together!
 
Always a good score, dead elm that is, until the trunk is too punked out. Seems the tops will not punk so much or at all, but if dead 3 years, trunk wood changes, easy to cut and split, but having burned both, and there was and still is a lot of it here, I prefer the non punked elm. Sure it is hard to split because of the grain, but there are ways around it. Buck/block it up and stack if you can, let it dry out, split from the stacks and when you line up the wedge, align it with the most significant check/crack, every block will have one. If you don't you fight more of the grain and if you try to split it down small, it will make a stringy mess of some blocks. Another thing is to take planks off the outside, then see what is left, the centers are the worst, so I leave those for overnight logs. This is not processor friendly wood and you will never make fast time with it. Keep a sharp hatchet within reach when splitting to cut the strings.

The benefit is it burns real hot and reminds me of Oak, just burns quicker and the coals might be different. I have a mixture of punk and non punk, have loaded my stove to the top at 9PM, and at 630 AM I have a nice coal bed. Take some of the elm tops I use for kindling, it will roar to life in no time and this wood will turn my flue pipe orange in no time if you don't damper it and reduce the air flow to the fire box. I take all of these trees, very little left behind. The tops and twig ends can get wet but dry very quickly and will always start a fire easily.

I can tell yours is punked but not soft and spungy when wet. I find some of it once too far gone is not worth processing, unless you get it when dry and can keep it covered. If dry it burns well and what the heck, it all burns anyways LOL ! I'm not stingy when it comes to wood cut by my saw, it will get burned in the stove if I cut it.

I never got ahead of it last year, had maybe 3 cord processed, so I used it when it made sense, most has been used, but not all, I had piles in several places, so I gathered up those logs and limbwood. I hauled some nice piles up to the house on my 4630 with the 3 pt forks, cut that up and loaded into my carts, then covered. That bought me some time to get to where we are now. I am good for the rest of the season.

I have been cutting more recently dead elm trees and heading them up this winter, even when bitter cold out, I was ok being dressed properly, so I was able to get close to 5 cord in logs stacked so far and will continue. My 555C backhoe has a thumb, so when I drop a big tree, I use it to stack the logs, then I just pick up the stacks with the forks to get them to where I will process. I took a big elm down along one of the property lines this January, got it before it punked, all good wood. I've got some nice maple blow down up on the ridge and I may have lost a bunch of Ash, some nice size, will see what that looks like. Maybe some saw logs, but good firewood just the same. I enjoy the work, like talking about it, and also enjoy what I have to get the work done. I don't find it cumbersome yet, what is, is the lack of time I have because of my job, so I do what I can seeing I pay the darned taxes, need to get what I can out of it.
 
Stihl makes a great saw,I know Husqavarnas are great saws but a good Stihl is alright too. Dad bought an 028 many years ago then traded it in on an 034 which we still have. We bought a refurbished 440 last winter with an 18? bar and I love it.
 
I have much the same problem as you but i was behind before the heating season started with all the rain last fall. I think i have enough to make it through the season now. Been snatching up dead elm and ash this season.

I also have a 461 and love that saw. Sure makes quick work of chunking up logs probably twice as fast as my little 260 that does not see much use anymore.
 
(Quote: I prefer the non punked elm. The tops and twig ends can get wet but dry very quickly and will always start a fire easily. Quote)

You are exactly right!
Any of my wood that is the least bit "punky" I give to my neighbor to burn in his outdoor boiler.
I ran a little short of firewood this year but I always know where there is some dead Ironwood (hophornbean).
IMHO, it is the best firewood available where I live, although the NYS conservation Dept. says Hickory is a tad better.
I cut two dead ironwoods today, one about 8" and another about 6".....it rarely gets to be more than 8" or 10".
Dead ironwood can stand for 5 or more years without any deterioration whatsoever and after one year is absolutely totally seasoned as it stands.....ready to burn as soon as it is cut.
I've been retired for years and I'm pushin' 78 but I still cut at least 3 full cords of firewood a year. Some people pay money to a gym to keep in shape. LOL
 
Yes ironwood is very good firewood, hickory and
apple are very high btu, but I think white oak is one
of the highest, not a lot of them around here either.
we have very few ironwood around here, your lucky
to have them that big, biggest one I cut down was
maybe 6-7" that was the only one Iv ever seen that
big.
We cut trees on our friends golf course 4 years ago,
locust and oak mostly, we must have got 50 cords
of logs between my brother and I, we sold our friend
8 cords and gave out dad 4 rack truck loads, Iv got
about 3.5 cords of logs left, it was just so wet last
fall I couldent get it cut and split, this year I'm gonna
just by a few cords of cut and split wood,$180 a
cord cut split delivered, free delivery on 2 cords. All
I'll have to do then is stack it!
 
It's funny with elm, they do get soft or punky, but the limbs always are rock hard, I like dead ash better, but I have to make do with what's available! This winter sure had been strange!
 
Looks are deceiving, nothing is touching the stove except that one piece touching safety apron.
 
I think the 461 replaced the 460, I bought mine in 2005 to replace a jonsreds 801 dad had, I thought about getting the 660 but I think that would be more saw than I would need.
Opened up the muffler on the 460 and she rips.
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Yes on both counts, I do about the same, closest available, or any good hardwood blow down or dead that will go to waste. I've cut a lot of dead elm, 30-40 yr trees that I remember before they were even here. Glad to know I have next years started and will have it all done early. It is a nice feeling to know you have what you'll need put up well ahead of winter. I don't mind working in the cold, but it is a little more enjoyable say 40's to 50's, high heat and humidity is not a good time to deal with it, heat is one thing, add the humidity, not much fun, need lots of water !
 

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