That butt log would be worth a small fortune if you can sell it to the right mill.
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It’s still strange to me that that is a large tree to some folks, but here in the Pacific northwest that’s nothing really. Completely common to see five foot on the stump oaks less then ten miles from me. Big leaf maples iv fell many a 4 footer, cottonwoods regularly 2-6 foot, same with cedars and Doug fir. Most the trees here are second or third growth, I know of a few old growth towering kings of the forest. I know of one douglas fir that is well over 10 foot on the stump. I watch a lot of logging YouTube videos and im on a few arborist forums and it’s strange to me in most of the usa a “big” chainsaw bar is 28". My first saw I ever had for falling was a hot rodded husky 288xp with a 36" bar that more then a few times wasn’t enough for a big swell fluted cedar. My Stihl 044 mag lives with a 32" on it and depending on the tree job I pack a 36" with me. We were once considered the lumber capital of the usa and this area is RICH with logging culture. Some amazing museums with the oldest tools, one in particular in Hoquiam Washington has about everything you could imagine from old drag line saws, trains, steam donkeys, massive circular saw blades over 12’ in diameter, and a full blown 3d display of a logging town. Iv spent many hours there memorized by the past that made this state what it is, and the hardness of the men who built it with Puget double bit falling axes, misery whips, steam power and railroad
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A few pictures from the museum, sure wish I had my old phone and the hundreds of pictures I took while I was there
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Have to keep in mind at least in my area, it’s been settled for 300 years and this region was known for two things for the longest time, Timber and Iron. All the good giant old growth is long gone. Fun fact, my mom’s side of the family got a land grant to this area by King George II just to cut timber. Moved from Ireland to Appalachia in the early 1700s.
I’ll always marvel at the old growth out west.
Measured 36 inches at the stump. They chopped it up into what looks like 15 foot long sections. Would be nice to find a buyer to recoup on the cost of cutting it down.
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A lot of the old growth oak now goes to Japan where it is put on massive lathes and pealed like a roll of paper. Then used to face hardwood plywood. They pay insane amounts of money for the clear butt logs as they are knot free.
One of the logger here in NH was collecting them back a decade or so ago to ship over there the profit was crazy.
Here 2 foot oak is big pines will be upward of 4 feet on the butt and silver maples might have been left alone to get to about 3 feet but they tend to die back when they get that big.
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Only problem is I wouldn’t know the first place to look for a buyer.
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2 foot is a big tree here as well. I have a couple of ash and a few beech that may go over three feet but that’s it. The Ash of course are dead but still standing. It’s OK though. I can barely handle the sizes I have.
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I need to get some ash to my mill just to have the lumber before it is all gone. The bores are just starting to get in the area but I haven’t see them killing mine yet. I don’t know what I would do with ash but I want to just have some to say I have some I processed off my farm.
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I bet if you asked on the forestry website they can point you to a buyer. You might be surprised what someone will pay even if you are paid by a middle man.
A friend of mine owned some massive cherry trees about 4 good butt logs probably 2 to 3 feet at the butt. He lived there for a decade then just sold the lot last year never even bothered to get a forester to give him a quote and I know an honest one here who would have gotten him probably half what he sold the house for just for the stand of cherry. Crazy money he left standing near the end of it’s life and probably will just die in place. A couple did and he cut the tops that where easy to get to for fire wood.
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A builder I used to work for had a process, he would only remove the trees needed for location of the house a small yard and septic. He liked seeing the trees at his house personally so left them alone even having lived many years as a logger and truck driver. He got out of logging and went into dirt work when the last big timber boom died and learned a hard lesson a few years ago he sold a new house to a young couple (1800sq ft rambler on 15 acres) for 275,000$. As soon as papers were signed they had a timber company come in and assess the assets of trees on the land and had 3 timber buyers on site and they got into a bidding war on the standing timber. Out of pocket exspense to the new home owner ended up being zero and he pocketed I think 52,000$. Nice payment on the house loan. Second growth straight grain export Doug fir and cedar, beautiful wood. Now that builder factors tree assets into the sale price of the home and if in 30 days the house doesn’t sell he logs it for the export logs only and pockets the money,then lowers the price on the house. Seems to work out well for him that way
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We used to have tree farm status but when we logged the pine to pay for Grandma’s funeral we didn’t renew it. A good bit of old hardwoods we never touch, property is almost entirely woods out of the 40 acres only 8 or 10 acres is a hay field.
I keep meaning to get mom to renew the tree farm status to get a tax relief but she doesn’t want to bother.
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Ash is a nice wood Dan. Straight grain and easy to work. Not a lot of character in the grain. We had so much of it die that it’s just being used like you would soft wood now. Surprised the bug hasn’t really reached you yet. Hit my woods in 2012. Hardly ever saw one of the little green bastards but just about every ash in this area, at least, is dead with little swirly trails in the wood under the bark. Sad, Sad, Sad. Same thing happened with all our Red Elm back in the late sixties. Mostly just sugar maple left now on my property.
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I was thinking about Wallace’s list of durable engines. All my engine building experience is with small and big block chevys. I have never even torn down any other engine. He mentioned the Chrysler slant six. I had forgotten all about it. When I first met my wife she had a mid-seventies Plymouth Volare. 43000 miles and she had never changed the oil. Just sort of glopped out of the drain plug. I pulled the rocker covers off and they were filled with sludge. No idea how oil was getting to the top end. But the thing still ran. Flushed it out and cleaned it as much as possible and she drove it for another year. Can’t get much more durable than that. Anyway I have been looking at videos of slant sixes used in drag cars. Who Knew? There are a lot of them. Watch this video. I put a lot of money into drag racing when I was a sprout. Never ran an 11.08 ET. Blows my mind.
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The inline engine has some advantages through being more naturally balanced then a v,y, or boxer engine. Less harmonic effects to some degree for smoother performance. The pinnacle of inline engineering for gasoline power in my opinion was the Toyota 2jz. Has been around many years and still setting records of all kinds all the time. Easily tunable with standalone systems growing more popular everyday with full laptop control for user friendly tuneing for do-what-i-tell-you-to-do and nothing else. One of the most popularly swapped engines of all time along with the sbc, Chevy LS, Wankel rotary and Cummins 6bt
https://youtu.be/914hzQeTnw0
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Me too. They where about 80 miles south of here in 2012 at my old property but for some reason my ash seems to be ok here. I kind of wonder if it is too far between this patch by the river and any other ash. It is kind of a micro climate for them.
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Oh man that looks like one of the good brute cans too!
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Thats a lot of wasted heat right there!
My bees would love all of that clover
Modern art?
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Well I hope everyone is home safe from the Argos Wood Gas Event. What fun we had this year. Mike and I are in Twin Falls Idaho to night and the truck may be ready at 10:00 am. tomorrow. By the time we return the car rental at the airport and fuel up the truck, it will put us out of range to drive to East Wenatchee with out driving through the night. So we will stop at La Grande OR. for the night. The next day we will get up early and drive the four hours to East Wenatchee. This will give Michael time to drive home. Our 10 day trip to Argos and back has turned into 13 day trip this year so far. But it was still worthwhile seeing you all. We will be checking in as we go.
Bob
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