Had a pleasant surprise today

Hello all,

Had a nice suprise today out of a small firewood/lightning strike tree removal.

I usually don't cut poplar for firewood, but this was kind of a favor for an elderly couple.
Besides once its peeled and stacked, it will dry and work fine.

Anyways I salvaged one log for the sawmill, and what a beautiful suprise.

14ft long and 16" around in the center works out to roughly 800lbs of log to muscle around. But I'm glad I did.

Thought I share.

Thanks and have a good one.

a reply to: Notoneofyou

Nice! Any idea what you plan on doing with it? I've got some really nice oak and cherry logs like you described, one is over 24" diameter at it's smallest and is a beast to move around with a smaller tractor (with loader/bucket on the front). They've been sitting waiting for some brainstorm to happen.

Out of curiosity why do you not use poplar for firewood? Is it the low BTU value? I've found it is pretty darn easy to split and drys pretty quick as well. I might take poplar over pin oak (aka Spanish Swamp Oak) if I had to split by hand. IDK if you've ever had to wrestle with splitting pin oak but it's like someone took 12-16" steel landscaping spikes and drove like 10-20 in every linear foot - but instead it's super dense, dark brown/black branch "eyes" growing out from the trunk - what a nightmare. You might need 2x the poplar for the same heat, but it takes 4-8x as long to split by hand (even log splitters hate it). Maybe that's why it's never listed in firewood BTU charts - only an idiot or desperate person would use it!

In case you are curious here's a good BTU list of popular woods:

chimneysweeponline.com...

Let us know if you figure out what you might do with that log. Do you have access to a mill or do you do any lathe work?

This is really neat to see! Thanks for sharing! I love wood. (I respect wood. Do you respect wood? Bonus for anyone who knows that reference)

Poplar makes great sauna bench seats. Hard to get a sliver from poplar.

It is pretty wood too. It does burn all right, doesn't produce coals so you have to keep adding it regularly or you can't keep it going, but alternating it with maple or oak or putting both in can make sure there are coals in the grates to start the next log.

If you have downed poplar, it will grow oyster mushrooms if they are in your area. Those are tasty mushrooms when fried in some butter. Always know your mushrooms when picking wild ones.

One of these days I have to set up my chainsaw sawmill so I can make boards out of trees when they fall.

Its beautiful wood. Ive made cabinets with it before.

I have a 12 foot long 16 plus inch diameter log of ash in my drive way right now. I wish I could mill it

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

Thanks!

So far it looks like it's going to become a rifle cabinet. I've got plans i drew 20 years ago, feels about time to use them now that my son is at the age where he's starting to work with me. Should be a good project for him and i.

As for the poplar firewood, it's decent stuff and like you said it splits easy and dries fast. However, my firewood harvesting is standing or down dead wood. Most of time that poplar sits on the ground it rots quickly here. Intend to cut alot of ash, red oak, maple.

I have a large tamarack I have to climb and disassemble due to it being close to a home. That is some great firewood, burns hot and long.
I'll also end up with 3-4 large logs for the sawmill i have. Just enough lumber to finish my sons workshop/garage/man-cave.

As for that cherry wood you've got, i would slab it out into 3-4" thick slabs and make table tops or a beautiful bar.

Also save some for rifle/shotgun stocks. At 24" around, you should have a gorgeous piece of heart wood for that.

The oak i would probably slab into 6" thick fireplace mantles.

As for the mill, i bought a hud-son Sawyer with 16ft of track. It's a 7hp Honda clone engine, runs great. Max width is supposedly 21" logs, but ive managed 24" with some careful hand trimming . It's not bad for the 3-4k ive got into it.
Sadly, i dont have a lathe just yet. Im trying to get the wife to let me buy a Bridgeport knee-mill and a lathe, but no luck yet.

It's too bad I sold my Oshkosh, is buy those logs and come pick em up.

We can't get stuff like that up here, and definitely no oaks left that big, all the big stuff got harvested 50 years ago around here.

If your ever up this way, let me know. If love to get ahold of some wood like that.

originally posted by: rickymouse
Poplar makes great sauna bench seats. Hard to get a sliver from poplar.

It is pretty wood too. It does burn all right, doesn't produce coals so you have to keep adding it regularly or you can't keep it going, but alternating it with maple or oak or putting both in can make sure there are coals in the grates to start the next log.

If you have downed poplar, it will grow oyster mushrooms if they are in your area. Those are tasty mushrooms when fried in some butter. Always know your mushrooms when picking wild ones.

One of these days I have to set up my chainsaw sawmill so I can make boards out of trees when they fall.

Are you into growing mushrooms? They are such amazing "plants" (fungi, I know..). IDK where you live but I was so lucky once to find over 40 variety on a 1/2 mile hike at the top of a mountain and the variety was SO vast it was incredible. My favorite was an orange one that glows in the dark, I think Omphalotus illudens, commonly called the jack-o'lantern mushrooms.

en.wikipedia.org...

I talked to some mushroom experts and they said it was completely unheard of to have such diversity in such a small area, all along a path as well. - Sorry to hi-jack, but oyster mushrooms are also something I want to try to grow!

a reply to: KansasGirl



I also respect the wood. Lol!

Been a carpenter for 20+ years, logger and general guy who messes with wood all year.
My sons is 11 now, so we're building him a shop/man cave with lumber we cut, haul, and mill ourselves. I told him your gonna earn it, and so far its been great. This log was just a bonus.
Glad you liked it!

a reply to: visitedbythem

Check out forestry forums, you'd be surprised how many guys have mills that would love to saw it for you.

I have had a standing offer for anyone that wants wood milled. Ill cut it for free as long as i get one log for me for every log I cut for you.
It's fun , If you have room and a couple grand, get one and you'll love it.

a reply to: rickymouse

Unfortunately sauna's and i dont get along. Im sweating to death if the temp is over 60.f
Lots of finlander's up here though, so i do see alot of saunas.

Oh and i did notice the mushrooms on some downed poplar before, but i didn't know they were oysters.
I'm usually after chicken of the woods, morrels, and chaga.

Forgot to add that the total lumber count was:
6 - 2x10"
4 - 2x4"
1 - 4x4"
2 - half round 14x3" thick slabs.

a reply to: DigginFoTroof I have some naturally growing oysters and hen of the woods growing on dead trees on my land. Also a few small Chaga mushrooms along with lots of shelf mushrooms on the birch. There are many different types of mushrooms here, but I do not pick them. I have tried some of the shelf mushrooms ground up and added to the coffee filter and some of the oysters. I know those well. There are some of those big puff ball mushrooms in the yard, and many others that are supposedly edible, but there are also a couple of poison ones around my land too. I have quite a few false morels but no regular morels here, but there are some real morels down the road a bit I can pick, I know the owner of the land.

I actually like the taste and texture of the cheap white button mushrooms at the store better than most of the more expensive ones for some reason. I guess I have eaten those most during my life. I used to have a friend who knew the mushrooms really well, he taught me which ones locally here I should definitely not eat. I have those on my land too.

originally posted by: Notoneofyou
a reply to: rickymouse

Unfortunately sauna's and i dont get along. Im sweating to death if the temp is over 60.f
Lots of finlander's up here though, so i do see alot of saunas.

Oh and i did notice the mushrooms on some downed poplar before, but i didn't know they were oysters.
I'm usually after chicken of the woods, morrels, and chaga.

I have some chicken of the woods here too, I forgot on the other post to someone else to list those. For only having five acres, I seem to have quite a few types here, no real morrels though, only false morrels. And of course, two kinds of toxic kinds, one is kind of orangish. There are not a real lot of each kind, but there are lots of different kinds. There are mushrooms on the power line rightaway a way down the road, but they spray that agent orange there every four or five years to kill the trees and I am not sure if that would be absorbed by the mushrooms.

a reply to: rickymouse

Yup, the defoliant sprayed areas are no good for harvesting.

I've had luck with morrells at old farmstead sites. Anywhere there used to be apple/fruit trees seems to produce them. Usually when wandering around looking for chaga and metal detecting.
Even found some fly agaric "magic mushrooms". I didn't touch em or tell anyone though, i was afraid some teenager would eat them and get poisoned.

originally posted by: Notoneofyou
a reply to: rickymouse

Yup, the defoliant sprayed areas are no good for harvesting.

I've had luck with morrells at old farmstead sites. Anywhere there used to be apple/fruit trees seems to produce them. Usually when wandering around looking for chaga and metal detecting.
Even found some fly agaric "magic mushrooms". I didn't touch em or tell anyone though, i was afraid some teenager would eat them and get poisoned.

I never saw any magic mushrooms around here. I do not remember the names of the poisonous ones here, but I can recognize them. I think one is named something like deathcap but am not sure what the real name is. If you prepare the puffballs correctly, they are edible I guess, I did not get sick when the guy cut one of the big ones into steaks into the yard and we cooked it. It was a foot around, I just had one steak off of it, he took the rest home and processed it to cook with later, He dried some and froze some, I do not know the first thing about storing or freezing them.