TODAYS SEAT TIME

[Jstpssng]

This is the stump from that tree.
In 1979, long before I owned this lot a previous owner had the poplar overstory harvested. I counted back 45 years, which is where my knife is at. You can see from the growth rings that it really took off and grew for the next 25 years, then slowed down for the last 20. (About when I bought the land.) Yet because it had no real competition, the tree added diameter but not much height. I have a lot of spruce like that, nice diameter at DBH but they look like carrots.
I tried to count back to the center of the tree, but would have needed a magnifying glass which I didn't have. The total age of the tree was about 100 years.
Again, I didn't get the seam very well but you can see at the left hand side of the photo that it goes back to the same ring my knife is at; and carried out for 45 years. It did seem to compartmentalize well though.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I need some 16 foot 2x6s, so yesterday went out and cut down a couple of spruce. One of them had a seam at the bottom, but since the tree only had 33 usable feet,View attachment 2796596
(Not a very good picture, but you can see the seam on the very bottom left side of the log.)
I decided to see if I could cut around it. I sawed out the cant, then it started snowing so I wimped out. But I should be able to get 3 full length 2x6s, plus another a bit shorter.

This is the cant, rotated 90 degrees from the first picture.

View attachment 2796600

Keep in mind, you may have to take a thin cut off the cant to get it flat again, once the cant sits a while.

SR

 

[Gordon Gould]

I need some 16 foot 2x6s, so yesterday went out and cut down a couple of spruce. One of them had a seam at the bottom, but since the tree only had 33 usable feet,View attachment 2796596
(Not a very good picture, but you can see the seam on the very bottom left side of the log.)
I decided to see if I could cut around it. I sawed out the cant, then it started snowing so I wimped out. But I should be able to get 3 full length 2x6s, plus another a bit shorter.

This is the cant, rotated 90 degrees from the first picture.

View attachment 2796600

I'm jealous, actually very jealous, that you can go out and cut a couple spruce. I have not done anything but plow for the last 6 weeks. We have plenty of snow here.

Our white spruce grow like that too - lots of taper and not tall. Nice demonstration of growth after over story removal on that tree. We have fewer red spruce and they do much better in height, like our fir.

gg

 

[BackRoad]

Northern PA...63 degrees today. The 10 day forecast is 50 and 60 degree days with no freezing at night...warm and dry heading into end of March. It's a tough, short season for the local syrup guys.

And living a life of risk and adventure...I took the tractor chains off today.

Needed them off so I wouldn't tear things up raking gravel back onto the drive from the two nuisance snows when the ground was not frozen.

Also worked the driveway with the landplane today - while there was still some moisture in the ground.

This may be the earliest I've run spring driveway maintenance, but the risk with the warm, dry temps is the ground will get dried out and then it's too hard to work gravel.
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So when we get a foot of snow on April 1st - I'm the Fool to blame!!!

 

[Jstpssng]

I'm jealous, actually very jealous, that you can go out and cut a couple spruce. I have not done anything but plow for the last 6 weeks. We have plenty of snow here.

Our white spruce grow like that too - lots of taper and not tall. Nice demonstration of growth after over story removal on that tree. We have fewer red spruce and they do much better in height, like our fir.

gg

The last time I cruised in your state I was impressed with the hemlock I saw. I was someplace mid state although I can't recall exactly where; but I got into a stand of hemlock on a stream which was unbelievably tall.

 

[Molalla1]

The last time I cruised in your state I was impressed with the hemlock I saw. I was someplace mid state although I can't recall exactly where; but I got into a stand of hemlock on a stream which was unbelievably tall.

Out my way we call hemlock "piss fir".

 

[1 Old Man]

So much wet weather here has delayed a lot of normal cutting & clean up.
Trying now to play catch up with the "normal" stuff because recent high winds
have caused split trees, widow makers to fall, branches to twist off, trees &
limbs on my fence line, and even a big cedar to be uprooted (luckily it fell back
into the woods, deal with it later). Anyway, the last few days I've been working on
reducing the Honey Locusts population...before they can leaf out. Once they
get leaves it gets to hard to see the thorns. A few pics from today. I wear a XXL
glove for size comparison. The limbs are in the bucket. The cluster of thorns is
on the tree trunk. The trunks have lots of these clusters. Bigger the tree, more
numerous and bigger the clusters. All of this goes to the burn pile.

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^^
Those thorns look nasty!

 

[Gordon Gould]

Wow. Nasty for sure. Glad we don't have them growing here. We do have thorn apples but they are not prolific for the most part and are good wildlife trees so I don't have to cut many.

gg

 

[BackRoad]

Tough on tires!

I know some people that are much like the Honey Locust...

I'd rather deal with the trees...