Me or the tree

germanbuddy wrote:I see enough wood for a huge new years eve party    bonfire.
No need for a sweater ,
only T-shirt and pants  close to the the bonfire will be good
Any "moonshiners" deep in the woods near you ?     .

Probably more than a few.

Winter snowfall and most of it will go up in smoke. Not real happy about that. Carbon etc.

First taste of the stuff happened in Jacksonville Florida. Neighbor was a fan.

Bob, you are amazing...just had my waist and spine MR scanned today because of constant pain, and reading you planning for chopping tree trunk is just shooting up a projectile of sizzling pain in my backbone!  

Take care!

Bob , you may right about carbon ,
but burning fuel, oil , kerosin and plastics does harm our planet likewise.
No way out , we are trapped by gasstations for good.
The manufacture of batteries for electric cars is not endless ,
the materials used are just as limited as petrol.

It may sound weird, but burning wood for generating electricity in e.g. biomass firing power plants is considered sustainable and green
as well as renewable power generation, because the CO2 thus emitted is originating from plants that generated stochyometricaly comparable amount of Oxygen through photosynthesis during their life cycle, and the CO2 will be recycled by live plants into Oxygen again, as they grow (and thus regenerate fresh bio fuel)..of course fossil fuels contribute to global warming no matter if the fuel is renewable or not...

As I have said here in the past - I'm a tree hugger first class - and it's killing me that this little Pine Bark Borer Beetle is taking all of my pine trees.  But it's worse with whats happening by humans in the Amazon rain forests in South America.

There are only three major rain forests, two in South America both being decimated and one in the Congo.  The Congo rain forest is largely left untouched because of the presense of African terrorist gangs that inhabit it.  Loggers are afraid to go in there.  Hug a terrorist.  

My sympathies Andras.  Back pain, been there.  To many engine blocks, transmissions, and logs. Cured the first, no more car rebuilds and the second with the tractor. I just scoop up the logs with the bucket and deposit them on the burn pile.  More fun than work.   Have you tried "Relief Factor"? Heavily advertized here non-narcotic but I know nothing else about it

BTW, the first picture above shows where that tree was after I pulled it out.  Leaner is a beetle victum that I haven't gotten to yet.  I wanted to get that tree out before ice totally encased it.  I will wait a bit for it to dry out before cutting it up.

Bob I too am very earth conscious but I hasten to note history

In our short 400+ year history of invading north America, the construction in the area you know as the Northeast literally chopped down every standing tree all the way into what is now Maine for factory and ship construction. Same as Chicago emerged and great lakes shipping of ore..almost the entire state of Michigan was cut to the ground...Same in Pacific North west... Logging from Oregon to Canada near any river wiped out hundreds of square miles of forest.....In those days there was zero human replanting except that apple guy.....in every case Ole Ma Earth said screw you Hold my beer and sent the eco system into over drive recovering the devastation

In our lives we are astounded at the massive man and nature made super giant forest fires...we of course lament the loss of wild life, human life, and property as tragic...but Ole Ma Nature smiles and sez...wait for my NEXT act..."puny humans"

NOW the massive reclamation of all ships on third world shores and the Billions of tons daily of plastics into our oceans simply MUST stop

Johnny Appleseed a hero of days gone by.

I have read that today the USA has more trees planted than ever in the past century.  A renewable resourse.  But I see these giant machines cutting down trees in Alaska stripping them of their branches and dropping them by helicopter next to railways which carry them off to lumbermills.  

But yes, plastics a big problem.  Islands of them in the Pacific as large as Rhode Island.  My carbon footprint is very, very small.

As young soldier and married into a Port Townsend family, I occasionally worked as skidder choke setter and operator for Simpson Timber. (made good cash for a weekend)..In 1976 they won a Washington State contract to send 100+ old growth Redwood to Japan for a giant Emperor's Shinto Shrine....Each tree was selected by a Japanese expert and marked, many were on steep mountain sides and each over 300' tall AFTER topping out. The company hired a CH-53 heavy lifter to attach and hold each pole until bottom (12~19" diameter at 30 feet up) was fully cut. then lifted to the port of Tacoma and laid full length on barges to Japan. I got to see the full three weeks of this operation while on leave. Totally a US State Department interference with a Sovereign state that prohibited ANY cutting of old growth Giant Redwoods. Of course back then I knew very little of international politics (still fairly ignorant today)

Funny side story..in Washington it is illegal to go in the park and forest land, find a cut stump cedar or redwood and Shake it out. The bases are massive and old logging was by two man cross cut saw many feet up to a diameter they could cut. Each stump has thousands of roofing shingles if you cut out slabs and "Shake" them with a very wide Sharp chisel. I pickup bed of shaked shingles at the right wood mill was worth 200~300 bucks, not bad for a day in the deep woods. When hunting deer or Elk in the western Olympic Mt Range I came across "Shakers" almost every day as there are thousands of stumps to be slabbed

Everybody has a carbon footprint. Some less some more. Unless you live naked in the woods and eat uncooked food and sleep under leaves and animal skins.

Electric vehicles may make the air cleaner, but they still pollute, rubber, brakes and ozone etc. not to mention the fossil fuels used in manufacturing and the mining for Lithium. You really can’t win if you want to be carbon free. I suppose you can make it a little better at best. The list is endless when you start breaking it down. The plastic in the oceans is because we have entire countries that think the ocean is a landfill. The ignorance and stupidity is staggering.

Burn the tree Bob. Plant a few more pine saplings in it’s place if you wish.

fredvon4 wrote:https://shop.arborday.org/membership

I was a member for years, got the newsletter, planted the trees, provided support. Let it slip two years ago along with several other worthwhile subscriptions, National Geographic etc.. Kept Smithsonian support and Air Classics magazine. Just got tired of writing checks.

You know that leaner tree in the first picture above.........well this one?



I had worked under it for an hour or so strapping up the down in the pond tree. Well, the next morning I looked out my kitchen window and it had fallen most of the rest of the way down.




Missed me by a few hours.

Went out yesterday to cut it up and drag the logs up to the burn pile but couldn't get the 18" Husquvana started, even tried heating it on a cold day with the heat gun. Wonder where I got that from. Tried the 16" Stihl, gave up. Started but not enough saw to do the job. Mark suggested starter fluid. Went out this morning, gave the Husquvana a squirt and it started right off.

Four cuts, hot knife through butter and done............for now. Might let Mark cut the rest of it up.

Looks like 4 to 5 days worth of BTU's heating the house in my Woodstock Wood Stove! ! Cut and Split of course.