Why I Oughta...

  A week or so ago, it was warm enough to have our windows opened.  And as is the way these days, I was working from home in my office.  We have construction going on next door to us, so it isn't that weird to have heavy equipment running and noises coming from various forms of trades and construction.  But, what I *thought* heard wasn't construction equipment, but what sounded like chainsaws.   My firewood hoarding antenna shot up.  And I went out to see what was doing.   Sure enough, there was a crew of guys taking a couple of trees down in the yard behind us (and one to the south).  I walked over there and asked them what they were doing with the wood.  And what kind it was.  They said it was a mix of Ash and Pine.  They said that I could have the Ash. So, over the next twenty minutes or so, the guys proceeded to bring the rounds and drop them over our fence into the far part of our backyard.  You can see what I re...

That's a look *up* from the ground through a young, skinny tree limb as well as a larger, more mature (and confirmed) Black Walnut tree.  The leaves, from a distance look similar.  Back last year, I mentioned that I wanted to try to identify if a couple of young trees were worth keeping or if I should remove them.  And, knowing that I wanted to hold myself accountable, I included it as #15 on my to-do list for the yard this year . After poking around on the web in various places , I think I've settled on this clear cut detail that I found on r/WhatIsThisPlant on Reddit :  Walnut tree leaves have no notches.  Tree of Heaven (an invasive tree), do.  From u/blacksheep998 : Ailanthus has a small notch at the base of it's leaflets. Black walnut leaflets, while slightly toothed, lacked that distinctive nub. So, that's first thing to check:  Does the little tree leaves have those 'thumbs' or notches?   *Looks closer*... Sure, enough....

A color/aging check-in on the Ash Firewood that I acquired last year.  I still haven't split all of the rounds, but with the social distancing experience going on, we're going to have some good backyard time in the next week or two.  I first covered this wood - when it was standing as a (dead) Ash tree last year in November .  The full archive of ash firewood posts are here .   I had the rounds dropped over the fence late last year .  And started splitting and stacking it right after Christmas .  Head there to that post and see the color. There's been a change and I think darkening of the wood since this was first split.  I know that I kind of have a 'golden hour' thing going on in the photo at the top of this post.  But, to my eye: it seems to have aged/seasoned. I haven't put a moisture meter to any of this stuff yet, but it seems that I should be tracking it going forward.  I've actually brought in some of this wood and have...

This is the fourth in the series of posts about the Ash trees that were taken down next door that I've been processing with what they call CSS (cutting, splitting and stacking).  And this post brings us full-circle.  From tree to firewood.  Well....I guess, technically, "full-circle" will be when I actually burn this piece.  But...for now, let's call this 'full-circle'. Back in November, I posted a photo of my neighbor's Ash tree with a pattern under the bark .  In that post, I remarked that because they were planning on tearing down the house right next door, I wondered if I could scavenge any of the wood.  After talking to the crew taking down the trees, I ended up with 45-or-so Ash tree rounds.    After a few days of splitting and stacking, I have about 2/3rd of the wood processed and just about a Face Cord of wood put up . And in that post from a few days ago, I mentioned that there were a few pieces that showed off that same pattern we...

A few days ago, I posted a photo showing the newly acquired Ash tree firewood rounds that the tree service left me from the teardown next door .  Today, a quick update on the progress I've made on the pile.  You can see quite a few of the rounds have disappeared.  In that post, I counted 45 or so rounds.  In the photo above, I count 13 Ash rounds and six Mulberry pieces. Where did they go? The answer:  To this new processed firewood stack against the fence in the back part of our yard.  You can see the stack in the photo below.  The firewood is bright and light-colored. I used a combination of a 4# yard axe and a 5# splitting wedge to process these pieces.  Here's a close-up of some of the wood that I split - and you can see few pieces of Mulberry wood (it is the yellowish stuff) in here.  I'll watch and monitor all of this wood for color (and checking) over the next 10 or so months and will post them in here in the garden diary. ...

Remember the post from back in November when I showed off one of my neighbor's poor Ash trees that had been ravaged by the Emerald Ash Borer?   When I posted the photos (with patterns caused by the larvae), I mentioned that since we burn so much wood (and I buy it all!), it might be interesting to see if I could score any of it for free. From that post : Maybe I should go talk to the builders and see if we can harvest some of it for firewood? I have to think that the larvae are long gone, right? We're only moving it 100 feet (so no cross-border movement!) and I would be seasoning it for the better part of a year before we got to burning it next year. Maybe it is something we could burn in out outdoor fireplace exclusively? All wishful/hopeful thinking of course. Welp, wishing and hoping turned into some reality recently.  I happened to be home on the day that the tree company was on site cleaning up the dead trees and managed to talk the crew into dropping some of t...

This is one of my neighbor's Ash trees.  They have a half-dozen or so that have are dead and still standing.  The photo above is striking for two reasons:  the worm-like pattern that is on the tree is the most noticeable.  But, look closer:  see all the holes?  All over the tree?  That's from the Emerald Ash Borer and why the tree is dead. Here's a closer look at a couple of the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) holes on this tree: There doesn't appear to be any of the Borers hanging around as I presume these trees were killed years ago when the Borer first appeared in Illinois.  The Morton Arboretum suggests that the Emerald Ash Borer is so pervasive that it expects that EVERY Ash Tree in Illinois will be killed .  EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.  What happens when all the Ash trees are gone?  Will the Borers move on?  Fly somewhere else?  Just die off?  Or, will they adapt to the environment and start to attack other specie...