# White Oak



## Flatbedford (Nov 26, 2012)

I met a local woman a few weeks ago at a party and we started talking about trees and wood. She said that she had a bunch of trees down on her 4 acres that she'd be happy to have take away for her. This was _before_ hurricane Sandy. I finally got over yesterday to have a look. This White Oak is down in front of the house. Nice and close to the driveway.



It is huge!


Here's one with me in it for scale.



Here;s another one to get an idea of the size of the root ball.



I'll probably start picking away at this in a few weeks. I'm not sure how to deal with the roots. In a perfect world, they'd fall back in the hole when there's enough trunk cut off. There's lots of cutting to do before I have worry about that anyway.
More pics when I get into this.


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## TimJ (Nov 26, 2012)

I'm sure she would like that one fixed Flatbedford........now don't hit and run


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## bogydave (Nov 26, 2012)

Slow & easy with that one.
Some stored energy in several directions.
 Close access near the driveway will reduce the effort some  .
Have fun


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## CageMaster (Nov 26, 2012)

ya there is a lil bit of work ahead of you there....proceed carefully and enjoy the btu's


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## Backwoods Savage (Nov 27, 2012)

Steve, you have a lot of work ahead of you! Maybe you can rent some space to store the wood?


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## oldspark (Nov 27, 2012)

When you get close to the root ball and yu dont have much weight left the thing might just stand up on ya, some of that "stored energy" to watch out for.


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## lukem (Nov 27, 2012)

Agree be careful with that one...it is going to stand back up.  Going to be more than a couple loads there.


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## ohlongarm (Nov 27, 2012)

Flatbedford said:


> I met a local woman a few weeks ago at a party and we started talking about trees and wood. She said that she had a bunch of trees down on her 4 acres that she'd be happy to have take away for her. This was _before_ hurricane Sandy. I finally got over yesterday to have a look. This White Oak is down in front of the house. Nice and close to the driveway.
> View attachment 82686
> 
> It is huge!
> ...


That's gonna be fun cutting ,good pungent smell,and burns awesome when seasoned,I've got some white oak cut in 2000 when all I burned was a fireplace it's as hard as petrified wood,I wonder if it'l even burn. Happy cutting.


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## Thistle (Nov 27, 2012)

Great stuff,smells nice either green or decades old.Can be a bit stringy to split at times,not as easy compared to Red Oak.Intense heat,starts quickly.

Looks like you have some room underneath it near the root ball.Undercut as close as you can to it,about 1/2 way up.Remove saw & make another cut from the top,a couple inches to the side about 1/2 way down.Drop a wedge in the kerf after the first few inches then continue sawing until it breaks free.That should relieve the pressure from any binding.Watch carefully & proceed with caution,you shouldnt have any problems.


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## Flatbedford (Nov 27, 2012)

lukem said:


> ...it is going to stand back up.


 
I really hope so. This is right in front of the house, and this woman does not have the cash to have somebody haul it away.


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## Hickorynut (Nov 27, 2012)

Flatbedford, good score indeed.  In my humble opinion though, I don't think that one will stand back up.  Appears that most of root ball is out of ground broken off.  Would be nice if it did.   Either way you are helping yourself and  her out too.


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## Boom Stick (Nov 27, 2012)

I had a bunch of locust trees that fell like that and as I cut them the closer I got to the root ball they tree would raise up nice and slow and make the perfect cutting opportunity for me....it was blissful cutting.  did 9 trees like that.  Nice score and good luck.


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## Cluttermagnet (Nov 28, 2012)

Flatbedford said:


> I met a local woman a few weeks ago at a party and we started talking about trees and wood. She said that she had a bunch of trees down on her 4 acres that she'd be happy to have take away for her. This was _before_ hurricane Sandy. I finally got over yesterday to have a look. This White Oak is down in front of the house. Nice and close to the driveway.
> 
> I'll probably start picking away at this in a few weeks. I'm not sure how to deal with the roots. In a perfect world, they'd fall back in the hole when there's enough trunk cut off. There's lots of cutting to do before I have worry about that anyway.
> More pics when I get into this.


 
Nice find! I just split some green White Oak recently. It's heavy and a little stringy, but split OK. Good stove chow in 3 years. It's pretty slow seasoning. Red Oak is a lot easier to split, but OTOH I managed to get through this stuff with my new electric splitter, so it wasn't that tough.


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## Flatbedford (Nov 28, 2012)

I'll be splitting by hand. I am spoiled by the ease of Red Oak.


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## Flatbedford (Apr 23, 2013)

I guess it was more than a few weeks but a friend of mine and I finally got back to this last week. There is a huge amount of wood there and yes, there was lots of potential energy stored in it it too! Not just thermal, but kinetic too! We picked away at it slowly and carefully. The trunks practically blew apart during some cuts, but we moved very slowly and carefully so that we could get the hell out of the way if need be. All we really did was take the tops off. There is lots of cleanup to go yet.
This was so splintered that as we cut it, all the pieces were moving around and jammed up the saw a few times.




Lots of wood to get out of the woods. Luckily, the driveway is only 10'-20' from the tree, but sometimes, up hill from it. I'm hoping I can skid logs out either with my Garden tractor or F250.




Here's an idea of the scale of this thing.


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## Flatbedford (Apr 23, 2013)

We didn't get close enough to the root ball to see any movement. I have no idea what direction it will go.






I have this idea of using my big old 4 ton come a long, a couple snatch blocks, and a bunch of wire rope to encourage it to roll back into the hole when we cut through the trunk.
It will be quite a bit of cutting though.


	

		
			
		

		
	
 My buddy's 3120 and 38" bar will have no problem with the cut. We are just worried about what will happen after the cut. In a perfect world, the root ball will roll back into the hole. In a less than perfect world, it will stay there and look like crap for 50 years. In a lousy world it will roll into the little stream and dam it up. In a tragic world, it will roll down the hill, through about 50' of woods and end up in the street!
There's lots of cutting and stacking to do before I have to deal with this anyway. The good news is that she said I can stack the wood on her property until I have room at my place. That should be after a month or so of burning next season. Ultimately, this will be 2016-17 wood.


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## osagebow (Apr 23, 2013)

wow - good luck with that flatbed, nice score!


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## Woody Stover (Apr 23, 2013)

The White is jackpot wood, but you are earning it this time!


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## Backwoods Savage (Apr 24, 2013)

Steve, I've never seen one miss the hole yet. They just seem to always go back where they were before.


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## thinktwicez71 (Apr 24, 2013)

very nice score ! good job


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## Flatbedford (Aug 12, 2013)

I finally got back to do some more work on this. Between, working more than usual, a bunch of family stuff, and the hot weather, it has been hard to get anything done this summer.
I brought the old Cub Cadet on my new trailer so I could start hauling the wood out of the woods and to where I'll stack it until this winter.
I used the tractor to skid the logs up to the driveway.


No action shots, but this is the hill I have to climb to the driveway.


This little old tractor always amazes me with what it can do.


After I got the logs on the driveway, I cut and loaded the rounds into my little trailer and hauled 'em to the stacking area.




I'll probably have to use the F250 to drag the big stuff up. Too bad gravity isn't on my side this time. I'm thinking that this will be nearly three cords of 2016-17 wood by the time I get it all home.


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## Paulywalnut (Aug 12, 2013)

With all our ingenuity we still have to revert back to what is the best way
to get a tough job done. You're doing a good job at that for sure.


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## Flatbedford (Aug 28, 2013)

I've been back a couple more times. Starting to make some progress now.  2 days of skidding smaller >12" logs up the hill, made a nice enough path that I could bring my cart over and haul rounds up. This has cut some of the work out of the process and sped things up a bit. Now I can cut to length in the woods, quarter the rounds, and load them right into the cart to hau them to the stacking area. My little old IH Cub Cadet has been a super hero on this project. No way I could do this without it
Some of the rounds.
.
	

		
			
		

		
	



Here's what I have cut and stacked so far. I'm only splitting to make the rounds more manageable. I'll split them when I bring them home this winter. I want keep it in as big chunks as possible while I double handle it. 


This is probably about 1/3 the wood that I'm gonna get out of this after I leave the smaller stuff for the property owner. I'm guessing at least three cords.


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## Woody Stover (Aug 28, 2013)

Flatbedford said:


> Some of the rounds


Great pic! It's nice to be sitting on a big stash of White.  I'll be adding to mine this fall....


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## Flatbedford (Sep 6, 2013)

More progress last week.



This is for MasterMechanic.



This little JD lives at her house.


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## WellSeasoned (Sep 6, 2013)

Awesome flatbed! Plenty of work ahead. Great pics


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## Flatbedford (Feb 1, 2014)

Almost 5 months later and I finally got back to this! Where did all the time go? We had a family event out of town in Septemeber, a couple weekends away in October and November, Mrs. Flatbedford was diagnosed with cancer in November, surgery and recuperation in December (Looks like she's gonna be fine, just needs time to heal from surgery), the holidays, My stepson broke his arm falling on ice requiring more surgery, and now at the end of January things have settled down enough at home that I can get out and do some wood cutting.
There too much snow and ice to do any more cutting at this location so I went over to start hauling home the wood that I cut and stacked in August and September.
No tractor this time. Did it the old fashioned way.




I miss the old flatbed. The F250 can only haul about 1/2 what the flatbed could.
I got about 1/2 cord of it. I busted all the bigger rounds into manageable size in August so it wasn't very hard work loading up. 



This stuff split pretty easily. It will be 2017/18 wood. Even though the bigger ones are halved and quartered, I still won't start the seasoning clock until now when I split to size and stack.
I figure I have at least three more loads like this waiting.


Hopefully I'll get the rest home soon. At the rate I have been going, it may well be pretty warm out before I'm done here.


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## mustash29 (Feb 2, 2014)

Intresting.

I have access to a massive white oak that came down during Irene or Sandy.  I don't think it is quite as technical as yours though.  About 36" at the base, root ball is still in the ground.  A few feet up from the stump it split into 2 massive trunks about 30" each, which is where it splintered and broke open.  Both trunks are on the ground and each one is maybe 60 foot long.  Super easy access just off a gravel path.  I figure the easy way to attack it is to just start at the limbs and work my way down.


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## 1750 (Feb 2, 2014)

Thanks for the great pics and narrative, FBF.  I really enjoyed the time-series on this project.

Those trunks were much bigger than I thought from the first set of pictures.   That's a lot of cutting!

You are really doing your friend a solid here.  That would be a very expensive clean-up and haul-away for her. 

(I'm assuming the 1.5 inch black jacket around the bottom of the back side is just irrigation hose???)

Regardless, watch your back with all that lifting and carrying, and have fun!


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## gregbesia (Feb 2, 2014)

That is a nice score FBF . Good for you. Thanks for nice pictures.


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## Backwoods Savage (Feb 2, 2014)

Nice work Flatbed. Now if you can get the rest of the family healed you'll be fine. Sometimes when it rains, it pours. Wishing you the best.


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## Flatbedford (Feb 3, 2014)

I got all of that load split and stacked yesterday. This will probably be 2017-18 wood.


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## Applesister (Feb 3, 2014)

I bet when you burn that wood it will be sweet putting it in the stove.


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## razerface (Feb 3, 2014)

if it has rained on it a lot,,,that stump is not going to stand back up. Look in the hole and see how much dirt has washed down into the hole, holding the stump up. Most of them i do,,,move some, but not much. If you get them fresh, you have a chance,,,but not after they set a while


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## Flatbedford (Feb 3, 2014)

I'm pretty sure it won't be be standing up by now. Not really sure what to do. May cut as close as I can to it and tell her I did all I could. If the stump falls the other way it blocks a stream that drains most of her property.


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## JustWood (Feb 3, 2014)

I'm a little jealous. We don't have a lot of oak nearby. 30+ miles in any direction and there is lots. I've been burning almost straight  beech for many years and prolly many more to come due to the ease at which I can get it. I saw a few pieces of oak and hard maple in the last load I picked up and got a little excited!!


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## Flatbedford (Feb 3, 2014)

More Oak than you can shake a chainsaw at around here. I know of at least a dozen downed trees that I could go cut from tomorrow if I wanted to. They are all roadside and available. One advantage to living in the somewhat affluent suburbs of NYC is that I have very little competition in my scrounging. Fallen trees are seen by most homeowners as a nuisance, not a heat source. Not too many folks around here burn seriously and I think most people who want firewood buy it. Of course a major downside to living in a somewhat affluent suburb is that it is an affluent suburb. It takes a lot of $$$ to live here. Not really sure its worth it anymore.


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## Flatbedford (Apr 22, 2014)

I had to wait for the snow to melt before I could go back for more. I took another truck load home on Friday. Probably about 1/2 cord. The pickup fills up way too fast!



I spent a few hours splitting on Saturday.
Went from this.


	

		
			
		

		
	
  to this 
	

		
			
		

		
	



	

		
			
		

		
	
 and finished splitting yesterday. 
	

		
			
		

		
	




There is still another 1/2 truck load cut and another cord or so to be cut yet. I hope to spend a few hours of each week day off over the next few weeks to work at this.



I Really want to finish this year's work before it get s too hot out. I think that once I get all this tree home I will have replenished most of what I burned over the winter. There is still tons of Ash at this property too that is a little bit less accessible unless I repair a small bridge for the tractor. It may be worth the effort.


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## embers aplenty (Apr 22, 2014)

That white will be real inviting a few winters ahead while the cold wet white is flying. I scored a good load of white oak today that the tree service had cut. I was able to back my landscape trailer right up to the bank, lower the gate angled with the bank and roll it right in.

Keep chipin away at the stone. It will pay off for sure.


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## HDRock (Apr 23, 2014)

Hell of a score man


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## Flatbedford (May 1, 2014)

I moved the last of the rounds that I cut last summer and the pallets that they lived on home this week.


Making some progress on refilling my stacks.


Now I have to start cutting again and figure out how to drag the rest of this up to the driveway. Still hoping the root ball falls back into the hole.


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## mustash29 (May 1, 2014)

A job like that is SCREAMING for a winch.  I have a Warn M-8000 on a home made removeable cradle that I can plug into the front receiver on my S-10 ZR2.  I picked that winch up used off CL for 400 and it came with a brand new replacement motor and 4 new solenoids for the control box.  Good unit but a bit slow on the cable speed.

I have a Smittybilt XRC-8 on the Jeep.  Got that one for 269 shipped (from Winch Depot) shortly after they hit the market.  Now a-days they can be had for 300 just about everywhere.  Pretty decent unit & about 25% faster cable speed.


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## Flatbedford (May 1, 2014)

I have lots of wire rope, shackles, and snatch blocks. I figure between the F250, the old Cub Cadet, and the big old come a long, I'get the job done. I don't want to invest in any additional machinery for this. If it gets too tough, there is lots of easier wood close to home. What would be real handy is a good sized excavator with a thumb, but that's not gonna happen.


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## Paulywalnut (May 2, 2014)

Really nice pics. Is that John Deere any help to you?


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## Flatbedford (May 2, 2014)

Paulywalnut said:


> Really nice pics. Is that John Deere any help to you?



Not when I can bring an IH Cub Cadet.


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## Flatbedford (Aug 21, 2014)

I have made some more progress in the last few months. I've been working alone and keep forgetting to take pictures. I have been cutting the trunk into about 9 or 10 foot logs and skidding them up to the driveway with the F250. Much easier than dragging the rounds up by hand or even with the tractor.
Here's one that I dragged up.




It was a manageable load.


This tree is full of crotches and knots and I have also learned that White Oak is not nearly as easy to deal with as Red Oak. The new MS362 has gotten quite a workout noodling unsplittables. I have to noodles to prove it!



Here's the last to come up easily.


They are getting much bigger now. The new MS362 has no problem running a 25" full chisel bar and chain through this stuff though.


One round makes more than a day's worth of splits now.


Another nice load.



Now comes the tricky part of the job.



Hopefully I can report on this soon. I have been working on this for nearly a year and a half now! I think that when I an done it will be just over three cords or nearly and average winter's total consumption.


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## Woody Stover (Aug 21, 2014)

Lotta straight wood on that lower trunk. Can you wedge something in to hold it up, down by the root ball, and just slab those babies off? Or tie the truck to the trunk in a couple of spots and take most of the trunk in one cut? Do you think the root ball will try to stand up? I'm just talkin'...hard to tell much unless you're there looking at it.


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## Flatbedford (Aug 21, 2014)

I am hoping the root ball stands up. There is a huge hole in the ground. I plan to use the truck to pull the root ball back into the hole while I cut the trunk free of it. I have a few hundred feet of wire rope,some snatch blocks, a bunch of shackles, and other assorted rigging hardware. I'll try to make a video.


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## Flatbedford (Jan 14, 2015)

Well, the root ball did not stand up. I set up some rigging to pull it up with my F250 and with tires slipping in four wheel drive it wouldn't budge. 
	

		
			
		

		
	




I came back with a friend and a bigger saw and we cut it as close to the roots as we could.


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## Flatbedford (Jan 14, 2015)

It is quite a monster at the roots


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## Flatbedford (Jan 14, 2015)

I'm having a heck of a time posting with my iPhone. More pictures later.


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## Hogwildz (Jan 14, 2015)

Flatbedford said:


> View attachment 150728
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That's some tables to be made there.


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## 1750 (Jan 14, 2015)

I had no idea from your earlier pictures that that tree was so massive.

What a beautiful specimen that was.  Did you happen to do a quick count of the growth rings to get an approximate age?


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## Flatbedford (Jan 16, 2015)

I did not count the rings. It was quite a tree. It was three stems. I was never able to get a picture that really showed how big it was. 
Those "tables" were probably about 300 pounds each and down in a little stream. I would have needed a crane to get them out.


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## billb3 (Jan 17, 2015)

Flatbedford said:


> Hopefully I can report on this soon. I have been working on this for nearly a year and a half now! I think that when I am done it will be just over three cords or nearly and average winter's total consumption.



Has to be more than three cords.
I just did  a big red oak that was a single trunk and just 31 inches at chest height and got 3 and a quarter cords out of it. Didn't save anything under 4 or 5 inches either. It was pretty damn tall but still ......

I spent a Summer hosing the dirt off a big pine tree stump that went over like that and when all the dirt was off it  carved it up.
Didn't have a tractor then so the chunks had to fit in a riding mower  cart.


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## Flatbedford (Jan 19, 2015)

It C/S/S about 3 cords from it. I left about 1/2 cord of small stuff for her to burn in her fireplace, I left some in the woods because it was full of massive crotches and unsplittable, and I left some in the woods because it was just too darn hard to get it up to the driveway. This tree fell in rocky woods down hill from the driveway. As the rounds got bigger it became harder and harder to get it out out. I dragged the bottom 40 feet or so of it up to the driveway with my F250 in 10 foot chunks. The last was so big that I broke my 1/4" wire rope a couple times.
We cut the last of it into about 8" cookies so we could bust it up and get the wood out of the stream to avoid creating a dam.







This tree may have yielded almost a season worth of wood, but it was a ton of work to get home and make into firewood. I don't think I'd tackle another with such a high degree of difficulty again.


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## billb3 (Jan 19, 2015)

you must have left a lot behind
life is short, pick your battles, etc.


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