Had not burned mulberry wood since I was a kid back on the farm... until tonight.
Noticed a friend who lives in a somewhat God forsaken little desert town had a giant mulberry tree dead, leaning over his little house with a few power and phone lines going through it. Said to friend "why don't you let me take that thing down for you, before it squashes you while you're having morning coffee?"
Several months later, it cooled off enough in said God forsaken little town to think about taking the monster out. (something like a high of 95 was forecast... sweet!) The DW and I packed up some ropes, four saws (leave nothing to chance when you have to drive down the mountain into the desert!), a ladder, axes, the "more-power-puller" a bunch of felling wedges and a cooler full of water.
Got there just before sun up, and had delusions that it would be a couple of hours and out. Ha Ha Ha... Spent a few hours roping, climbing, cutting and pulling branches away from assorted bad things they could hit. Once the main branches were off, could then drop the 34" trunk in chunks between the house and the fences that it was threatening. Finished about 3:30 pm with the brush loaded up on the trailer and ready to haul to the dump. Nice "light" load of wood cut and split on the F350.
Here are the interesting bits:
The tree had almost no rot. 110 deg. summers with 35-60 mph winds in the afternoons had almost completely dessicated the tree, even the trunk next to the ground. I just so happened to have a HF moisture meter handy while I was splitting up the rounds, so tested a few. They would not even read; the meter just gave the lower limit error, so something less than 5% moisture content. A few of the "greener" limbs tested out at 12 %
in their centers.
Mulberry trees have a lot of twiggy branches... more brush to haul off than wood!
I can now officially stop bashing Stihl saws. The good in the little MS200T top handle saw far outweighs the evil in the MS250C. Crawling around in a tree, the MS200T is THE SAW that you want to have up there with you. Light, powerful, and balanced.
More BTU per cord than my favorite oak! Lit a fire with it tonight (cut on Sunday) and a stove full lit with just a little kindling and a cheapo fire starter square. It started well, but took a long time to heat up. Once it got hot, look out. Got it cruising on secondaries and it looks like we are set for the night! Yeah, I read the "can wood be too dry thread." I suppose it can, but the old QF appears to be able to keep the temperatures in control. Stove front is staying at 400 f with the flue at about 400 f. Just have the secondary intake cracked open with gorgeous blue flames over glowing logs.
Probably only got about 3/4 of a cord out of the deal, but feel better about my friend not getting squashed in the next really high wind that comes scorching through the valley.
Noticed a friend who lives in a somewhat God forsaken little desert town had a giant mulberry tree dead, leaning over his little house with a few power and phone lines going through it. Said to friend "why don't you let me take that thing down for you, before it squashes you while you're having morning coffee?"
Several months later, it cooled off enough in said God forsaken little town to think about taking the monster out. (something like a high of 95 was forecast... sweet!) The DW and I packed up some ropes, four saws (leave nothing to chance when you have to drive down the mountain into the desert!), a ladder, axes, the "more-power-puller" a bunch of felling wedges and a cooler full of water.
Got there just before sun up, and had delusions that it would be a couple of hours and out. Ha Ha Ha... Spent a few hours roping, climbing, cutting and pulling branches away from assorted bad things they could hit. Once the main branches were off, could then drop the 34" trunk in chunks between the house and the fences that it was threatening. Finished about 3:30 pm with the brush loaded up on the trailer and ready to haul to the dump. Nice "light" load of wood cut and split on the F350.
Here are the interesting bits:
The tree had almost no rot. 110 deg. summers with 35-60 mph winds in the afternoons had almost completely dessicated the tree, even the trunk next to the ground. I just so happened to have a HF moisture meter handy while I was splitting up the rounds, so tested a few. They would not even read; the meter just gave the lower limit error, so something less than 5% moisture content. A few of the "greener" limbs tested out at 12 %
in their centers.Mulberry trees have a lot of twiggy branches... more brush to haul off than wood!
I can now officially stop bashing Stihl saws. The good in the little MS200T top handle saw far outweighs the evil in the MS250C. Crawling around in a tree, the MS200T is THE SAW that you want to have up there with you. Light, powerful, and balanced.
More BTU per cord than my favorite oak! Lit a fire with it tonight (cut on Sunday) and a stove full lit with just a little kindling and a cheapo fire starter square. It started well, but took a long time to heat up. Once it got hot, look out. Got it cruising on secondaries and it looks like we are set for the night! Yeah, I read the "can wood be too dry thread." I suppose it can, but the old QF appears to be able to keep the temperatures in control. Stove front is staying at 400 f with the flue at about 400 f. Just have the secondary intake cracked open with gorgeous blue flames over glowing logs.
Probably only got about 3/4 of a cord out of the deal, but feel better about my friend not getting squashed in the next really high wind that comes scorching through the valley.
