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OK, so now I'm book-matching firewood.
I'm going to bandsaw these two pieces into some small project pieces. They are from a large tulip poplar in the back yard that was dying. Our son Scott and I dropped it Sunday. It was about 40' tall and the trunk was about 24" at the stump. We cut 3 logs from it and the rest into firewood.
I have been accumulating logs all year and will start milling as soon as it get a lot warmer than it is this week (11 below tomorrow night). Around 20 logs, cottonwood, maple, elm and one nice cherry log and a couple of little cherry logs. The biggest log is one of the cottonwood logs at 48" x 12'. I'll have to saw it in half lengthwise to cut it on my band-mill.
The emerald ash borer is doing its thing here and I have a lot of ash trees. It's really sad, I have always been fond of ash trees and have been planting them for a long time. At least the EAB don't damage the wood or bore into it. They just work under the bark.
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That poplar is beautiful. Is there a big difference in the density of the different colors in the wood?

WileyCoyote wrote:That poplar is beautiful. Is there a big difference in the density of the different colors in the wood?

Yes there is some difference in texture. I was trying to remember why this tree was dying because I was sure I knew, just couldn't recall. It finally hit me as I was looking at these two pieces. Well, actually it hit the tree... This was a lightening kill... We know that it was hit once and maybe twice. This tree was about 30' from the house and there may still be marks on the living room ceiling where we jumped when it hit the first time.
Not the first time lightening made us jump from a close strike. I have what was originally a round steel 3,000+ bushel ear corn crib that we put up about 1954 and that I converted to shelled corn in later years. It is 21' in dia. and has a domed roof like a silo. The whole thing is right at 33' tall. It sits about 30' from my farm shop. That steel dome is quite a static charge accumulator... One rainy day we were working in the farm shop with the overhead door open and we were right at the open door. There was a strike off of the dome (thankfully not a huge one) and I can't remember ever being more startled in my life.
The only effect on the dome was a small circle of burned paint. Diana and I may have aged a few extra years that day.


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