Summer 2025. Trees, Trees, Trees

Sadly the Emerald Ash Borers finally made it to our area in 2024.

These pesky bugs burrow their way beneath the bark of the Ash trees and their larvae eat their way all over under the bark until they have destroyed the tree’s ability to move water and nutrients up into the tree and all of its branches. They then emerge as the flying beetles that can move on.

It takes a while for the tree to die but it is always fatal. Once the tree dies the bugs move on to the next tasty tree until all of the Ash trees in the forest are dead. And they just keep moving on to the trees in the next area.

In the summer of 2024, we had about 20 dead ash trees and one really big oak tree removed. All were near enough to the house to be a threat if they were to fall in a windstorm. Once we knew what to look for there were obviously many more dead and dying Ash trees.

Over the winter, 2024 into 2025, we had a tree service survey the woods and mark the trees that needed to be removed. They marked about 150 trees.

Our neighbors did the same thing and they had about 100 trees remaining to be removed after having quite a few removed the summer before as we had.

Our neighbors contracted with a tree removal service that we had used before to remove trees from their property in February, 2025. I contacted the company and asked if they could do ours at the same time as long as they were there. They said yes, I told them to remove the branches and brush, and stack the logs thinking I could cut up the logs and deal with getting rid of them.

In March of 2025, the tree removal company started cutting trees and didn’t quit until more than 200 Ash trees had been cut down along with many more that were in the way or not worth saving. All of the branches, and the trees other than the Ash trees were piled up and burned in what must have been a massive burn pile.

By the time we got home the burn pile was a large pile of ashes and remaining chunks. The logs, 8 to 10 ft long, were piled in three not very neat piles. And there was another pile of large chunks of another oak tree that got cut down.

This area was a pretty dense forest woodland. It was shocking to see how many trees were gone and how bare it looked.

The tree cutter came back with a log mover and moved and combined the three piles into a better location. The new pile of almost 400 8 to 10-foot logs was 5 ft high and 45 ft long. It was a daunting task ahead

An even more daunting task was the area that was woods was now a very rough rutted mess from the tracked logging machines working in the March mud, what seemed to be millions of sticks and parts of branches everywhere, and stumps everywhere.

Nothing to do but get started.

I called and got on the stump grinder’s schedule.

I tuned up the chainsaw and put on a new chain, the first of three.

Susan started raking up sticks into piles. I would drive around with the yard tractor and trailer and pick up six or so piles of sticks and add them to the second growing burn pile. This went on for days.

I started cutting up logs first by cutting off the ends of the longer logs to get most of them about the same length. I have to say here that chain sawing is hard work especially for a 76-year-old guy. And it is not just picking the saw and cutting off a chunk of log but then that chunk has to get picked up and moved out of the way, preferably in a fairly organized way. And these logs were all 10 to 18 inches in diameter.

All of my previous chain sawing days were one tank of gas worth of cutting. When the saw was out of gas so was I.

The stack of cut-off chunks was getting pretty large. I mentioned to someone that I needed to figure out how to get rid of them other than hauling them to the county tree refuse place where you have to pay to dump them. They suggested Facebook Marketplace. They might just as well have said the moon. I had no idea what it was or how it worked. But I persevered and figured it out. I put a very simple post on there, Free Firewood, you load it into your car.

It wasn’t even two hours after posting and I was getting messages about free firewood. Several people were coming the next day.

I had to load up logs into the small trailer behind the yard tractor and haul them up the hill to where folks would be loading them into their car. One load after another and then my log pile was getting depleted. So chain sawing commenced, one tank of gas and then two. And then more logs going up the hill.

This went on day after day. Pretty soon I was up to 4 tanks of chainsaw gas. I estimated that I cut more than 700 16” long sections of logs.

And there was still at least half of the pile left.

The log cutting and moving, picking up sticks, ground restoration, and everything else seemed to be an awful lot to do. We checked with a couple of folks we knew who had machines to help. They were busy and expensive. So we started thinking maybe we should get a tractor and some implements to do ourselves.

It seemed crazy, newer tractors are expensive. We kept looking and I came across this one.

A nice, clean, low hours, older Kubota, 24 diesel HP. A front loader, forks, and a rear blade over in Wisconsin. The price was right, all was in order, and he would deliver it. We are now tractor people.

I bought a landscape rake and a box grader blade at an auction and we started looking like farmers.

Back at the log pile, a fellow from Wisconsin sent me a note and asked if he could get 8-foot logs. Even with the forks on the tractor there just wasn’t enough room to get 8-foot logs up the hill. I suggested 4 ft logs. He said that would work for him, he was cutting the logs up and splitting firewood anyway. Off I went cutting 4 ft log sections. Much easier for me. He came over with a large dumping trailer and we loaded 4-foot logs onto the tractor forks, drove up the hill, and dumped them into his trailer. Many trips later, his trailer was full and the log pile was significantly smaller.

Another fellow called and said he would take all of the 4-foot logs that were left. I agreed and spent two days cutting the last of the logs. One of those days was a six-tanks in the chainsaw day. I was getting used to it, the weather was perfect, and 4 ft sections are much less work to deal with.

The last fellow came with a really large trailer. He heated his house and shop with wood so this was all going to a worthy purpose.

It took most of the afternoon to haul the 4-foot logs up the hill and dump them into his trailer. He arranged them to get as many in as we could. He took about 250 4 ft sections. His trailer was packed to the top of the side rails and the log pile was gone.

It all took less then three weeks. All that was left was a pretty thick layer of sawdust covering the area where the log pile had been.

On our two page list of things to get done in the summer all of this logging, land restoration, and everything else to do with it was a single line.

By the time we were done with the restoration, it would consume more than three months.

So that is the story of the logs.

More Later, Much Love,

Roger, Susan, and Maggie