Two years ago these were healthy trees.
About a year ago the trees in the vicinity of the cabin began dying. I’d been fairly certain it would happen because there’s a grove immediately above about 100 yards that had all died off two or three years ago. It appears to have started at the power line easement atop the hill and is making a path of dead trees moving east, or downhill.
Conventional wisdom is that it’s Red Oak Wilt, or Red Oak Disease. There aren’t a lot of certainties about it, no preventive measures or cures anyone’s aware of.
Over the space of about a month they lost all their leaves and the bark began separating from the wood. One of the problems with trying to get them down is the abundance of wasps making nests between the wood and the bark. Hundreds of wasp nests and clouds of angry wasps. The temptation is to wait for a cold day.
There was a certain amount of urgency about trying to take some of them down because after Oak Wilt kills a tree the first strong wind often brings it down. Evidently the disease rots the root system long before anything shows above ground. Several of the dozen-or-so trees dying immediately around the cabin and outbuildings actually have large limbs hanging over roofs.
But the nights are cooling enough to send the message it’s time to begin building a pile of firewood. It won’t take much hauling this year. Some of it I could almost cut and allow it to drop down the chimney pipe.
The larger trunks are going to be a major undertaking to split, so I’m thinking I might sawmill any of them with potentially good lumber left. Sometimes Oak Wilt rots out the center too badly to leave anything worth using except to burn, but sometimes it leaves the heartwood almost untouched.
If there’s enough capable of being sawmilled it might provide enough oak for a project I have in mind cut relatively thin into planks usable for building a structure. But in any case it ought to stay toasty inside the cabin this winter.
Old Jules
So Far From Heaven 
I like how you make the best of a bad situation!
rumpydog: I works at it. Gracias, Jules
Best of all, it’s $$$free.
Momlady: Freer than a lot of things, but not precisely free. Thanks for the visit. Jules
Can ya send a load up this way ‘ol buddy. Did not have time to get any and your situation is money in the bank but I want trees too. I’ve not used wood or coal in years but if there’s a project for me through the next year it’s to scrounge wood to burn. In fact need to check on coal. I got a feeling it might be hard to buy coal around here but it works for me. Just protect yourself from the limbs that will come down and hurt you.
One Fly: Thanks for coming by. Glad to see you here. I suspect you can find plenty of coal for sale on the Navajo Rez, or flea markets around the Rez. I used to buy a lot of it at the flea market in Gallup, but there’s a lot of coal up in the 4-corners area being mined on the Rez. Good luck on that ma Bruthuh. Gracias, Jules
Nice post Old Jules. You see, I used to deal with woodworking machines at one point in my life. So going through this post, it brought me many wonderful memories I had with the people I met in this industry, “Thank You.”
Hi Michael. I appreciate your visit. I also appreciate people who know how to do things with their hands. Not much of that going around anymore. Gracias, Jules
Your photography makes it look awfully chaotic. The few years I was stuck in Southeast Texas I paid a lot of rent by cutting and digging stumps. Got pretty handy with an ax and machetes.
It’s definitely chaotic Ed. I’d hate to have to deal with this with an axe. Gracias. Jules
In reply to your comment, “doing things with their hand” it is rare to find very skilled craftsman around these days. “Skill” has been redefined in the world we are living today. The number of skilled craftsmen is dwindling and soon it may be a lost art. Regards.!!!
Michael: Thanks for coming by. The hands develop skill by doing things with them methinks. Gracias, Jules
Yup, firewood’s always a good fallback plan.
I’m sorry to hear about the oak. I visited my daughter in Carmel CA a couple of years ago, and then drove north to OR to get my other daughter to spend Christmas together with her sister. What I saw throughout the entire state of California made me sad – way too many oak trees standing dead. I wondered how that could be, and now you’ve answered my question. Would imagine it’s the same thing as happens back east – the beech disease that leaves scabs, rendering it all but useless for all BUT firewood. Then there’s Dutch elm which does and has killed off the entire species.
Here in Hawaii it’s the ghosts of wiliwili that dot fields all the way up the back slopes of Mauna Kea.
Don’t know what to think about it all. Makes me sad.
Know anybody with a hydraulic splitter? We never had one in Maine, but they sure are handy for splitting hardwood.
Morning Bela: I cranked up the chainsaw yesterday to begin the job, discovered after it ran briefly there’s a plastic primer bulb developed a crack and will have to be replaced before I can use it. Gale was going to town yesterday and I asked him to try to find one. Might be able to start today if he did. The tree thing’s a mystery to me, also. Progressive Live Oak Decline started in Texas in the 1970s and wiped out a huge Live Oak population over the decades. I’ve speculated about it and oak wilt… they were concurrent with the emergence of imported fire ants. I’ve wondered if fire ants weren’t somehow carriers of whatever’s doing the damage.
Gale’s got a hydraulic splitter, but it has to be cranked like a hydraulic jack… fairly slow process. I’ll probably give the stuff needs splitting to him rather than mess with it. I’m obliged for your visit. Gracias, Jules
Well, that’s a splitter I’d like to see – sounds ancient! 😉
Pretty sure the CA oak issue is not fire ants, but that’s an interesting theory on the TX ones.
Have a good weekend!
B
Hi Bela: He bought it off one of those trucks comes around every year selling all manner of tools. A person who doesn’t need a lot of wood split could get some use out of it, but it’s not for the faint hearted time-wise. There’s one with a motor on it that would be great sitting out in the weather I see every time I drive by a house not too far away the owner was killed in a plane crash half-dozen years ago. If I were sure I’d be living here another winter after this one I’d possibly chase down the heirs and try to buy it. But the tires are flat, no way of knowing whether it’s any count anyway.
Yeah, I don’t think fire ants arrived in CA yet, or soon enough to be blamed, if they have at all. Gracias, Jules
Yeah – the ones most Mainers use have motors – gasoline engines – so I’d suspect if the one you see has been out in the weather, it would be like letting a car sit out – and only you know how that would pan out, given your climate and such.
Anyhow, good luck with it!
B
PS – I figured out the comment issue – has to do with 3rd party cookies. I knew I’d track ‘er down eventually 😉
Thanks again Bela. Glad you located the problem. Jules