I spend a lot of time messing with different wood types. The timbers I used to re-built our barn home is mainly: Douglas Fir, Larch and Pitch Pine. I built a barn and potting shed using local saw mill treated wood which would have been a mix: Spruce, Pine. I have different species growing on my land: Ash, Willow, Spruce, Birch, Beech, etc. So. Today I was looking for a definitive work to further my knowledge and found this. https://www.fpl.fs.usda.gov/documnts/fplgtr/fpl_gtr190.pdf Should only take 4 or 5 days to read!
Before I realised you'd made this post the title smacked of click bait - expected to be seeing NSFW images of someones old knarled stump! Has ash die back reached you yet?
Hi Zender (Don't know your given name0 Ash die back has been in Eire since 2012. As we live in the north west, with a south westerly prevailing wind, it has not, as yet, become endemic in the area. We have only half a dozen mature ash trees, of which half are weeping ash, 20 or so at 4 to 5 metres ,and hundreds of saplings. Some of the mature trees are close to the road, which is a worry. As are a dozen Stika Spruce some of which are 30 metres tall. This is a bigger worry as we have 2 or 3 fall each year due to rot caused by beetle infestation. I have cut some of the saplings to make ash canes and ash poles I keep thinking that with 50+ willows I should be making hurdles!? Regards, Dave.
We're quite rural here, outskirts of Antrim and it's definitely arrived unfortunately. Good variety of trees around us but ash makes up the lions share. Not a storm goes by now and we don't lose something. Was looking at some photos of the house from about 15 years ago and it's open and bare now by comparison, dread to think what another 15 will bring. (Martin)
Hi Martin. I found this website which is inspirational. https://eoindonnelly.ie/ I like the quotes from Tolkien and Muir. (Especially Muir. I have read his biography many times.) The village where I was born had two large woods, one each side of it. They belonged to the local aristocracy but a large portion of each was open to we plebs. As a youth I used to spend hours walking in these woods. One, in a valley, had a small river running through it, in which we swam. The other had a lake which we swam and fished in. I once went through the ice on the edge of the lake. Luckily it was shallow. I visited the valley wood about ten years ago only to find that some of the environment had been destroyed by lawn owners who had removed field hedges allowing massive run-off. I remember once coming home late in the evening from one woodland visit only to be severely chastised by my mother, father and sister. They were so worried a search party had been raised to look for me. Dave.
