What free wood did you find today?

Getting a few logs for the sawmill. They logged here last year and left a nice pile of sawmill logs for me !
A good friend Jake in Eagar Az made the log arch for me, he's a master with the steel and the welder ! Black tool box on each side, one holds chains and such the other holds the winch battery, small solar panel on top.It's wide enough that I can back it up over the top of the mill and just set the log down in place, clamp it in place and go to cutting !
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Was given two pieces of what was called Russian olive today.
21 long by 10 round. Already dried to 12/14 percent.
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Cut the pith out and processed with the band saw.
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Was given two pieces of what was called Russian olive today.
21 long by 10 round. Already dried to 12/14 percent.
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Cut the pith out and processed with the band saw.
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surprised to see, it looks like it was killed by a bark beetle

note that for later identification, russian should be added to the olive names written pieces, as the are distinctly different woods

a google search turned up this, though

An olive bark beetle is actually an elm bark beetle, a pest that attacks various trees, including Siberian elm and Russian olive trees. These beetles can cause damage by boring into tree trunks and limbs, creating galleries and tunnels that weaken the tree
 
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Yes. There were a couple of holes filled with dust and strands that I cut out of the pieces. I will add the Russian win I get back.
I put the names on now in case something happens to me.
 
My pocketbook tells me it wasn't free - but here is what I have been allowed (by Mrs Lil Mikey) to keep from the downed trees.

Big 24" ash with purdy heartwood with piece of walnut in background.
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Slightly smaller ash - there's some big crotches around that I did not seem to get a pic of.

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Couple pieces of cherry and an ash crotch. The lower one is hollow, but the upper one is solid. There is some bigger cherry I did not get a pic of. The bottom part of the tree was hollow - did not keep any.

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Like I said, the above wood wasn't "free", but unplanned! The pocketbook is definitely lighter - needed the right equipment to get it all down and hauled off (the ash was within 10' of the house). The pocketbook is sad, but perhaps sadder for me is the loss of plants/beds. Luckily, I had a few days and was able to dig up a bunch of plants, but there were some places I had not planned on them needing access. Not a good time of year to dig up plants, but hopefully, I can nurse them back in my plant nursery!

The big cherry broke and fell and it took some sycamore limbs and big walnut limbs down with it. When the walnut limbs fell, they took out the smaller cherry as well as some hackberry limbs. Made a mess! Yes, I'm shameless - I need a little sympathy!

This used to be a hosta and azalea bed along with some ferns. Ash stump showing - one cherry stump is far back on the right near the Lil House - a smaller one is about halfway back.

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This used to be a miniature hosta, fern and wildflower bed

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Like I said, the above wood wasn't "free", but unplanned! The pocketbook is definitely lighter - needed the right equipment to get it all down and hauled off (the ash was within 10' of the house). The pocketbook is sad, but perhaps sadder for me is the loss of plants/beds. Luckily, I had a few days and was able to dig up a bunch of plants, but there were some places I had not planned on them needing access. Not a good time of year to dig up plants, but hopefully, I can nurse them back in my plant nursery!

The big cherry broke and fell and it took some sycamore limbs and big walnut limbs down with it. When the walnut limbs fell, they took out the smaller cherry as well as some hackberry limbs. Made a mess! Yes, I'm shameless - I need a little sympathy!

This used to be a hosta and azalea bed along with some ferns. Ash stump showing - one cherry stump is far back on the right near the Lil House - a smaller one is about halfway back.

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This used to be a miniature hosta, fern and wildflower bed

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Sorry to hear you lost the tree, but nice that you could reclaim a bit for future woodworking projects! Chuck
 
Like I said, the above wood wasn't "free", but unplanned! The pocketbook is definitely lighter - needed the right equipment to get it all down and hauled off (the ash was within 10' of the house). The pocketbook is sad, but perhaps sadder for me is the loss of plants/beds. Luckily, I had a few days and was able to dig up a bunch of plants, but there were some places I had not planned on them needing access. Not a good time of year to dig up plants, but hopefully, I can nurse them back in my plant nursery!

The big cherry broke and fell and it took some sycamore limbs and big walnut limbs down with it. When the walnut limbs fell, they took out the smaller cherry as well as some hackberry limbs. Made a mess! Yes, I'm shameless - I need a little sympathy!

This used to be a hosta and azalea bed along with some ferns. Ash stump showing - one cherry stump is far back on the right near the Lil House - a smaller one is about halfway back.

View attachment 279725

This used to be a miniature hosta, fern and wildflower bed

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Sympathy granted. IF you ever come by, I can restock some semi standard variegated hostas. My wife doesn't care for them. They have been stubbornly hanging out for about 8 years... Hearty rootstock! I also may be able to find a couple iris and some elephant garlic. The wife weedeated my elephant garlic so I pulled most of it but there are a couple volunteers.... As long as she doesn't find it and chop it off.
 
Sympathy granted. IF you ever come by, I can restock some semi standard variegated hostas. My wife doesn't care for them. They have been stubbornly hanging out for about 8 years... Hearty rootstock! I also may be able to find a couple iris and some elephant garlic. The wife weedeated my elephant garlic so I pulled most of it but there are a couple volunteers.... As long as she doesn't find it and chop it off.
It's not IF, but when. Thought we would have bought a new truck by now - but saving that until retirement as I still have the company Jeep and don't have room in the driveway. The last time I asked to use a company truck, I was allowed to, but was strongly suggested I don't ask again!

I have a friend that bought a hopped up 1955 pickup. He owned Hurricane Marina on Center Hill and a vacay home near there and thought we would someday take a trip past Smithville to Crossville, but it has never happened - don't think he wants to take the truck that far. He did take his '55 Vette all the way down old Route 66 though - go figure!! Haven't been east of Carthage (to visit a sub, not even to fish) since we visited you. Except for passing through on way to DC with Dad and sister's family.
 
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So my first thoughts made me think of my dad. Born in 1912 and died in 2002. Born on a farm and ranch in the panhandle of Texas, he went from horse drawn almost everything to watching a man landing on the moon to the space shuttle to a computer on mom’s desk.

Like I said, the above wood wasn't "free", but unplanned! The pocketbook is definitely lighter - needed the right equipment to get it all down and hauled off (the ash was within 10' of the house). The pocketbook is sad, but perhaps sadder for me is the loss of plants/beds. Luckily, I had a few days and was able to dig up a bunch of plants, but there were some places I had not planned on them needing access. Not a good time of year to dig up plants, but hopefully, I can nurse them back in my plant nursery!

The big cherry broke and fell and it took some sycamore limbs and big walnut limbs down with it. When the walnut limbs fell, they took out the smaller cherry as well as some hackberry limbs. Made a mess! Yes, I'm shameless - I need a little sympathy!

This used to be a hosta and azalea bed along with some ferns. Ash stump showing - one cherry stump is far back on the right near the Lil House - a smaller one is about halfway back.

View attachment 279725

This used to be a miniature hosta, fern and wildflower bed

View attachment 279726
I feel your pain. I had a 30”# red oak taken down in the spring. The cost was only $125 less than I paid for a new Ford F100 in 1971. The tree was within 25 feet of the front of my house and leaning toward it at about5degrees.
 
Great info! Thanks mate. That definitely solves it for me. I’ve never had any experience with petrified wood and was under the impression it was all hard stone like. Have you worked any that seemed like horn? This stuff finishes just like horn I’ve worked in the past. It made me puzzle over the composition
got a box today, holy mackerel, look at this spalt

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and yes i'm fairly sure that other one is fossilized. not agatized petrified wood, but rather carbonized similar to coal.
 
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the other piece is an odd fossilized "carbonized" wood, like stone, not agatized petrified wood, but rather similar to coal.

appears the ship date from Taiwan was 5/8/25

i had forgotten about his post and our conversation about it. was totally dumbfounded when it arrived today

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