My Carolinian Forest #6: The Grand Ol' Lady Maple Tree

Sorry for the loss of your beautiful, old tree but it lived a long and wonderful life. At least you can use the lumber for firewood and if you have any unusable pieces, think about using them in a hugelkulture bed!

-- Robin, Massachusetts - "Live simply so others can simply live." M. Gandhi

We lost a tree in our front yard this past fall…..I feel your pain.

Man did I hate to see it go!!!

-- Brad, http://www.container-gardening-for-you.com

Debbie: I hope that you try and make some lumber out of that trunk. There would also be some great looking pen blanks

-- Karson retired in DE e-mail karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

thanks everyone. Most of it will be firewood. Our neighbour is helping us cut it down and he burns wood to heat his house—there goes the big stuff; the smaller stuff will be used in our cabin for firewood

As for the sadness.. I think I cried in the spring when there were no leaves.. I said my farewells and my gratitude then.. well lots since then really.. but time heals all wounds and it’s been a couple of years now… it still hurts though to see her go

Robin: yes, I’ve contemplated that.. I’ll have to read up on it some more. I’m creating some more raised beds this spring so one could be that type .. to try it out

Karson: that’s the plan :) Rick says that the wood has lovely spalted-ness to it. It’s sad to think of it being burned but that was the plan (and the need) .. so we’ll be saving some pieces for pens.

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan

I had not heard of “hugelkultur” before, so thanks for that idea. I could certainly use it here with all the tree droppings etc in the bush behind us. I have used tree trunks as compost retainers laid on the ground in such a way as to keep the compost material from rolling down the hill. They can also be used as borders for raised beds.

-- jroot

The crotch where all of the branches come together are where the best curly figure will be found.

That wood is hard to split anyway so cut it up in chunks and then bandsaw to appropiate sizes.

-- Karson retired in DE e-mail karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

did you count the rings to see how old the tree was?

I find it kinda sad when the old growth trees come down. When I fist moved here there were huge maples on both sides of the road for about 3 km. 5 years later not a single tree is left standing and I think its the salt thats put on the roads cause all the other trees back from the road are fine.

I too have a maple, probably 4’ in diameter that has to come down. Its so full of nails from countless tree forts that its probably only good for firewood

-- Central northish Ontario

Sorry to see the death of the old tree and equally sorry to read that it will be used for firewood. As Karson has suggested try to salvage as much as possible for wood working projects. Those articles made from the tree will keep your memory of it alive.
Sharad

-- Bagwan-- “If someone feels that they had never made a mistake in their life, then it means they have never tried a new thing in their life”.-Albert Einstein

I don’t know how far we are going to take the Lady down. Perhaps the trunk will stay put and hold a birdhouse or two.

I’ve heard many theories re: the demise of our maples -1) the climate 2) the salt 3) the digging of ditches and the root systems 4) the location – they are supposed to be in clumps of trees or something like that

Wood as a heat source is pretty standard around here. It is sad to think of all that beautiful maple not living on in another form but .. that is life.

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan

It always saddens me to see our great old trees come to an end.But such is life as you say.

-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more

I’m sorry for your loss.

We had the only original tree that was established when we purchased our home, a purple leafed maple, die a few years back and it dried and spalted in place. It was such a beauty that I too cried when it started to die. But as it started to die off I was eyeing the wood as I could see stress marks in some of the crotch areas and I suspected it also had been hit by lightening.

When it finally died, several years later, My husband cut most of the limbs off fearing the wind would topple it over (40+ ft tall) so it was a bare trunk that we had hoped the woodpeckers would inhabit. Unfortunately they never nested in it but I did spy some wild bees exiting and entering small holes in the trunk.

One day this past summer I came home and looked out the window and saw that the trunk had fallen over and landed on the fence, just missing our two neighbor’s sheds, as it landed right by the corner where all 4 house lots meet. It was incredible that it landed in this spot as it could have crushed my pond, pond pump or the back fence. It must have been a slow and gentle fall, as there was no other damage from this disruption. We failed to notice that the bottom of the trunk had rotted out completely, so it finally gave away.

I was hoping to save a bunch of this wood as it was nicely figured and spalted but my husband hauled most of it to the dump. I did get the top part that had more figuring and hope to make some artifacts from it. I think it’s too spalted to make my cane handles or shafts. http://lumberjocks.com/mmh/projects

-- A weed is a plant that is growing where it was not purposefully placed by human hands.

our trees are family… I’m going to miss the Ol’ Lady.

“to the dump”—that’s just so sad.

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan

I had a red maple about 16” in diameter and the trunk looked like it was, at one time, three trees that became one, it was twined like a rope.

The tree got sick, I injected antibiotics, tried bandages, bug killer but it eventually died,

I cut the trunk up, very pretty spalting, lots of colour, and reasonably figured and now it graces the front hall as a plant stand.

-- Central northish Ontario

What’s nice about your property MsDeb is, one old tree down, and 20 new ones up.

-- Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.. shine on you crazy diamond

thanks Dave – and I’m not done yet! :)

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan