I was THIS close!

[Tar Devil]

One of the engineers I work with had a tree go down in a field next to his yard. Some inspector (dunno the details, didn't ask) told him it was a "hazard" and needed to be removed. He tried cutting, burning, sawing, wedging... couldn't make a dent in the log. He's been begging someone to come get it out of his way.

Turns out it's a huge, old growth white oak, about 20' long and between 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 in diameter. I was gonna post it here this morning and see who wanted it, but another engineer laid claim to it about 30 minutes ago.

Sorry.

I am getting some crooks out of it for stems and knees. :)

[TimH]

Nothing like being in the right place at almost the right time...

[Ethan]

It went down in a field???? Doesn't get much better than that!:cool:

I have some white oaks that would make you cry for their apparent potential (and size!)...but, they're all inaccessible due to the lay of the land.

Congrats on the new knees!

[Stiletto]

High value timber can be got out of damn near anywhere with a helicopter if the economics stack up.

[redbopeep]

Nothing like being in the right place at almost the right time...

If you want oak knees and what-not, I know where there are (seasonally) piles and piles of white oak....the Fort Totten Transfer Station in Washingon, DC. I used to go over there to drop off big loads of trash when renovation our house. DC is full of these huge, huge, (did I say huge?) white oak trees sitting in the "tree boxes" between the sidewalk and street. Way back in the 1790's or so they decided that every other street was going to be a maple street or an oak street so there's lots of maple and oak at the Transfer Station...mostly Oak. Tree boxes are too small, roots end up growing on the sidewalk and getting wacked away from the street. Well, along comes a wind and down comes these big trees. Usually on top of cars, etc. Sometimes the city goes out and cuts down the trees before they fall but usually those particular trees are standing dead. The trees are typically 3 ft to 6 ft diameter trunks. Big. Sometimes at Fort Totten in the North East corner of the transfer station there'd be a pile of "tree pieces" about the size of oh, say, 3 or 4 houses. When removing a street tree, they cut them up into short enough lengths that they can crane onto the trucks to take over to Fort Totten. Its strange to see a flatbed with one big hunk of oak trunk on it. Wasting all that wood is sad. Who knows what they do with it. Probably in a land fill somewhere. But, if anyone wants to know, you could call the DC City-wide call center (202) 727-1000 and start asking questions.

[paladin]

The house/property that I sold before moving in here was part of a 1200 acre tree farm.....with some old growth Live oaks on the grounds.....once the subdivision was set up it was supposed to be no tree cutting unless approved by the "committee"
Bad windstorm......tornado missed my property by less then 1/4 mile and raised hell across a corn field.......BIG Live oak came down....across the driveway......so after the wind/rain let up, I took out the chainsaw and went to work cutting away the small branches and trying to save as much as possible. The lady chairperson for the flower club came by, lit into me like a woman scorned and threatened legal action for not consulting her committee before cutting the tree......
The next day I assume she found that the tree came down without my help, she drives by, I had cut off the ragged bottom where it had broken on the way down exposing some nice grain, and a big truck was there to load it to go to the sawmill...
She stopped and wanted to know if I could cut her off some of the tree because she thought it would make a nice table....
I politely replied, yes probably make a beautiful table, each slab will be about 300 dollars, how many do you want.....her mouth sorta hung open for a while but nothing came out, then she left.......and yes..a gentleman down the road a few miles bought the entire tree and a very nice price......theres a few dozen more on the property..nice big ones.....

[Paul Pless]

High value timber can be got out of damn near anywhere with a helicopter if the economics stack up.
I have some white oaks that would make you cry for their apparent potential (and size!)...but, they're all inaccessible due to the lay of the land. Hmmm... Ethan don't you work at one of the largest installations of helicopters in the United States, if not the world...;)