About a month ago a gentleman that I have coffee with in the morning once and a while told me that he had some ash trees on his property and if I wanted one for bows that I could have one. There was no thought needed and I said absolutely. Well this morning at 0700 hours my phone rings and it is Ed. "I'm heading to the property and if you want to get that ash come on up cause I'm cutting trees." So I jumped out of bed... loaded my dog into the truck and met him about 10 miles from my house on his property. He pointed to a tree and told me that was ash. The trunk of the tree was straight and there was no limbs coming off of it. I took his word and said that would work just fine. Ed started the chainsaw and it was down in a few minutes. He cut two 7 foot sections and I loaded one at a time over my shoulders and hiked them 100 yards to my truck. Once both logs were in the truck I shook his hand and thanked him. We sat there for about 30 minutes chatting about hunting and then I was on my way back home.
Well... before I got home I told myself I had no wedges or a sledge hammer to get the job done. A quick stop at T.S. and 60 dollars later I had what I needed and backed into the driveway.
Two hours later I had what I thought was 9 beautiful staves ready to be sealed and stored in the top floor of my garage to dry. Please help me confirm that this is Ash. I searched the inter web and from pictures it looked to be.... FINGERS CROSSED!!!
Anyways here are some pictures.....
The outer most ring is really thin so I think when it is time I will just remove it and use the next growth ring.... Hope by cutting it at this time I did not do anything wrong which would hurt me in the long run. All staves are between 83 and 70 inches long and pretty dog gone straight. My goal has been to harvest game in NH with locally grown wood. I'm keeping my eyes out for hickory and Ed told me that he has some hophorn beam on his property as well but that will have to wait for another day because it is a hike to get to it. I hope to have them all sealed and stacked by tomorrow after I work the midnight shift tonight.... its almost bedtime for me now.
Comments and tips are certainly welcomed... Hope ya'll had a good weekend... I sure did even if I am fighting a wicked cold!
Topic: First for me in NH (Read 447 times)
