Free Firewood!!!

[MurKSki86®]

I paid a climber and his crew about $1,200 to drop it and chip the small branches. I had no intention of going 50' up. Then I went to work on the large stuff for the firewood business. In all, I might get to sell five truckloads of splits and recoup half of my tree removal expenses.

That takes us back to the thread title. Free firewood does not exist, even when mother nature dries it extra fast.

I just stumbled upon this post. I see you found the cause to be lightning. Glad you got that mystery solved! As for the ring around the tree causing it to die, I see it happen every year. When you pile up mulch, soil,or compost above the root flair you get secondary roots growing around the flair. They eventually wrap all the way around and suffocate the tree. You can Google it for a more technical explanation. I'm glad that wasn't the cause of your tree death but I do advise everyone to be careful mulching around the base of a tree, it will die. Sometimes fast and sometimes slow. I'm not an expert but hope this is useful to someone. Also, my condolences to you for losing a beautiful tree you planted.

 

[Wood Doctor]

I agree that in most instances the tree can easily die from piled up mulch and soil around the base, but that takes much more time than what indirect lightning can do almost instantaneously. That's what happened here -- instant death.

I sold almost all the firewood that the tree yielded and heated my house with the rest. Most of the wood was seasoned while standing dead and completely leafless for almost a year. However, I doubt that is added up to mote than $300 in sales.

 

[MurKSki86®]

I agree that in most instances the tree can easily die from piled up mulch and soil around the base, but that takes much more time than what indirect lightning can do almost instantaneously. That's what happened here -- instant death.

I sold almost all the firewood that the tree yielded and heated my house with the rest. Most of the wood was seasoned while standing dead and completely leafless for almost a year. However, I doubt that is added up to mote than $300 in sales.

At least you got some wood out of the whole ordeal.