Curiosity

[etat]

Well florida draggin those trees out of the swamp has got me to thinkin.  About 6 years ago there was this big ole white oak standing close to the road by my mailbox.  It was about 3 feet diamater.  A lot of the upper limbs were dead and occasionally would take it upon themselfs to fall off on my mailbox.  Anyways I notched this tree and cut er down when I started building my pond.  Before it filled up with water I stood three good sized chunks of it up hopin that it'd be a good place for catfish to hang out.  I designed other structure into the pond as well.  There are places in the middle that are over 20 feet deep, Almost all of it drops off right off the edge of the water to at least 6 feet deep, gettin steadly deeper as it goes out.  There was once another pond there and when I had the dozer and trackhoe digging it out I left some of the old levey for a pier, dumped a few truck loads of sand on one side, just a few things like that.  Then I stocked it with catfish and a few brim.  All of em's pretty good size now considerin the wife feeds them better than she does me so I'm thinkin that if those logs I put in there would make good wood I'd druther have them than lettin the fish keep them.  This old white oak trunk was hard, clear, tight grained, and bigger than I wanted to handle in one piece, at the time.  The tree was about 12 feet inside the fence line of a pasture on a place that my grandpa bought in the 40's.  Don't know why he left that tree and one other, the rest of the land he cleared for pasture, and planted cotton in the bottom.  There were three chunks of wood I cut up, each about 5 or 6 feet long. Two of em has been in the water almost since the day I cut em down, and one of em is on the bank to sit on.  Just before I started lettin her fill up I rolled em off down there, stood em up, and piled sand around the bases.  Now, what I'm wonderin is would it be maybe worthwhile to steal those two chunks from the fish and maybe have em cut up and dried for floorin in a couple of rooms in the house I'm building, or would it be better to find a fresh tree and start from scratch.  The one on the bank is gettin checked up pretty good and the bark is starting to deteorate so I'm thinking it makes a better seat than it would lumber.  If this is a really nutty idee, I'd appreciate yall telling me so.    If it's a good idea I'm goin to start workin on the wife, trying to talk her into goin down there and lassoing them chunks of tree.  One other quick thought, a guy I got workin for me has got some red cedar logs piled up behind his house.  I've seen em but havn't looked real close.  Been layin there on the ground for several years now.  Him and his daddy cut em up intending to have em sawed up, but wound up just leavin em laying.  Would they be worth takin a second look at, or better just to leave em layin and let em rot?  I will appreciate any opinions concernin this.  Either way my pond is only about 60 feet from my front porch.  Havn't finished the house yet, but I already got me a rockin chair on that front porch, me and the wife too.

[etat]

Sorry, just noticed, it was two chunks I put in the water, not three, one fo em's the one on the bank.

[Bro. Noble]

CK,

Fishing them logs out is a NUTTY idea.  -------course those are the most fun sometimes and really turn out well.

The sapwood of those cedar logs is probably not usable,but the heartwood likely is.  If they are big enough,  you might want to take a second look. Red  Cedar varies quite a lot in quality and soundness when it is fresh.

[Tom]

Sawing those fish houses sounds like a really fun project to me.  It would especially be fun if you could recruit some interested young teenagers to help you get them out. They would get a big kick out of diving for wood too. :D

[Fla._Deadheader]

I will supply all the "stoopidvision" ya need to get 'em out. : :D :D :D :D :D :D

[Kirk_Allen]

I think I would cut up all three of them 8) 8)

Although the one you use to sit on is checked I would bet that if its white oak, you can still get some great flooring boards.

As far as the wood in the water?  Last year I had our family pond drained and dug out.  It had 40 plus years of sediement so it was only about 3 feet deep at the deepest point.  Turns out we found a walnut that was in about 6 feet of mud.  It was about 24 inches across the small end and was 15 feet long.  

The outer 3-4 inches was no good but the center produced some great walnut boards.  I can only assume that if your stumps are white oak, you may find that they too have some value.

I know, Im crazy for telling him to fish out the logs but lets not forget, I just fished cutting out more cherry than I know what to do with.  The wood I got was under some huge log piles that took hours of cutting to get to but it was worth it.  I only wish my logs were in the water!  

Didn't some guy up in Michigan or Wisconsin make a fortune pulling out logs from the bottom of the lake?

[etat]

Well shiver me timbers!  Ain't life grand!  Back quite a few years ago I helped my uncle cut some white oak and we had em sawed up for bridge timbers to  build a bridge.  Don't know what it was about his place, but a LOT of them logs was dodey.  Had to cut quite a few of em to get enough usuable lumber to build that there bridge.  But this here white oak wuz solid as a rock, thrugh and through.  It was sittin up on a hill, growin in HARD red dirt.  I felt really guilty after I cut it because I didn't have a use for it, the best I could think of at the time wuz draggin it in and droppin them chunks in that there pond.  It ain't that deep where I put it, only about 10 or 12 feet so it wouldn't be that hard  to get.  They wouldn't be near as hard to get as the blade I left in that there pond up until last year.  See, after them dozers, trackhoe, and stuff left I wuz down in there in my tractor playining around before it started fillin up with water.  Broke a pin on that blade and nearly stuck my tractor tryin to drag it out.  That night it rained, and that ole blade was instantly under water.  Wound up leavin it there for a couple of years and if I wanted to grade my driveway or somethin I'd just go and borrow dad's.  And he'd start naggin me to just use my own.  So last year when I started movin dirt to dig my shop he threatened to start chargin me rent, kept tellen me to use my own. After a while of his naggin I decided to recover that ole blade and put a new pin in it.  Wasn't that hard to dive down and hook to, except them brim just about amputated a couple of moles on my back until I kept screamin and had my wife throw me a shirt to put on.  Would you believe that dang woman was laughing, and me in all that pain.  Anyways, next summer I'm a gonna salvage them genuine lake cured log chunks.  And have the amish cut em up for me and make em into floorin.   :PIn the meantime I'm a gonna find out the best way to dry em and make floorin out of them, promise you that!!!!. :P  All I really needed was just for ONE person th tell me it MIGHT be feasable to do so, what with me totin all that guilt and all.  Betcha I'm agonna keep my shirt on while doing so thought, I'll a guarantee you that!    Bro. Noble, wonderin now if you're kin to my wife, she calls me nutty all of the time!!!!!!!!  ;D ;D ;D Jest to let you know, I take that as a compliment!!!!!!!!!!! ;D ;D ;D