Gabe Smith

Skandi Rogers wrote:How would you coppice sumac? the one we have doesn't regrow from a stool like hazel after being cut but suckers up to 8-10 ft away so yes it regrows but it also "walks" around the place. Mine is surrounded by lawn so it's not to bad to keep in check but my parents came up all over, under and through their shed and eventually even made it into the greenhouse 20 ft away.

Pollard it - leave a trunk about head height

I have some staghorn sumac in an area that I coppice/pollard for firewood. I cut it the same as any other species in the coppice and use it as fuel for the woodstove, or biomass for hugelmounds. I am not picky about what I burn for fuel - if it burns, it provides btu's, btu's keep my family warm and cook food. Creosote does not happen as a result of fuel type, but as a result of slow/cool burns. Burn your stove hot and avoid creosote. Sumac grows back fast, and I have to coppice/pollard some every year.

I have been cultivating a wood coppice on the bottom 2 acres of my sloped property here in zone 5b upstate NY, 1000ft. elevation. The wood coppice is mostly mature maple, young ash, young elm, young cherry. I am pollarding the 2 acres in 5 cants (sectors), harvesting wood for fuel from one cant per year.The soil is former pasture for a few cows (last pastured probably 25 years ago. It's old new York agricultural land in the hills, so lots and lots of surface rock and boulders, despite 300 years worth of building rock walls. Being at the bottom of the slope, there is a creek that runs through wetland pasture on the neighbor's property on the downslope side.

My question is this: What fruit trees, berry bushes, etc. would you recommend as understory plantings?

I would like to develop food crops in this coppice, as well as fuel wood. Currently, high bush blueberries and Witch Hazel grow in the understory. Since it will be a coppice area, there will not be dense forest canopy - but a light canopy, and every few years no canopy for about 1-2 seasons.

Thanks for any feedback!

Absolutely! I wouldn't even bother cutting them up - just throw it all in, cover with some soil or other organic material, and let nature do the work of compressing and degrading over time.

This topic seems to be a popular one on several threads at the moment. I have been using canola oil as bar and chain oil for 7 years. I cut Firewood for home heating and maple syrup production. I haven't noticed any difference in performance. The only side effect is I am not spraying petrochemicals all over nature.

I use canola oil as bar and chain oil. It's works just as well as the petroleum based oil.

I use canola oil as bar and chain oil. Safe, non toxic, non petroleum based. I've been using it for 7 years without any problems. I buy the big container at the store.

From what I can tell from the second picture, those 4"*4"posts  that go into the ground are most likely pressure treated. If the boards are in contact with the ground in any way, and you do not see evidence of decomposition, they are likely pressure treated. Unless those are black locust, untreated wood will begin decaying pretty much within a year if it is contact with soil. If they are older than about 20 years, they will likely be the kind that was pressure treated with arsenic. The newer pressure treated is still toxic, but not quite as bad. If they are pressure treated, they probably leach into the soul only if they are the new style that actually rots eventually. I believe some sort of copper compound. I would say that any scraping or standing,even if the paint is latex paint, will inevitably find it's way into your soil. Personally, I would not bother with the hassle of testing, etc. I would remove them entirely.

I am currently planting a native streambank type Willow as a living fence around my gardens, the goal being to keep the deer out as there is tremendous pressure. Even with my brother and his coworker harvesting several deer each year, the herds seem to find their way over just about any traditional type of fence I put up. They ravage my hard work. I currently garden a very steep field that I have terraced on contour, approximately a 1/4 acre (?). I have tons of the wild streambank Willow all over the property, so I figured I'd give it a go. I have currently stuck cuttings in the ground on two sides of the garden - did one side yesterday, and one just this afternoon. I made cuttings about 8" long, opened up the ground with a lawn edger tool Ina a straight line path down the side of the garden, and shoved cuttings in about every two inches. I'm honestly not sure what I plan on doing after I get the other two sides planted. I've had so much heartache over the years from deer damage I don't really have high expectations anymore, but we'll see! Ideally, I would like for the canes to grow to about 4', at which time I would pollard them each year or two with the hope of creating very thick base stems that block out little ground dwelling creatures like rabbits and groundhogs, and the new canes would ideally reach such a height each year that the deer would move on and not attempt a jump. Like I said, I planted cuttings about 2" apart, because honestly I need more of an impenetrable wall than a nice looking fence.

Larisa Walk wrote:We built a "hybrid" masonry stove starting with a wood stove for the fire box. You can check it out here, at http://geopathfinder.com/Masonry-Stove.html
In a previous home we had built a "real" masonry wood heater, complete with a warming bench, a puzzle chamber of flue paths, the whole 9 yards. The current hybrid stove works as well and was waaaay easier to construct.

Wow! That is impressive, and I've only just taken a cursory look! I'm going to have to read through the whole blog closer, thank you so much for the link!