- Feb 10, 2009
- 398
- 16
Actually, no need to. My dad helped me chop down the cherry tree. A mulberry, pin oak and some pecan limbs too. Or rather, I helped him.
I went up yesterday to be on hand to skin deer if the bambi killers got lucky (no joy), and decided it would be a good time to cut down some stuff for smoking meats. He has a highly modified Royal Oak, I have my UDS and others.
Behind my folks house, in an old hog lot fencerow, is what most folks would consider brush. Elm, redbud, hedge trees, but also a bunch of mulberry and wild cherry. We took down a few limbs:
From just a couple limbs, we came up with this stuff:
I have never used mulberry, but it better be good. It is a royal pain to cut. It's all grown together, has small limbs to trim and binds the saw.
Later one, we moved to trim up the pecan tree above, along with some brush growing under it, which turned out to be a few small pin oaks. All totaled, it came to nearly a pickup load. Between the two of us, about a 2 year supply of smoke.
Later today (not safe to fire up a chain saw on Sunday morning) I'll block up a few sticks of these into 2 inch long pieces and split those into smoking sized chuncks. They will dry out well enough for smoking in a few weeks vs. the several months the full sized sticks will take. They will be stored inside my garage, dumped into milk crates and stacked along one wall.
Nothing glamorous, but easy and cheap. Apple and hickory on tap the next time.
I went up yesterday to be on hand to skin deer if the bambi killers got lucky (no joy), and decided it would be a good time to cut down some stuff for smoking meats. He has a highly modified Royal Oak, I have my UDS and others.
Behind my folks house, in an old hog lot fencerow, is what most folks would consider brush. Elm, redbud, hedge trees, but also a bunch of mulberry and wild cherry. We took down a few limbs:
From just a couple limbs, we came up with this stuff:
I have never used mulberry, but it better be good. It is a royal pain to cut. It's all grown together, has small limbs to trim and binds the saw.
Later one, we moved to trim up the pecan tree above, along with some brush growing under it, which turned out to be a few small pin oaks. All totaled, it came to nearly a pickup load. Between the two of us, about a 2 year supply of smoke.
Later today (not safe to fire up a chain saw on Sunday morning) I'll block up a few sticks of these into 2 inch long pieces and split those into smoking sized chuncks. They will dry out well enough for smoking in a few weeks vs. the several months the full sized sticks will take. They will be stored inside my garage, dumped into milk crates and stacked along one wall.
Nothing glamorous, but easy and cheap. Apple and hickory on tap the next time.