I’m back to 100%, which is not like my 100% from 20+ yrs ago.
While I’m hoping to get set for burning oil next season, I did split some wood yesterday, just in case it doesn’t happen for 2025. I have several dead ash logs ready to buck up and split. They are solid and were standing just 2 weeks ago. I also have more standing dead ash to take down before they go punky. They are recent victoms of the emerald ash borer. Some died 2 and 3 yrs ago, others died over last winter. I don’t think I have any more live ash over 10″ diameter at 12′ off the ground. That seems to be the minimum size and height the female choses to lay here eggs, which then hatch and eat their way all around the tree preventing sap from getting above the 12′ mark. The top then dies and the ash tree tries to survive by putting out a bunch of new shoots just below the damaged area, but in just a few years most still die. This is all because this pest was introduced in wooden pallets from China where this pest evolved as the ash trees there developed natural defenses at the same time. Here, in the US the trees had no time to evolve, the invasion was too fast. Had China required heat treating of their pallets this would not have happened. The U.S. requires heat treating.