Past Its Prime

If you look at a cross section of a tree trunk, you will see the growth rings, each ring representing one year of growth. On an older tree, you might notice that the rings tend to get narrower towards the outside. This means that the tree's growth rate is slowing down. It still might live for decades, but it has passed its optimum rate of growth. Professional foresters have a tool that they can drill into a live tree trunk and extract a thin sample to read the growth rings. Most of us don't fool around like that, we can tell if tree is past its prime just by looking at it. That doesn't mean the tree has to come down this year but, if you are looking for a tree to cut, that's a good one to pick. Other times I cut a tree just because it's in the way, either in my way, or in the path of fall of another tree that I plan to cut. I also try to cut the leaners, especially if they are leaning over one of my trails. Sooner of later that tree is going to fall across my trail and block it, maybe at an inconvenient time for me to have to deal with it.

You're right about the center of an old tree becoming soft and punky, especially in my swamp. Frequently it will be infested with ants, although I'm not sure if the ants cause the center to go soft, or if the soft center is attractive to the ants. A tree like that is useless for lumber, but it makes decent firewood as long as there's enough good wood surrounding the soft center. Sometimes when I split a piece like that, the soft center and /or the ants fall out, which is fine. If not, the ants will likely abandon it by the time I get around to burning it. The soft part doesn't make much heat when it burns, but the good wood around it does. If the whole piece is punky all the way to the outside, that piece is best left in the woods for compost. Ideally, I want to cut the tree before it gets that bad.

I don't think anybody hollers "timber" anymore because nobody would hear them above the noise of the chain saw. The reason they used to do it was to warn the other loggers in the vicinity that a big tree was coming down. Nowadays, any time you hear a chain saw running, it's best to approach with caution, or not at all if you don't need to. The operator can't hear you coming, and likely won't see you either because he is intent on his work.

People commonly call all hogs or swine "pigs" but, technically, pigs are baby hogs, sows are mature female hogs, boars are mature male hogs, and barrows or gilts are hogs that were born male but were subsequently castrated. Although, people might refer to live hogs as "pork" or "porkers", it is only the edible meat of hogs that can correctly be called "pork". Similarly, cows, bulls, calves, and steers are specific types of cattle. Their edible meat is called "beef", except for the meat of calves, which is called "veal". If cattle ranchers call their cattle "beeves", I suspect they're just being creative, and maybe a little silly.