>>417358Know something that annoys the shit out of me..?
"never cut down live trees/saplings if you don't need too, always use fallen wood"
Okay, let me just put it simply, I live in the south, the swamp lands to be exact. any wood on the ground rots away within like 2 to 3 months. bark beetles, termites, boar looking for these bugs.. it just turns into a soft crushed sponge..
How often does a tree branch fall. or a tree come down? rare in these parts, unless they are cut down, or a major hurricane knocks them down, but I think the 2004 hurricanes knocked down a lot of trees and those have since rotten away into the soil..
NOW. I always try to respect the woods, no matter what, and me and my friends have a general rule of thumb of what trees to use, and what trees not to use.
Any cypress, or hickory, holly, and SOME pines are off-limits.
we mostly use black cherry or laurel cherry. only because they both spread very quickly, and the saplings grow very quickly. also very straight
We also use something called "tangle oak" its a type of red oak, that none of us have ever actually figured out what species it is. Basically, every branch is sharp dead sticks, that are all jagged and they grow in clusters like the roots are connected or something, and they also don't grow very straight, they typically are arched.
For thatching, we're lucky, sure we could use pine needles, and risk wolf spiders [harmless] and scorpions, and other critters. but we have a NEVER ENDING SUPPLY of saw palm, so we use that mostly. they do come with a chance of wasp nest, or spiders. but those are easily cut and thrown off to the side. they also don't smell bad. like leafs, and pine needles can.
