Box elder blues, young trees needing gone

I spent this past Saturday cutting several dead, dying and rotting trees. A dead elm that need to be removed for a couple of summers and 8 box elders that ranged from 8 to 15 inches in diameter. One proved troublesome and it leaned north but turned to the southeast. That came back on me over the fence.

The property has an overabundance of these box elders in the fence line, some of which I would much rather have the wind take down. Even though these were small, almost all had rotten centers and a couple were dead. One of these had rot up to 12 feet and only a few inches at the base was keeping in upright.

The second one I cut was about 7 inches wide and I discovered ants:

Another example of a smaller 5 inch tree:

I like the red blending through the wood grain, but it's rare to get a log of any size that is worth to cut.

I'm thankful for the chain brake for the saw and I pretty much have the habit of hitting the brake after a major cut or if I have to step around the brush. A missed step could have cost me a foot on Saturday.

About 5 hours of cutting, stacking and dragging brush around and I called it a day:

Not quite going off in the sunset, but back to the truck.