The Car Hoarding thread

I think you just sparked a million dollar idea for a new product Midwinter ..."Firewood on a Rope"! Why not?... It worked for soap

 

Would need to be called something like - cordwood on a cord.

 

“Cordwood” or even sell as “a cord of wood”?

 

So You're in??? I just need a few brave investors I can count on to help me get this product off the ground and in stores. You have to be patient though, It's going to be a long time before we see profits. I have to get these cords in the wood while the tree's a sapling and wait at least 15 years for it to grow around the cable.
mrfancyplants You in too?? This is a product we can all be proud of and it's made in America! Just think of the joy this will bring to people...

 

will you guys be going on "Shark Tank"?

 

Just saw this cl that was posted 2h ago. If it is true, it could be a good score for NJ wood burners.

 

Slim pickings, but slim pick I did. I ended up with most of a trunk-full of red oak by working the edges of some of the left over uglies.

 

Can't judge a book by its cover! Looks pretty nice in the trunk.

 

hey Midwinter , you stated about leaving notes in mailboxes inquiring about wood in front of houses. Im curious as to how often does this work for you? Drove by fresh roadkill in front of a house and left a note today on their mailbox. Wood sections were left farther back from the road than normal so i suspect they were keeping it, no sign either. Nice straight primo sugar maple less than ten minutes from me. I may have done this once before in my hoarding career.

 

I've left notes three times, and got the wood all three times. First one, some oak sections cut and left in a wooded area. Second one, 6 or 7 black locust trunks, cut by a tree service, brush removed but before the log truck came. Third one, after a botched tree removal job, and before a new tree service came to clean up the mess. Black locust again, with a little cherry and maple. In my notes, I gave my address as well as my phone number, and pointed out that I was a neighbor. It was kind of surprising to me that people said yes, given that if I was unable to complete the job, and the tree service was long gone, the homeowner would be left having to dispose of the wood somehow.

 

In this case i drove by when it was first cut...very fresh. Bunch of sections and a trunk. Drove by the next day and the trunk was gone and appears to have been taken in one section. Its next to a farm so i think they are keeping wood. I went by the third time yesterday and decided to leave a note on the way back. Nice sugar maple too. Maybe 20" DBH
Not having either honey hole at my disposal has left me in withdrawals!

 

will more wood get dumped there or is that the end of it mrfancyplants ? There is a bit of nuggets & uglies left behind at my honey hole and have been debating on getting them or not.

 

There will be more wood at my dump. It is a community firewood drop off location. Landscapers dump and whoever wants wood can pick it up. I’m kind of hoping for more cedar at this point. I need to check the moisture meter on the tulip poplar from the spring and see if it is ready to go yet.

 

Yeah and I'm getting withdrawals not seeing much posted in the Car hoarding thread lately...Come on people pick it up! Some people count on these posts ya know!Just kidding
But seriously, now you know how I feel on a daily trying to score a split of wood in this concrete jungle of a town. I don't think I ever had a honey hole. well at least one that didn't involve the Sheriff

 

Well, i never intended to have one (or two) either, but it seems my luck that scores come my way when i least expect or am not looking for them. Now that i have no sources for new wood ive gone "looking" for new scores. Im 0 for 3. Twice nothing at the dump and the one i just left a note at. Trying to work another now.
I have a three sources for trees to fell come colder weather and maybe a fourth but those are 2-3 months out. I have some wood to process (it did feel good to split several beech rounds from last months score today in the cooler weather) which ill work on this weekend. Been browsing CL looking for free wood close by. Posted and add looking for wood too.
How is the pallet source going Urban Woods ? Have you been going there?

 

No, not in the last week, it was too hot for a while plus work started again so I was adjusting to all that and dealing with oppressive traffic here while commuting to and from work. I will check back for some this weekend, but all accounts point to there being endless pallets if I want. Do I want them? That is still up for debate, but it is nice to know they are there whenever I want. problem is I have other issues that make things not so black and white for me when wood hoarding and even very difficult at times. Let me explain.....

I don't think I have mentioned this here before, but I had a life changing injury 8 years ago where I tore a good portion of my right hand palm off. Yes you heard that right, I tore my palm off (down through fascia, muscle and tendon) in a freak accident falling down my attic stairs. they were Jersey winders and one false instep you can instantly fall 3 feet and then keep falling. I grabbed a 2x4 post that used to meet the roof before I had that section of roof raised so I could finally stand up when entering the attic and not have to crawl in. The fall was really nothing as I'm pretty strong and had my hand locked on that post when I started to slide into that all familiar stair rumble where your feet start skiing down the treads. I stopped myself when my arm ran out of length and I was hanging holding the the post and my iced coffee in the other hand.

At the time I was thinking how happy I was that I saved the coffee from spilling all over me not realizing the freak injury I just suffered in the other hand. The old roof angle that was cut into the side of that 100 year old stud post had gutted my palm from the base by my wrist, ripped off my thenar eminence (Thumb pad of palm) and it finally stopped at the second crease under my fingers where the "life line" meets. The instant pressure as my fingers cupped over the top of that stud acted as a fulcrum applying tons of force on that dull point prying it into my palm and quite sloppily avulsing off a good hunk of flesh. It looked like something exploded in my hand. I didn't feel anything at first because I instantly cut off the median nerve, but I had a big thick chunk of non feeling palm hanging off ....well..my palm? Very scary and I thought for sure I would loose my hand.

Sorry to get gory, but I wanted to explain this since this injury plagues me to this day and even right now as I write this with its continued proliferating painful scar tissue. 2 years ago after I couldn't take the pain anymore and I was getting infections that were dangerous I had another operation to cut out the bulk of the scar and replace with skin from my inner groin-hip. This new skin is not to be confused with palm skin and my once rugged hand is now quite fragile as that skin bleeds easily and it has no feeling, but neither did the scarred area it replaced. It can be quite a mind F*#&k when you don't have sensation in your palm which is a very important piece of anatomy. It's painful and fragile, but you wouldn't even know you hurt it till you saw blood. It doesn't take much to cause bleeding either and the other day it got cut just handling plum tree branches I was cutting for my father in law. Around the graft is more ever growing scar tissue that is the painful part because the nerves are entrapped in it. I am now wondering if the operation did anything towards improvement, but I did develop a cyst early on under the original scar which was a freaky feeling with the sensation of not being attached like a sack of fluid was inside my palm. It was a horrible ever changing feeling of movement that would have me constantly looking at my palm because I would feel it shifting out of nowhere and people would think I was crazy! At least that sensation is gone now. Doctors tried to tell me I was imagining that sensation because they all did't want to touch this area given the risk of creating more scar. Also the complex system of nerves and connective tissue in the palm has to be very thoroughly considered, but after they opened me up they admitted I had whats called an "inclusion cyst". Funny that before this they all told me it was impossible to have open space inside the body since nature doesn't allow this and will close it all up with collagen (natures scar glue). Then when I woke up from anesthesia I hear "Oh yeah , turns out you had an Inclusion cyst" Really?? After years of making me feel crazy?!!!!

Anyway all this to say I must work very methodically and pace myself or risk injury. Many times I find I cant work consecutive days or the scar will inflame and then grow some more or break down and bleed. It is a cross to bear for me as I always worked with my hands and love to get down and dirty with them.

As far as pallets go I'm trying to see if they are easier on the hand or at least good for a change up, but so far that answer is no not really. I have been suffering pretty bad lately and actually was relieved a bit that school started again so I would have no choice but to rest my hand. I have been wearing a fingerless leather glove (like biker gloves) off and on for many years, but that can get annoying since you have to keep it dry and also the hand can really sweat if left in it too long which will feel gross and irritate the scar. So that's why the off and on vicious cycle with gloves. Recently 3M made a waterproof medical tape (Nexcare) that I am trying and it is so much better because I can wash my hands with it on! It stays on about two days before starting to peel off, I was hoping it would also help shrink the scar, but again so far the answer is also no not really.

Ok so there is my story and I have really been trying to avoid mentioning it because as always I just want to pretend it doesn't exist and put that injury behind me. I guess with the full moon tonight and my hand being uncomfortable plus I'm anxious about handling wood tomorrow I felt compelled to write it down for the record. Oh well... wish me luck tomorrow (today)! sorry again

 

I admire you for wood hoarding at all after that injury, let alone breaking down pallets! That would put me off manual labor for good. Way to overcome adversity, Urban Woods! I'm really hoping that a better wood source comes your way. How about construction cutoffs and woodworking scraps? I see ads on Craigslist for that stuff fairly often. I guess in your situation travelling any distance for wood is just not feasible because of traffic.

 

Yes wood hoarding thankfully can be paced. Also really interesting to note is I find that I am ok doing rough or heavy jobs sometimes that take my mind off the hand. You see with this injury the hand has odd sensations and mind fooling sensations like constantly making you feel as if something uncomfortable is glued to your palm. Remember getting crazy glue stuck on your fingertips and how annoying that is like you cant wait to scrape it all off so you can feel normal sensations again? Well this is like you had fallen off your bike and scraped your palms and someone squeezed half a tube of crazy glue all over the wound. Anyway that's one way to describe just some of the sensations and lets just say thee are many more sensations. Especially considering the dynamic of a hand that can move in many combinations performing contractions and flexations where tension on the palm is ever changing. For a while I found it weird myself that I didn't mind hand splitting wood which puts a force on the palm while I hate to do more demure things and tedious activities like texting or fine art painting (making that painting about clamming was very difficult to get through) . I finally realized the reason behind this is I'm aware of the odd hand sensations when doing light duty activities like tying a shoe or putting on a belt, but doing more physical jobs like chopping wood causes bigger sensations that override the scar nonsense. Also when splitting or if I'm holding an ergonomic tool handle the palm is sort of forcefully pinned in a static position where the scar sensations won't activate. This allows other sensations to override the hand and give me some temporary relief if you can imagine. So I can feel fatigue from my back and shoulders and minor shocks to the wrist and arm and it's almost a good thing, but don't get me wrong, it's still fatigue haha.
Firewood hoarding has been my savior in much the same way you describe hoarding now will keep you from going stir crazy in the winter. It keeps me engaged and distracted from my hand and also keeps me staying physical and using the hand where others might just put it in their pockets and let the scar win over. It helps that working firewood is a controlled activity for the most part with few surprises and always directed by me. I need to be deliberate now and cant just jump into something like before.
I fear surprises where my hand might be instantly called into action or have to grab something I haven't had time to investigate first. For instance I grew up on the water and used to love fishing, but now all things related to fishing can be problematic. It's tedious for my hand dealing with bait and tying fishing line, it's wet and the scar doesn't like constant changes from wet to dry , it also may involve being on a rough seas where I might lose balance, slip and fall, or my hand will have to quickly grab something to save myself from said fall. So unfortunately I'm having a lot of issues adjusting and/or being dissuaded from doing things I love on the water, but luckily I always loved working with wood and enjoying a good fire. I also find wood heat is most comfortable for my hand.
So there you have it, I don't mean to dwell on it, but I feel my situation needs a bit of explaining to understand since it's an extremely rare condition that I am confident most here will never experience thankfully. If it was common like back or knee pain, or a rotator cuff injury which we all may encounter in our lifetimes I would never write so much about it.
Thank you all for being my inspiration and a part of my therapy!.....Now if we can just fix the traffic problem haha!

 

I get what you mean about forceful predictable exercise, that makes a lot of sense. Too bad you don't have the space to have logs dropped at your house. If you could find someone with wood on their property who would let you take your time processing it on-site, that would be ideal. We've got to get you out of the city one of these years.