Hello fellow hoarders! I fired up my chainsaw this weekend to do a good deed for my parents and my neighbor. I ended up cutting/splitting/delivering/stacking about 3/4 chords of walnut. I was feeling pretty good! Well you know what they say - no good deed goes unpunished! background: a nearby farmer has been allowing me to come cut firewood on his land. He had been downing walnuts trees and leaving them. A few of the better ones he dragged out to sell to a sawmill/get estimate. They have been stacked and marked very clearly for a year and I knew to avoid them. So Friday I message him and he says have at it. I pulled up Saturday and find a good looking tree downed relatively deep in the woods. The base was blackened so it had been laying dead for some time. I even thought it looked pretty good, but it was deep in the woods and clearly aged. So I fired up the saw and got to work. I went back to today and finished the log up. Shortly after I left, I got a message from the farmer asking if I had cut that walnut log. I quickly realized my error and called him. He was nice about it, but he said he was hoping to get an estimate on that log and sell it. He said he was hoping to get between 1,000 and 1,500 for the log. It was 15-20 feet long and my 18 inch bar cut through the log easily, so maybe 15 inch diameter with bark. There were a couple knots, but overall no major defects. He told me not to worry about it, but I told him I want to make it right somehow...and selfishly it’s my best place to cut firewood and I would like to keep cutting there. He lives nearby and he has been very kind to me letting me cut for two years. I don’t want to leave him with a sour taste. How would you handle it if you were me?
I’m not a logger by any means. Did stay at a cheap fleabag motel a few times tho. Just so happened I read a small article on this the other day. Looked but can’t find it now. It’s just one log guys opinion anyway. One thing you may do is try and get an estimator out there for him. Has he been waiting patiently or just never got around to it? I don’t think those logs are worth anywhere near what he’s thinking. If logs were worth a grand a piece everyone would be chopping them down. Not sure a mill would even want a 15” BW log. A 30” x 15’ BW log of “veneer” quality may be worth big bucks. Rare as hens teeth according to the article I read. up to you. I know you must feel bad and don’t want to cause waves,,,,and you shouldn’t. Maybe he would like to know his logs arent worth much. Maybe he’d rather not know. Old farmers are tough to read Nice people but even their mules think they’re stubborn.
As long as he was okay with your "error" i wouldnt worry about it, but could understand why you would feel that way. I would as well. It was an honest error. If you continue to cut on his property ask him to take a walk with you and clearly mark trees/logs you can take to avoid any future problems. Can you find out if what he says is true. Is walnut worth that much milled in your area? Its the inside joke on FHC about walnut being "highly valuable". If you insist on staying on his good side, maybe a gift card/certificate to a local restaurant? Can Mrs. SE bake some goodies for him? Hey Sean Easterly if you've been hoarding, we havent seen any posts? Dont know about the rest of the FHC but i'd love to see some pics of your hoarding efforts.
Apologize profusely and move on. Everyone goofs up. It's how we handle the situation that makes us individuals. Just fyi.....a 15" walnut is only worth firewood. Nobody's gonna waste time sawing one that small. Don't sweat it too much.
Sean Easterly I think you have been given some really solid advice. He should know if you are truly sorry. Also any farmer I've ever known always has work needing done. Maybe you could offer some labor to offset his loss just as a good faith gesture. Warning with that he may work you until your bleeding from the ears. Just saying
Good advice stated above. My .02 is along the lines of what has already been touched on... Most people who have trees/logs have a very skewed idea of their worth, as in they typically think they are worth much more than they are in reality. As with all things in life, something is only worth as much as someone is willing to give you for it, and that takes into account a wide range of circumstances. I'm sure he did want/was hoping to get a bunch of money for the log. But i think if he'd really have had that kind of money lined up for that log, you would NEVER have seen it laying there, cause he'd have already sold it. Had he been only selling (trying to sell) walnut logs, or multiple species? Point being, if you know to stay away from the walnut and all else is fair game, that could clarify issues in the future. And if you meet with him and lay eyes together on a particular walnut and he says get it, then its clear. And i understand that you thought it was clear this time as well. Amything you could do to remove doubt in the future would be beneficial for both you and the farmer. At the end of the day though, if he's not raising hell about it, I wouldn't be too awefully worried. People have given good ideas above about ways to show both gratitude for the relationship you have with the farmer, as well as respect for there being an accidental mixup.
Brad - I posted that elm tree I cut down on the dam, but other than that I have been busy preparing for a new firewood hoarder to join the family. The wife is due with our first (a baby boy) in April. I have been busy painting and getting home projects done! I have downed one large elm tree and have another one to take down and I think that will get me to my target of 1.5 cords for this year. How old does the boy need to be before I get him his first chainsaw? 18 months? I definitely will be getting him that (way too expensive) Stihl toy chainsaw.
Congratulations! Man, be ready for your world to CHANGE! Since my little girl was born (she's 4 now), i seriously don't remember what i did before, and i certainly don't sell firewood anymore. But enjoy every minute and hang on for the ride... As stupid as it sounds, I never knew that anything could change my life so much and have such a huge impact on everything i do, and the way i think. You could always put a chainsaw on the baby registry...i mean why not? Will be much more useful than some of the stuff that we thought we would need so we stuck on there.... My little girl already has several firearms....guess who gets to be the custodian till the appropriate age/time??
If he has a stack of logs laying around for a year or more, they aren't going to hardly be worth firewood let along a saw log. Crazy isn't it, deep in the woods, to far for him to bother retrieving yet as soon as you do, he notices. Yeah a homemade pie or batch of cookies and an apology. I second the idea of a woods walk with him and marking some scrub trees or trees causing good trees to fight for sunlight. Then you both are on board. If a permanent marking system is created, when he is out in the woods and runs across a tree for whatever reason he doesn't like, damaged with the tractor, etc he can mark it then and there and later tell you the whereabouts of another tree he marked. A win win for both of you in the future.
I wouldn't worry about it, just apologize. Personally I think he's pulling your chain, who leaves something valuable out to rot.
Been there , done that, felt like dirt, but, i apologized, and and kept kicking myself, we all hate to make mistakes, but, who hasn't? I'd go talk to him about marking a N/C "no Cut'' on the one's he wants to keep. Or, take a nice stick with you next time, tel him you really feel bad about the mistake, and hand him the stick, tell him to let you have it. (wear heavy clothes) and i'm betting he'll know you really feel bad about it, and probably laugh about it.
It really does not matter if the log was worth anything or not. What really matters is how he feels about it. For sure I'd be apologizing over and over and suspect by what you stated that he knows it was not a bad deal at all. Still, you owe him something or at least I'd feel that way and would really attempt to show him that I felt that way. On the other hand, no, I doubt that log was worth anything. It is sort of like a fellow I know who had some of those highly valuable walnut trees. Visions of dollar bills dancing in his head. I even offered to cut them for him and stack them up but he took care of it all. 3 or 4 years later, all that walnut wood went into our wood stacks... Turned out there was no market at all for them. I also remember when I was milling lumber. Forever people (usually farmers) were coming to ask what a good walnut log was worth. We mostly told them they could make a good fire with them. The main reason was 99% of all the logs farmers tried to sell was taken from fence rows or ditch rows, which almost always spelled metal. No thank you. Today I am told by the local loggers that nothing is worth anything in log form right now. I expect it will change, but when?
I plan to go over after work and pay him a little above fair market price for the firewood I took from the log and assess how he feels. If he gives any indication I shouldn't be cutting any more, I will have to move on. Hopefully me tossing him a few bucks makes it clear I really feel bad and takes any sour taste out of his mouth...and he allows me to continue cutting!
Sean Easterly you area nice guy for thinking to pay him for the firewood. I'm not so nice! If he told you to "have at it" and the tree was not clearly marked or in an obvious do not cut pile, then you took him at his word. By all means, express your remorse for the misunderstanding, always remembering there were two people involved so both were equally responsible. If he says there is no problem then take the man at his word again. Big Men mend fences then stride ahead. If your conscience is bothered then maybe buy him a bottle of fine bourbon (unless he doesn't drink) or have the wife make a pie, as noted above, then move on. Fine bourbon would work for me! Maybe suggest an airtight marking system. If more difficulty crops up then find another place to cut!
Cash vs. gift is a whole different level with lots of folks. Paying him cash now if there was an "arrangement" before may set a precident that could get costly. Oops is an oops and like mentioned by others, highly valuable walnut trees are not typically in that size range. I would turn it into boards on my hobby mill if it came out of my woods although I wouldn't have cut a live one that size down in the first place. The sawyers in our area want 20" and larger, and the 20" are not gonna get any big bills flying into your pocket.
