Having my coffee this morning when i hear a different noise that is close but dont recognize. Sort of sounds like a chain saw. I open the drapes to see a bucket truck limbing a tree down the driveway. Turns out the landlord was having some trees taken down. I walked down and watched for a bit sipping my joe, wishing i was up in the bucket. He was running an MS200 and later a 500i Three trees, couple white oaks and a sugar maple. They were ready to take down another huge red oak (30" dbh) farther down right after lunch when we left. Pile of smalls had grown to two huge mounds when we returned after dark. Ill get a pic tomorrow. The landlord has had a deal if i CS the wood i keep half of it. His sons friend comes over and has the same deal and brings his hydro. I have to ask him tomorrow if still in effect. My original processing/stacking area is 50' away from the mound! I havent brought any wood there in over a year.
Im thinking oak heartwood for me. I have 3-4 empty half cord racks right there. My guess is three plus cords sitting there now. He doesnt care and will more than likely be burning the oak in two months! My landlords nickname should be "the creosote king"! If left untouched it would be sitting there for years! Ive seen this in the past!
It is amazing how your ear gets tuned in to what a chainsaw sounds like and peaks your interest when you hear one off in the distance. You can almost tell it is a chainsaw by the way the rpm's will speed up and down and how the operator will blip the throttle. It always gets to me.
Odd thing is the first few times it didnt sound like a saw. They were quick cuts as he was limbing. All the windows and doors were closed too.
Any sound out of the ordinary will pique my interest. One's ears get tuned to the normal sounds, inside or out.
Nice pile of wood Brad, hope you get your share. Any chainsaw that fires up around here is like a Siren's call to me. I drop everything and head out to see if a tree service is taking a tree down and maybe I can scrounge a trailer load!
Well its bad news. Just heard a saw going down below. Landlords son cutting. I bolted down there to ask and got a NO. Says i have enough right there stacked already and he is trying to clean the place up. Says his father needs the wood for now. Nothing like burning fresh cut oak! Wait im wrong, maybe a month or two seasoned! My reaction is actually . I LMAO when i see the smoke pouring out of his chimney. His smoke signals saying the wood is too wet to burn. Heres whats there. The huge oak had root rot and the stump snapped right off. Looked like a healthy tree too. Oh well. If i ask the old man he'd probably say okay as he has offered storage in the fenced in area to me more than once in the last year. Im guessing i have 8-9 cord stored there now. Mostly oak and hickory from 2019-20.
Fairly common sound from the neighborhood. The couple times i actually headed out to investigate i couldnt find them or just some limb trimming.
After a resounding "NO" from the son, I would begin to think about selling/moving my wood off his property. Or maybe offer some of the seasoned wood to the father to get the burning season started for him. Still though, I seems the son is beginning to speak for the father and is feeling a bit possessive of the property (cleaning it up) and that would have me worried.
Lots of just limbing goes on here also. It seems of late that there has been next to zero actual tree dropping going on. When I DO find a tree down, the folks say they will sell the wood for $200 a cord or something like that. OH, and the tree will be in some impossible place in the back yard and they will want me to buck the logs and remove the wood myself, and maybe clean everything up also. Sorry to vent but I'm suffering from scrounging withdrawal symptoms!
Stop over with a trailer Russ, I'll load ya up with all the straight Oak logs you can haul, be a good trade for all the metal art you make the gtg's. Long drive though.
I am furiously calculating what kind of mileage I will get with my Tundra towing a fully loaded 4.5'X8.5' trailer over the continental divide and Cascade Mountains from MI to Western WA. I suspect it may not be economically advantageous. Thanks for the offer and plug. If I lived close I would be knocking on your door! Maybe with a bottle of fine Bourbon, but then we probably wouldn't get much work done
The son is just POed that he is the only one who does any work around here. The old man likes to "supervise" and hoard stuff. Nice big yard and barn with crap all over the place. The two brothers are useless and the 14 YO grandson is as worthless as his father. The employee of 40 years sometimes helps when work is slow. They sand floors. The same son runs a charter boat May through October so is busy with that a lot too. Parents die sone wants to sell off everything. Two houses and barn. I have two cord sold already from here just waiting for mid November for delivery. I should be able to sell off at least another 2-3 as well.
