Haha yep I’m cuckoo for going gaga over the stuff nobody else wants to deal with. Kind of bummed there wasn’t much good ash down the bank but the chestnut oak will make a good score. Not sure how far down into the ravine I want to cut, but I plan on picking away at it. It’s very close to where we worked that BL together almost 3 years ago now.
75% of my scrounging is along half a dozen backroads in that area of Middletown, yes. That whole area was hit hard by gypsy moths and there are oak skeletons everywhere. The rest is from wherever my travels take me, a lot of times in Litchfield county. That’s where I was last night when I got the “ashafras” up in Harwinton.
I have a friend in Middletown, rides a red Superhawk and recently got a Triumph. Ever ride with Bobby Kuhl?
Murphy’s law is kicking my butt today. These 4 rounds were hard-won. Dulled the chain on the second cut after I saw that my cut placement landed it on a hidden crotch nub underneath, which extended into the dirt below by a couple inches. Finished the cut, swapped chains and extracted 2 more rounds, then humped all 4 up the hill, hefting each one over the guardrail. I thought this chestnut oak looked a little funny yesterday, and indeed it is. I was only half right on the species. This is a Saul’s oak, which is a naturally-occurring hybrid between white and chestnut oak. I found 2 other living ones just like it 100’ up the road this past summer. I’ll keep picking away at this score as time permits. It would be nice to get the whole trunk this year.
I did dodge one bullet from here so far. There’s some imbedded metal in this one ash round from yesterday, which I’m guessing is some kind of anchoring hardware for a telephone pole wire. Thought at first they were remnants of epicormic sprout nubs, but noticed they were steel.
I only work in Middletown, but live 30 miles northwest of there. The name doesn't ring a bell but I don't doubt I've seen him and the bike at some point.
That makes us a pair. With less ground vegetation in the front woods, I noticed some pre-cut lumber on the ground. Grabbed my x27 and drove on down to it for a better look. Fished it out of the underbrush, got covered in burrs that took fully 30 minutes to pick off, only to find out the wood is old white pine and not worth a damm. Pretty annoying. I did find some better stuff as well but left it for the time being til I can bring my weed whacker to knock those freakin’ burrs down.
Au contraire, white pine does a heck of a job burning down hardwood coal beds when they get too deep. Put a couple pieces on the coals, open the air up all the way and watch them vaporize right before your eyes I have somewhere around 3 cords of white pine/spruce mix on hand myself. The hard part is splitting it with all the knots, but noodling is always an option.
It’s amazing what I can get done when I’m not pressed for time 9 rounds and one 5” thick cookie today. I humped the first 7 up the hill, then finally started using my head and noodled the last 2 in half. I think that’ll be it for this score. I’m not too keen on going for a swim this time of year to retrieve the last of the trunk. It can stay there as a bridge for the forest critters. It would’ve been nice if I could find more of these on flat ground, but the victory of getting to this point is sweet nonetheless I won’t be gifting this firewood to anybody in the future, that’s for darn sure!
Had time to kill and the temperature was perfect for it, so I had a backroad splitting - noodlefest! All processed but one quarter round of the oak which will have to be either noodled further or see the splitter. Too dark to run a saw safely right now.
Ive busted my hump loading full rounds then it hits me...section them with Isocore or noodle. PITA after a while with full sized rounds especially oak.
My idea on leaving these whole was so I could roll them up the steep hill. Sounded good in theory anyway. In practice I had one dead log to lift them over, then heft them over the guardrail anyway. I don't want to make a habit of these ravine scores, but next time I'll bust apart the rounds first. Being a weird hybrid oak I was willing to go through all the added effort for this one
Good Grief, Eric, all this intensive scrounging. I'm wondering if the long held crown for most prolific scrounger (what was his name?) is about to topple? I admire your energy and scrounging abilities. Great work and excellent firewood!
Thank you kindly, but I do believe Brad has me beat still, more so when you factor in his age. Brad is a ball of energy personified, who isn't slowed down by too much. He gets an idea and is off to the races until the job is done. I'm just a man on a mission right now, trying to get what's still worth getting while the temperatures are conducive to hard labor outdoors. Once the heat sets in, I'm "done" at least done actively looking for more ( although if something really enticing presents itself, I will break a sweat to scratch that itch)
