The 2025-2026 scrounging season is underway

Nope, I rolled those out of the ditch I found them in, carefully stood them up and gently rested them on the tailgate. Definitely cumbersome but not as heavy as they would've been if they were BL or oak.

 

Reminds me of my early years of scrounging when I didn't cut roadside. Just load as is.

Flip, flop and load gets it done.

 

I spotted a pile of limbs dumped in a ditch at a power line cut. Immediately I pulled over to investigate. Mulberry! Not big nor a lot there, but good BTUs nonetheless.

 

Id be all over that too. Nice find and good eyes!

 

Picked up a truckload of ash from 2mi down the road. At the time I decided to grab pics this is what I already had split, and what was left. For reference, that loader bucket is 8’ wide.

 

I had been watching the ad for this free red oak on Craigslist all summer. No takers apparently. My coworker reached out to the homeowner and cut a load this past Friday. Today was my turn.

I loaded the smaller stuff in my truck.

He thought it was 40” DBH. I measured this section 15’ up the trunk and came up with about 28” which is still massive. Maybe it’s 32” or so.

Oh…. My coworker met me there this morning with his full sized Chevy which we loaded up with all the massive noodled pieces. More pictures to come when he drops that off to my house shortly

 

The quarters:

 

Nice score! That whole log looks perfect. I cut up some Black Oak logs yesterday and it almost brought a tear to my eye. It feels like it’s been forever since I had some nice straight easy to split red oak.

 

For firewood purposes I think this red oak log was a great candidate. No doubt there will be a ton of bark-less heartwood splits that come out of what I got. I'll have to separate it all out when it comes time to stacking. Anything with bark/outer sapwood punk will go in my personal inventory, and the really nice stuff will get stacked to sell in a couple years.
Black oak is my favorite kind of red oak. I wish I got more of it, but there's a lot more regular red around than black, in the areas I frequent at least.

 

There’s a neighborhood 5 minutes from my house that I like to cut through on my way home. Last week I noticed someone was doing some amateur tree work at this house. Today I passed by and noticed that the wood was piled at the curb for the taking. I pulled over and an elderly man and woman came out. The man had cut what he could with an electric chainsaw. We had a nice chat and he welcomed me to take whatever I wanted. Norway maple and a first for me, Japanese maple The Japanese maple seems pretty dense. Being a first time score, I’ll be going back for the smaller stuff and I’ll make a few cuts with my saw too, which the owner was grateful for.

 

I saw a guy in the “racetrack” getting ready to do a standup and flop with a 10” Black Birch about 9’ long. Almost stopped to offer a hand but figured I’d just get hurt in the deal lol.

 

Been there done that in both cases. Flashback to my old hoarding method.

 

Back to the dead oak scrounging. On today’s menu: white oak that was felled recently as part of a roadside cutting. Sapwood mostly rotted away but solid heartwood.

What’s left to cut still. There’s a dead chestnut oak next to it but too far gone for the effort involved.

 

When you split that will you separate out heartwood only and sapwood on splits?

I discovered a dead WO blowover behind the shed at storage recently and will process that way. Been dead for several years. GM victim I believe.

 

Yes these rounds are nasty enough to where I'll put the outer splits aside for the fire pit/camping wood. Good thing the heartwood is solid though. I've recently gotten into the habit of separating the primo from the sub-par. This was also a gypsy moth killed tree.

 

A little taste of cherry this morning:

 

A few rounds of dead ash. Time constraints prevented me from getting a full load but I’m sure the rest will still be there whenever I head back to the area.

 

today ended up being a repeat of yesterday load wise. The larger trunk sections turned out to be rotten. I got what I could salvage anyway.

On the way home I spotted a junk pile at the road where a house just sold. The hoarder in me had to have this Coleman stove.

 

Holy cow! I'd like to find a junk pile like that. I have a warm place in my heart for the old Coleman stoves and lanterns. Glad you were able to rescue it!

 

I’ve eaten countless meals made with one of those stoves growing up. We camped a lot.