Some of you may remember my pending score from the thread Staff Meeting. I drove by Sunday evening and all was well with the world. Monday at the last minute instead of going to hit the scrounge I decided to load and unload another batch of firewood into mom’s basement and do some cleanup in the processing area in advance of the conveyor move to firewood for sale. Someone came along Monday and snagged a whole lotta the good oak. All the big long straight trunk pieces are gone. Much of the nice straight branch wood is gone. Left me the stubs and crotches. They used machinery, no sawdust from cutting logs on the ground. Before the heist. After the heist.
Anyway I got me a load of short and fats. PIA to load short logs. Just further up the road they didn’t touch what I’m hoping is a sugar maple. A double tree that broke apart when falling. I was thinking the vines may be bittersweet. Looking closer after it was too late to care I noticed the reason I was t seeing three leaves is many of them have already fallen off LOL. Took a nice hot shower when I got home
You got robbed and still made out like a bandit yourself Nice stash of oak and you’re right about that being sugar maple.
Glass 1/4 full type of guy heh? LOL. Yeah I got some but somebody made out big time. Had to be a log truck. I thought maybe the town guys snagged up the nice stuff for themselves but there weren’t even tire tracks from a backhoe driving in to hoist em out. I just went down to the wood dump on the off chance Asplundh brought the nice stuff there for the townsfolk to cut. Nope, no there, nothing but rotten junk there. I then took a ride through “The Racetrack” to see if someone had cleaned that up. Not cleaned up, they’re still cutting there, lots more wood. Some nice fat and shorts but a very dangerous place to stop unless you have traffic control. Steep banks on the side of the road too. I see those chunks rolling down and taking out a trailer, passing car or some idiot holding a wireless controller LOL. The fever will have to be pretty high before I go there.
You’re thinking what I’m thinking arent ya? Where the heck was Brad yesterday? That dirty low down,,,,,,,,,,
LOL!!! Wasn't me. You know how I feel about oak. Besides I'd be there helping you load and direct traffic. Know the feeling as ive been "robbed" myself. Thinking a score will be there the next day or two and I arrive and bam...its gone. Few years back my "Keeping wood" sign was being used a lot. Although I've had the opposite happen. Good wood will sit for months untouched when I'm thinking it'll disappear right away. That PI covered maple made up for it.
Sorry you lost out of that oak. I'm not so sure the racetrack find will be good. It sounds like an accident type find and could cost you a lot if things go wrong. Sometimes it is better to pass.
I had the same thing happen to me where a guy was building a house. It was probably about 15 cords or so. Variety of trees but lots of oak. Some really good size. I was cutting on it during a weekend. Skipped monday, came back tuesday and it was gone! Only logs left were way down the bank. I did find some birch I took but left the rest. A guy working at the house said some dude came in with his trailer, skid steer with grapple and the biggest saws he ever saw. Had it all loaded and gone within hours. Guys with the right equipment will always kick azz. Cant blame them. They're working smarter, not harder!
Yeah safety is my main criteria for roadside scrounges. Can I park off the road far enough? Does traffic have a good line of sight in both directions? My recent beech score had a blind curve but the road was wide enough and I was far enough for me to pull off. I would listen for oncoming cars as it was a blind curve. Forgot my cones too. Looking at Joe's pic of the trailer I'd be a bit nervous parked like that. Work safe and hoard on my fellow FHCers.
Roadside scrounges are pretty rare round these parts. I’d never even think of sawing on wood before a conversation with someone to “reserve” it. At least you had another location arranged.
You’re right of course about the racetrack. There are logs on the side of that road that been sitting there for many years. Nothing that ever got me excited enough to try. Picking on the side of that road is skill level Expert
So it’s the skipped Mondays that cause all this frustration,,,,,,,we may need to make a sticky on the forum. Never slack off on Mondays LOL It really is a crapshoot sometimes. I know a spot not far from me where there’s 5 nice red oak logs just laying on the side of the road for years now. If I knew then that nobody would want them I would have snagged them up. They’re not worth anything now tho. There were enough houses in the area I figured someone would cut em up.
Im a big stickler on safe parking too. This road is a scroungers dream. It’s almost a half mile of straight away right in that spot. A dead road too. It goes nowhere that another road won’t take you there faster. Three cars passed by the entire time I was there. That trailer pic was when I pulled out to grab one last small piece of sugar maple to fit in a hole. The only obstacles were the mailboxes that are on the opposite side of the road as the houses.
