Got two more loads of mostly oak home this past weekend, on the way home I noticed that the Truck scale wasn't occupied on the interstate so I grabbed a quick weight. 1,900 lbs, for just the trailer, which is a slight overload... The whole rig came to 7,200, now I just need to hit it empty to see how much of that is wood. Oak is heavy.
When I go on my walks down our road, I see a great deal of standing dead trees. Obviously the land is owned by someone, but it's not near a house. Should I bother to go to the town hall to determine whose land it is? Then contact them asking for permission to go in and cut down the standing dead trees? One thought I had was to ask for permission, and then tag the trees with a ribbon. This would allow the home owner's to go in and take a look at what I am purposing to drop. There is a great deal of land by us owned by the RI Land Trust. They are another source I could seek permits to go in and drop standing dead. Please let me know your strategies when scrounging for wood.
You should absolutely determine whose land it is first, and do not set foot in there until you get permission. You wouldn't want to be caught trespassing by someone like me. And I'd be especially angry if you were cutting my trees, standing dead or not. But you probably don't need to go to the town hall to determine the owner. You can probably find tax maps online which enumerate each piece of property in your town or county. Some may even have phone numbers listed.
I've nosed in where I maybe shouldn't have to get a load before--kinda thrilling...heck I've been thrown out of better places than this before!(no animals were harmed in the taking of this wood)
See if your county has an online tax website thats how I get into contact with land owners. Its all common info that you should be able to access online or just buy a plat book.
Oak is heavy! Sounds like a single axle utility trailer? Just make sure it's in good shape and haul away!
It's a carry-on trailer from tractor supply, with a 2,000 lb dexter axle. I may be pushing the weight beyond the manufacturers safe rating of 1,250 lbs, but don't know what the trailer weighs empty. My grand caravan is up to the job though, 3,000 lb yow rating.
Yep. I don't care if it's dead, alive, up, down, or sideways. If you're on someone else' property w/o permission, it's trespass. If you're cutting their trees, it's theft. I'll continue saying this every time someone asks the question (and it comes up fairly often).........if it's not yours, it belongs to someone else. Period.
Starting to see private property signs along the road into the cutting area Guessing someone helpe themselves to a few easy roadside trees.
Stealing is still stealing! I get soooo tired of neighbors doing it. (Poaching for critters too) The angry side of me wants to hack down their yard trees no difference in my mind. Eye for an eye! One idiot I caught hunting at my parents place for grouse out of season my dogs and I (on the quad)ran down. His face was purple hiding under a turned over root clump, dogs barking at him. Thought he was going to croak he was gasping for breath. He could run! Turns out he is supposed to be a real smart guy. I asked him who he was where he lived(spilled the beans like a little kid in trouble) if he knew who's land he was on etc. Then said you look just like that guy on all my trail cams! As the look of oh sh!t came over him I mentioned poaching laws and trespassing(he knew more than I did!), all the posted signs 10 feet apart..... Googling him, He's a college admin/professor at a semi "prestigious" school with a 10+page super impressive resume(NASA was on there a few times). He Could easily afford his own property. I honestly think if I did not mention the trail cams he would be back.
Education does not make a person smart. Sometimes just the opposite He may not be smart enough to afford/own his own land Prestige of the educated elite, the rules don't apply to them
Cutting wood is not different than hunting. Ask, the worst they can tell you is to "pack sand, get out and never come back". When I was hunting out of state, I had plat books for 4 counties and amassed 20,000 acres to hunt pheasants in Iowa. After 20 years in one area, I got to know a lot of other people and that got me into a lot of other places, grey hair didn't hurt either and an ability to speak Iwegian. For wood, the last few years I have gotten permission to log landings prior to the first stick being cut. I know the loggers and they tell me where they were going. I also referred a few jobs to them. For one landowner, I worked half a dozen days cutting firewood for him and clearing edges of fields 9 months before the loggers were coming. He kept wanting to pay me but I told him, "I am fine, things will work out in the end." (for the last 2 years I cut 30 loads last year out of there and a 30 & 40 yard roll off container full. The bottom line, you have to put effort into making good fortune for yourself, it just doesn't happen.
I always ask first, it saves a lot of problems and could make friends. The worst they can do at that point say no. Anything else and you couldbe looking at the world through iron bars.
