Now that I finally have a truck, I can keep an eye open on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and roadside tree trimming for scores. I caught one Monday around 3 am when I couldn't sleep on Craigslist that had posted 12 hours before that. After exchanging emails, I found out he had several no shows and the wood is still available. Monday in the evening, he emails me that he and this other guy are cutting up the wood more as the logs are too big to load, and he'll let me know if he finishes up in time for me to come over. In the end, he tells me that they are 20" rounds by 29" long. They are too long for our stove. So they will need to be cut down. I believe our stove can take 24" logs, but I would go a max of 20". I told him I'll bring my splitter to split them down to more workable sizes, and I'll bring my saw with me as well. My son and are I are headed there tonight. The big piece for me is free firewood. Now my thoughts are turning to a trailer as the original pile according to the donator was 2+ truck loads. My wife is going to kill me. Especially with the expense of the truck, the woodshed and the possibility of a trailer. Ugh, I need to find one of those money trees. This also means that my final coat of paint on the rabbit hutch is slipping out a couple of days. I think I will need to take my lunch break today and do the painting them. Normally when I WFH, I'll work right through lunch. Today I'll actually take mark myself away and go paint for an hour. That should be enough time to get the second coat on for the inside. With that coat on, I'll be able to put the wire back on the floor and the walls so she can't chew the painted wood. I'm going to put in place, and then put the exterior barn red paint on it with her in it. I'll just take her out and put her in the pen we have for the yard while I paint. That will give her some fresh grass to eat. That looks like one truckload to me, but there might be more that is out of the picture. Oh, and this listing popped up on Craigslist that I emailed about tonight when I couldn't sleep. Waiting to hear back on that load. That would be my Wednesday night.
Sounds like a great patch of wood to acquire, they may be a little long but cut them up to your liking and make some ugly/chunkies for those 9-10 inch cuts you’ll have from your first pick up. Primo stuff anyways. It’ll work out in the end. Hopefully your wife will see that you and your son got some work done and it’s working toward keeping the house warm. What’s the mule that’s transporting the BTU’s? Not sure what you have for space in the bed but splitting or noodling those in half may work as well and then spit them more as they come off the truck at home might yield a more efficient system?
You’ll do just fine. Normally I don’t split the wood on others property and splitters don’t usually take to freeway speeds but whatever works best for you and what you worked out with the owners.
No highway speeds, but good point about not splitting wood on someone else's property. Maybe I'll just take my saw and if they are too big to load, we'll cut them down and then load. Jason
Did someone say trailer? 6x10 log loading dump trailer. Ya know, for those restless nights. Free wood, a blessing and a curse You’ll know exactly what I mean when you drive away with that first load. The bug will have bit. Nice score, nice wood. Two 9’s will stack on top of 20’s nicely.
I think we talked about your trailer before in a thread you put up. That is the size I want to get. Especially with the dump option. Yeah, the 20's and the 9's will stack so well together. Oh well, I learned that beggars can't be choosers. It would have been better had he left the tree on the ground for me to cut up.
Yeah it’s better if they don’t chop them up. Saw a pic the other night,,,,late night early morning. Someone had chopped a whole tree into little cookies and was giving away free wood. It’s like, WHY? WHY DO THAT? Maybe it was a dream, a bad one. A 6x10 is a great size for a 1500. I’ve noticed that trailer makers keep the tires towards the rear which puts more weight on the tongue the longer they get. Somewhat obvious I guess but I never really noticed that before. 10 foot will maintain a decent balance without squatting the truck.
The first pile of free wood is not happening. Yesterday he was cutting it up smaller which I don't think it needed to be, but it's his prerogative. Tonight I was supposed to go with my son, but it was raining and he didn't want to do it. He said he could do it tomorrow night, but I am already committed to the other pile. Tomorrow night I meet with the second guy. In the process of exchanging texts with him, he tells me that he has 15 more trees to take down. Then asks what log length I'd like them in. I told him I'd take as much of the 15 trees as he's willing to part with, and immediately contacted my cousin who has a 12' trailer to see if I could use that. I'd call his brother who also burns wood and lives pretty close to the guy. That way we'd both get a ton of wood out of this. Plus my cousin with the trailer said he'd bring his truck and help out. Two trucks, the trailer and 4 bodies. This just might have turned into a very fruitful score. Mind you I don't know what the 15 trees look like. Below is a picture of what I am picking up tomorrow. If the rest look like this, we are golden. Well, you never know until you get there. Jason from RI
Looks like a lot of fun to me! I’m a one man show when CSS. having some partners would be nice once and a while, but then you have to share the wood so...
Yes Same thing has happened before. You doing the part will likely yield a fruitful outcome. Haha we’re all excited for you!
I blindly took some tress once taking the guys word for it. He said some pine mostly oak. It turned out to be the opposite! I had already committed so it all went on the trailer.
Last night I picked up the first load from the last pic I posted. That pile is two truck loads. Sorry, I forgot to get a pic of the truck loaded. My son and I are going back tonight to get the rest of that load. I'll get a pic of that load. The important piece is that I was able to talk to the owner of the property. 12 more hardwood trees to take down, 3 pines. When we bring the trailer he can load it with his tractor. Loading the truck is by hand. Which is fine with me. I went to take the tailgate off the truck but didn't see a quick disconnect for the camera. Today I will look at the book to see if there is a disconnect. There must be. It's all a learning process. With a full load, she looked good. Didn't sit down at all. Time will tell for sure, but I believe I hit the right person with this score. Knocking on wood. Jason from RI
