To Scrounge or Not to Scrounge, That is the Question?

Two recent Facebook offers for free wood have really put me questioning if scrounging is worth my time and effort.

The first scrounge:

She had a picture of a large oak tree down, and when I chatted with her, she told me that neighbors have been clearing the branches away. When I arrived the bulk of the tree was gone with only the crap pieces left. I made the mistake of trying to help remove these large pieces of junk that took me a very long time to get prepped. Then the rain came. After all of that work and leaving the site with no wood, I did not want to go back. In fact, I wish I had just walked away in the first place. Lesson learned.

The second scrounge: (same weekend)

The person showed a picture of a large oak on the ground that had all of the branches removed. I arrived to find it intact so I could cut it to any length I needed. Yet this trees was much larger than she told me. Not 24" in diameter. Try 32" at the top and larger at the base. I can cut it, but I knew I was going to have a heck of a time getting it into my truck. My instinct at the time was to go get the splitter and cut these into manageable rounds to split onsite. I went against that and cut the first one at 60". I didn't have everything I needed to get the log on the truck. My initial plan was to lift the back end leaning it on the tailgate and then sliding it in. There was no hope of this.

I returned the next day with chains, coma-along, a block, blocking and pry-bar. With the log at the top of the ramp, it got hung up on the rounded off bolt first. After I was past that, it hung up on the ramp connects on the ends of the planks. I had my daughter operate the coma-along and I lifted both planks to get the log off the connector. Well the log didn't like that and shifted very quickly to my right and off the ramp. In the process taking out my rear passenger break light lens. I got a quote from the local dealer, $647 to replace the hole brake light. You cannot just replace the lens. I am buying the part for $430 and a friend is installing it for free.

I haven't decided yet whether I'll go back with the splitter and complete the job or not. It's cost me far more than if I had just purchased a load of logs. Writing this, I just want to just lick my wounds and walk away. Let some other person go in and remove it. Finish cleaning up my deck for processing and order a load of logs in the spring.


Lessons in life can be very expensive. So long as you learn from them and no one is hurt, then the money spent is worth it. Not the kind of money I want to dole out right now, but better than hospital bills.


Jason from RI

 

I use to man handle big rounds and struggle loading,. I gave up on that, to much wasted energy and back pain. Now I always take the iso core and wack them into handleable size Or if you can get your splitter in there even better. May take longer to buck and split on site but well worth it, especially oak.

 

Tough break. I'm in agreement, having a load of logs dropped at your house is a sure thing and many people choose this route. When I'm out and about scrounging, I avoid large unwieldly stuff like the plague. I shoot for no bigger than 24" and prefer 12-18" diameter. Bringing the splitter along to break the big stuff down first is where I'll take exception.

 

If your time is worth more to you than the firewood buy the logs & enjoy processing them. For me the math is pretty simple, I have to save more in scrounging than it costs to heat otherwise. Doesn't matter what "otherwise" is. That being said I may not be offering the most practical advice here. I've bought & paid for a metric chit ton of equipment for firewood work. I don't "scrounge" anymore. We do both standing & downed tree removal & charge accordingly. There's a reason that big stuff gets left on sight, it costs to remove it. I am helping out a couple friends with bigger acreages by removing the quality logs "free" of charge. We work at those jobs when we can & don't chip or remove brush. That wood has some value as firewood so I will do that. It has to have good access, a place to deck logs & a bare minimum of 10 cord or it's not worth it. I hope I'm not coming off badly here, but I think anyone can & should simply scale up or down in wood gathering & heating to make sure the reward is what they want on a personal level. I have certainly paid my "tuition" in the school of damaged equipment, back aches etc. just as you are. It's all part of the game. The good part is you get to make the rules.

 

Tackle the jobs you have the tools for.
If you're working for free you get to be picky. Too big, walk away. Too small, walk away.
Time is money. Use it wisely.
Pick your battles. Sometimes you have to get in a fight or two to identify that line in the sand.
You gotta be quick though to snag the easy jobs.
Sure beats vegging out in front of the boob tube absorbing propaganda.

 

If you don’t have the equipment to handle the big stuff, noodle it.
I personally get some weird perverse joy out of scrounging. Have plenty on my own property. For some inexplicable reason I enjoy getting it elsewhere for free.

 

am I the only one who has a had time cutting logs the long way. “Noodles” my chain is sharp. Do I have the wrong chain?

 

It its a crap shoot what you can get or get yourself into. It all depends on what you are willing to do for the wood. Very seldom do i score wood on CL or FBM. Sometimes they pan out and sometimes they dont. Ask for updated pics and/or go inspect the prior to committing. Sorry to hear of the broken tail light. Casualties of scrounging as i call them.
My last two social media scores were referrals from Eric Schamell. One worked out great and the other never responded back.

I try to avoid bigger than 20" wood as without equipment its too much grunt work for my liking unless its real easy to access or black locust!

 

Could be the chain. Take a pic of your saw and chain and show us. Do you sharpen the chain?

 

It’s a ms 290 with the regular chain they put on it. Not the safety chain. I upgraded to the green one haha. I believe micro chisel but that could be my top hand saw 540xp

yes I sharpen it. I recently bought a cheap harbor freight chainsaw grinder I’m surprised how good that thing dose.

when I am cutting down a tree and bucking I get great chips some noodles from the last maple I cut.

 

Here is how I break it down. Right now as I continue to build my supply up, I am buying 2 tons of Envi-8 blocks per season. The cost this year went up to $650 for both tons. I like them as they burn clean and I can store a ton easily in our living room.

That said. the goal is to eventually get off the Envi-8 blocks. I would need 9-12 cords as I burn around 3-4 cords per season. Right now I have 2 cords cut on the ground in the back. Another 3-4 cords worth of wood in log form. I have enough wood for 2 years from now already. If I bought a full load this spring ($100/cord or $500 for a full load of 5.5 cords) to put me ahead. The sooner I can get my total amount of cords built up, the sooner I can start dropping the bricks.

Anything I can scrounge for would only further reduce my overall cost.

Thanks for all of the advice.


Jason

 

How close are you to Middletown, RI? How close to route 138?

 

I've been there before boettg33 . Probably will again because a hoarder can't help it.

Last summer a guy less than 5 minutes from me was building a house. He had trees pushed over. It was a ton of wood there. Problem was, everything was pushed down a hill. 2 huge chestnut oaks were in the front. It was taking me forever to get those chestnut oaks out.

A guy who owns a mill came with equipment and took what he wanted. It was no problem for him. He left a bunch of great wood that was smaller, but still down hill. My son and I worked on the pile. It was hot, no shade, and up hill. We took several loads out with my Tahoe, because trailer was FUBAR. One point my 15 y/o son said, "Dad, is this worth it? I'm getting beat and I'm in much better shape and younger than you. This isn't worth killing yourself over."
He was right. We took another load out, and we never went back. It hurt to leave that wood there. But it wasn't worth it.

Since then I still scrounge, but if it's going to kill me, or take forever, forget it. I'm gonna buy a triaxle of logs. Yes, it's gonna cost money. But I figure it's still cheaper than oil that I would be buying if I wasn't butning. Plus I can cut at my own pace at home.

Someday I'll like to have the equipment and time to take on the large trees and scrounges with difficult access. But until then I'll live through those that have the equipment like amateur cutter and others.

 

Green or yellow? The green label chain doesn't noodle well. Full chisel seems to be the best ime. Make sure to keep the bar tip well below the power head & the tip out past the end of the log, all this helps with chip clearance. As Chud said, it's helpful if you post a pic of the chain.

 

I am 7 miles south of rte 138 by URI. Middletown is over 2 bridges for me, but maybe 30 minutes depending on where in Middletown.

 

I may be working in Middletown for a couple days and staying over. I have some wood there which id gladly drop off for you on my way home. Fresh cut dead/green Norway maple and maybe some cherry cut back in April. I live next to New Haven so 2 hour ride home.

 

I was doing it wrong at first. I was trying to cut the round across the face like splitting with an axe or maul.
Once the guys here corrected me and I laid the round on it’s side and cut down the side( like splitting a fence rail) then the process got clear to me and was fast.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I’ll have to try that out thank you.