I generally do all my hoarding on my own property as it's heavily wooded and 95% hardwood. However, the power company has been having tree companies do preventative maintenance around their lines and my street got done recently. Most of what they take is branches and those just go through the chipper. They did however drop 3 almost goldilocks sized trees into the woods along my street. They happened to be my least favorite woods BTU wise as two were cherry and one red maple. I just couldn't stand driving down the road every day for the next decade watching them slowly rot. So, on Sat morning the family and I saddled up and got to work. Had it all home in a few hours. Two of the trees, once cut into 24" rounds, I could lift into the trailer without issue. The last cherry was heavy enough that I could just roll the sections over the stone wall along the edge of the road. So, rather than over doing it and hurting my back, I brought the splitter down the road and quartered them. Anyways, nothing too exciting but a small hoard to report regardless.
Sweet....all fairly good wood, perhaps for shoulder season, or where oak isn't needed.... How much did you end up taking? I hear you about perfectly good wood being left to rot....I always think wood like that might be reserved for someone late to the hoarding game when oil prices creep up.... Sca
The trunks are what's in the pic and I took it all. Yes, good daytime or shoulder season wood. It's amazing how much is out there. In our town and all the surrounding towns, there is a ton on the side of the road. If it's in a wooded, undeveloped area, they just leave it behind to rot. On my street, no one would have grabbed it. It's a dead end road with 3 houses beyond where it was left. I'm one of the 3 being at the end. The other two don't heat with wood so unless the Amazon driver wanted it, it wasn't getting picked up unless I got on it...
Beauteous. Cherry might not win any awards in the BTU battles, but it still holds a coal bed for a while and smells great doing it
I saw an Asplundh pile this afternoon that spun my head around. It might be Ash or a Mystree. My 40mph opposite lane id skill is rusty. Miscellaneous lengths of lonely and vulnerable firewood.
Thanks guys... The only downside was completely unrelated to firewood. It was a glorious sunny day on Sat. We had a ton of things running. Chainsaws, splitter, tractor, ATV... We also had my 10 year old daughter's mouth running which is louder than all the previously mentioned items combined. Despite all this, a reclusive fisher was in the area and got our 1.5 year old cat right near the house. My wife and daughter are devastated. Kind of put a sour note on the scrounge.
Sorry to hear that. Ive lost outdoor cats to predators too. Weve had fishers around here. Scary sounding things around dusk. Two rivals ones were fighting and came out of the woods into our back yard. Scared the chit out of Ms.buZZsaw as i wasnt home. Horror movie sounding noises.
Yup, that's how I knew it was one of them as opposed to Coyotes. As I was out searching for my boy at 8:30PM, I heard one screaming in the woods.
Got the wood from the three trees split last week. Between that and what I have from spring cutting and processing, I am up to about 4.5 cords in the stacks behind the woodshed. If buZZsaw BRAD is right about the two I'm about to drop being another 2 cord, I'll be good to go with my stacks to refill the shed in the spring which holds around 6.5. It's a good feeling knowing 3 years of rotation will be done going into winter... Although, the other end in the cellar has begun its march downwards with nights getting down into the 30's now.
Well, the 30" of snow we got a couple weeks back is finally subsiding in the hill towns so today I headed up the road to grab a couple more utility company drops. This time they were bigger. A pin oak about 20" DBH and 20' long. No crotches on the main trunk. Just telephone pole straight goodness. The second was a red maple. The lowest BTU wood in my area but another 20" DBH 28' long pole of a log left in a perfect clearing with the oak so I couldn't pass it up. My neighbor owns the land and doesn't heat with wood. He told me to have at it so today I got it home with the help of my wife and daughter. I could have split in place but just wanted it home for now. So, I brought a set of old ATV ramps and my cant hook and rolled them into the dump trailer. Pretty much filled her up. She's 7X12' with additional side boards. I'm guessing around 1.5 cord. My processing area behind the barn is still buried so I'll leave the wood in the trailer till I see dry ground and then dump. I have one more that another neighbor has given me the green light on too. Red Oak about 22" DBH and maybe 20' long. It's on a hill that is still snowed in so when my splitting area is clear and I can dump the trailer, that tree should be clear too and I'll go grab it. Between that, the overage I had from last fall, and the breakage drops from the heavy 30" snowstorm we got, I'll have a full 3 years ready to go. The weigh safe hitch scale picture was a bit blurry but it was over 1500# on the ball.
I get almost overnight burns out of red maple. Usually enough coal to get some pine going in the morning. It's not so bad. Pretty much all I had this past Winter. Solid trunks sure are nice though. All the property owners are fed up with the 4 wheeler shenanigans on the power lines around here. Ruins it for everyone else. Hope the bugs and ticks stay hibernating for ya.
Red maple isn't bad wood for sure. It's great for shoulder seasons and I get all night burns out of a full firebox of it unless it's under 20 degrees outside. This year I haven't been able to do my usual March work with all the snow we got late. Luckily, I was way ahead last fall and these roadside gems put me back in the game. The utility has taken down so many trees this past winter that there is a glut roadside. I have my own wood to cut on my property but I can't watch trees rot because no one is willing to come grab the bigger stuff. It was just too easy to let it go being less than a mile from home and in a nice level clearing.
