All things considered I'd take the sugar maple over the white oak. Seasons a lot faster and burns about as good and long.
The DOT contractors have taken a huge volume of trees down along the Parkway in the Wallingford/North Haven area. They chipped it all. I could only imagine how much firewood that would have been! There are also some trees being taken down for the new interchange that’s going in for the 91, 15, 691 project.
Yes on our major thoroughfares they do not want firewooders stopping and cutting. For those not familiar with Ct a turkey on the side of a major highway can cause a 20 mile backup and be on the local evening news Not making that up, it was real. People pulled over with chainsaws could cause Armageddon. So on those major roads the state came up with the chipping the trees inhibits undergrowth theory. It works for a couple years but then everything starts growing in the chips and they’re so deep the mowers never go in there. Turns into a jungle within about five years if left alone. On the more lonely rural routes they may or may not chip whole trees. Depends on the contractor they hire and what equipment they may have. The state doesn’t really care if firewooders cut there as long as the vehicles are not a traffic danger. I’ve seen them invite cutters along a certain stretch awhile back.
On the Parkway, they had a massive mobile chipper that put the chips into large open top tractor trailers. They were actually following behind the crew with what looked like a flail mower/mulcher mounted to a mini/medium excavator. Thinking maybe they’ll actually mow that going forward. Time will tell!
A tree service guy was so happy that I took about 15 cords of free logs from him lats week (mostly maple, oak, elm, and red pine) that he just about hugged me. I guess the ratio of big dying yard trees to firewood hoarders favors the hoarders here in SE Michigan. I could get 100+ cords of free logs a year if I made a minimal effort, and probably 10X that much if I contacted all local tree services and offered them a hot cup of coffee for a free load of logs in the winter. Most the tree guys make far too much money doing their thing to mess around with firewood on the side. Some hackberry, red oak, red maple, Norway maple, and red pine from a few of 10 free loads. All big trunk sections. No small branches, nothing rotten, and no dead raccoons included.
Beautiful morning today just below freezing. I made it back to the dirt road to continue on. I started with a little white oak (buried from view in the front) then moved on to some hickory. Then I came across a smaller red oak that will be perfect to split the rounds in half before stacking it. Having space in the bed still, I topped off the load with some dead ash that was down close to the road. My pile of wood at home waiting to be split and stacked is growing quickly. There’s beech, sugar maple, white/red oak, hickory, ash, black birch and a little bigtooth aspen in these rows. For as many loads as I sold this year, I’ve been replenishing it quickly. Trying to wrap up this year’s quota before the heat inevitably sets in.
Not a full load this morning but enough to scratch the itch. A few dead ash rounds in the back by the tailgate, and the rest is hickory.
Absolutely man. Gotta get while the getting's good because you never know when a dry spell might roll in
Same here. I just worked fri, sat, and sun on a friend's house to surprise his wife. He runs a tree service and told me I can have all the wood, and he would even deliver it! He also knows how to cut and save saw logs.
Youve been a member for nearly four years and I've never seen you have a dry spell, but I like the way you think!
LOL usually when I do, they're self-imposed due to extreme summer temperatures. You're right though, scrounges are almost endless in CT when you know where to look.
Yeah I hear ya on the hot weather. Be interesting to see how long either of us has gone without hoarding any wood.
No not weather cutting for me unless it is to help someone or one down in the corn or beans somewhere.
A quick sunset load. Mostly red maple with some dead red oak up front and some sassafras limbs buried underneath.
