I live on a residential street in a dense suburb. A couple of hours ago a chipper truck drove by, followed by a pickup carrying several large trash cans. Shortly thereafter I heard chainsaws revving up, and went out for a look. A neighbor four doors down had had a standing dead black locust fall over on their steeply sloped back yard, and get hung up in a live tree. I arrived to find it already taken down, being bucked and thrown down the slope to the front. I asked, and they were happy to give it away. Three quick trips with my station wagon and I've got somewhere around half a cord, most of the bark already fallen away. The first piece I split, a round about 13" in diameter, metered at 18%.
Good thing you were home and had your eyes open to what was going on down the street. That is the natural instinct of a hoarder/scrounger. You get KUDOS for that!!!
Yea, we're nuts. Start a chain saw in hearing distance, we run to it like bugs to light. Great score!
Very nice prize, that black locust. It provides the longest burns that our stove can do. At 18% it is ready-to-use. Great score!
To be fair, the 18% is probably a bit optimistic, because meters read low in the cold. The upper parts of the tree, at least, are sure to be usable now. The guys from the tree service were quick to offer to drop off more wood when they're working in the area, but I'm hesitant to open that door for fear of getting more than I have space for. Nearly so. Not only was it close by, it was UPHILL and close by.
Gravity can be very useful when the wood is still round and on the high side. I hope you got their number. Let them deliver, no wear and tear on your vehicle or you. Get a relationship with the owner so that you can call him every year or so and have wood appear in your yard.
That could be very nice, but part of my reluctance is that I don't want to irritate my neighbors with a lot of chainsaw noise. Houses are very close together here, and scrounging wood elsewhere means I can do the cutting off-site. I think there must've been some snowflakes on that test piece, throwing off the reading. I brought a split in the house overnight, resplit it this morning and it metered at 12%. My basement is cool, so the temperature correction bumps it up to 13%. I haven't been able to find a species correction chart for black locust, but from what I've read that's rarely more than 2% in either direction, so this stuff is probably at 13%-15%. I guess there's nothing to do but toss some in the stove and see what happens... (One minute later...) Yep, it burns. Tossed a piece on hot coals, held the door open a crack to give it a breeze, and it flamed up in less than 30 seconds. Hee.
Jon, Explain your concern about making too much noise with your saw because of close neighbors. Let them know you would be happy to accept fire wood length pieces. A lot of times they have to cut the bigger pieces to length to be able to load them. You might be surprised. (A cooler of cold sodas/Gatoraide while you talk & receive wood never hurts.) While a cold beer at the end of the day may be appreciated, in reality it is not a great idea while they are in company vehicles.
+1 I have a guy who does that for me. If dumping at your house is less than driving time/mileage and paying tipping fees then he might be pretty motivated to cut to your specs.
I'm not sure I've heard a saw quiet enough for regular use in my neighborhood. My cutting area is about 10' from my neighbor's side door.
