How do you value a scrounge?

I have plenty of acreage to cut my own wood, but I still am always on the lookout for a good scrounge!

I won't go out of my way to get crappy wood. But sometimes the ad lures me in. Tonight is a 30 mile drive for " birch and oak". We all know sometimes these turn in to a pile of rotten pine....

So how far do you go for bonus wood? How do you determine if it's worth it to go?

 

random wood pic cause who wants to read a post with no pics?

 

I drove as far as 35 miles one way....always make sure i can fill up my 16 ft trailer (at least 2 cords).
Only premium wood..(locust,oak,hickory,mulberry,beech,etc.)
I screwed up last year,answered an cl ad....went there with my small trailer(big one was loaded)...locust,oak,hickory,maple. There was a stack....1 row...stacked 6 ft high....at least 250 yards long...it was stacked for a year. The guy purchased 14 acres n cleared off 5....township wouldnt give him permits .....so he sold the property (township surpervisor bought it n he refused to give the wood to him) Very nice guy. By the time i unloaded big trailer(next day).....it was gone when i called.....

 

Great Pics!! An hour round trip at least... for oak yes but white birch here rots amazingly fast! Depends do you have a trailer or just truck? Is it kinda on way to somewhere?

 

I'm working a large oak just on the hill behind my property. Today, I drove past some primo road kill just dropped and I was salivating and scheming how I can get some in the vehicle!

 

I won't go on a Craigslist for birch unless there are some really good pictures of cross sections, and I can see they are not punky! Too many wasted trips in the past.

 

I only scrounge now if it is large premium btus’s, or has the potential to grow into a longer term gig. I had one scrounge that turned into about eight 20 ft trailers of 4-12 inch ash. The guy cut the trees, and helped me load the trailer, and a few weeks later had more. The wheelbarrow full of sub par btu’s is old news. I burn over 10 real cords in the winter so I need some volume to make it worth my while. It all depends on your needs if you ask me. I have 75 acres behind me I can cut from, so I can be picky.

 

Well i got there to find an entire trailer and truck full of........ Totally rotten pine. Skunked again.

I told him no thanks as nice as I could. He felt bad enough that he gave me a truck load of his "good wood" that he uses for campfires.

I gotta stick to scrounging stuff on my way, or stuff with good pics

 

Furthest I've gone is 22 miles to get free wood, trees cut down the year or two before that had been shading a cranberry bog. An afternoon loading a truck with maples, pulling logs out of the ditches aside the bogs, cutting them to fit in a tractor bucket to get dumped in a truck.
The next day the same place cutting down dead standing oak. The people that owned the bogs really wanted us to come back and take more, cleaning up their trails in the woods for them but 22 miles each way was a bit much without investing in a trailer.

Right now I have more than enough on my own place so I;m not looking anywhere.

 

Proximity. The closer the better.

 

I have learned a valuable lesson in life and that is contentment.

I'm am content in almost every aspect of my life, except that woodpile,,!

I will be more picky going forward...

 

Well.. I look at it as there are different kinds of scrounges.

Helping friends/family out is one way. Assitsing to clear storm-downed trees/branches, is rewarding on multiple levels. Distance is usually not a concern.

CL or FB listings is another way. 15-20miles max. I'll drive, take a look at what's there and decide if I'm interested. I have no problem turning away from a pile of junk.

And finally, happenstance roadside or town dump pickings. Most always a good way to get wood. I was on vacation a year ago, down to Hyannis on Cape Cod. Where I was staying had just cut down several small ornamental apple trees. I talked the maintenance guy up, and the cut pieces ended up in the back of my van.

 

I agree with this entire post!

 

You 16' trailer must be larger than this 18' trailer because this is 1.2 cord and .6 in the 8' bed of the truck.

 

I stack it as tight as i can get it...do the math....16 x7x2.5.....probly 95% of the people who load pickups or trailers are chuckers...

 

The farthest for me was a 218 mile round trip for a truckload of wood. But wait, there has to be a reason right? About a month ago I made a trip out to my son's house, on then on to WeldrDave 's place to meet up with him. He was doing some cutting and I ended up with a load. I was going to visit him anyway so the wood was just a bonus. But, that's my record distance.Usual distance is 15 to 20 miles from friends homes.

 

I got plenty of my own wood and currently have at least a 30 year plan going (no joke).

But for me, I am a little different (hard to believe I know), so in terms of finding woodlots to cut as a logger, the furthest ever was 150 miles; a 3 Hr-20 minute drive one way. I live very close to Belfast and the woodlot was literally on the Maine/NH border in Fryeburg, Maine. It was so far that I spent the week there, and traveled on the weekends. It was so close to the border that I had dinner every night in North Conway, NH.

Other woodlots have been well over an hour away in Waldoboro (twice) and one in Manchester.

They came about; not because of desperation, but just because I know of people; like the Waldoboro woodlot was because I bought a pickup and the car salesman needed some logging done. And the one in Fryeburg was a friend of a friend in the logging business.

 

I guess like some others here I consider a “good scrounge” on two factors: 1) what is the wood, and 2) how much effort is involved in getting it. I will certainly consider driving farther for oak, hickory, locust, etc than I would for pine or poplar. I guess my personal mathematic formula is based on ROI- Return on Investment. If I’m picking up a free load of locust or oak, I consider that to be a free $100 based on a stacked full 8 foot truck bed load. If it’s my truck bed and my trailer, that like a free $250- $325. Now, if it’s a bed of pine or poplar, it’s worth considerably less to me so I’m less willing to drive much out of my way.
The other part of the consideration for me is the ease (or difficulty) in getting into the truck. The other day, I posted a load I got that was Craigslist posted and was truly cut and stacked hardwood literally at the curb. I filled my truck, went back last week on my way to the airport and filled up another truck bed. Literally no one was taking the wood! I have to go up again to fly out next week, and you can bet I’m driving up to see if I can get a third free load. It is so easy that I can’t believe it’s just sitting there. I’m loading a whole truck load in about 10-15 minutes.
On the flip side, I went to an oak scrounge that was about 75% cut up where they had dropped the tree...and the homeowner said he didn’t want me driving on anything not paved, and no wheelbarrow or anything wheeled on his grass. Since I had already driven to the house, I was not leaving without that wood. I hand carried about 40 12-14 inch rounds by hand, about 60 yards up a slight upgrade to put them in my truck. I was plumb exhausted but I felt like after all the effort there was no way I was leaving it behind! I don’t think I will ever take another scrounge where the owner won’t allow vehicle access or usage of a wheelbarrow.
Bottom line is, there’s no such thing as a “bad” free scrounge as long as the wood isn’t bad, but there are a couple of factors that you need to personally consider whether it would be a good scrounge for you.