It depends on how desperate I've been. In the last 25 years, I pre planned and was smart about getting wood at "every chance" I could till I knew I was full for my 3 year limit. Prior to that I would grab anything I could, when I could, just to get me through the winter. I once drove about 40 miles one way for some seasoned oak that was advertised as "free" in the paper. When I got there it was "Barely" a level pick up load and some was rotten.
The further ahead I get, the more picky I am, like many here. At this point, if I can't back my truck up to it, I'll pass. I'll also pass on low btu stuff, since I can get pine bucked and delivered whenever I need more - which should be a few years. Everyone around here is scared of pine, so tree services will go out of their way to drop it off without having to pay for the priviledge. When I was running the owb, all bets off. I've driven forty miles one way for a good score.. gotta stay warm!
A good scrounge is getting paid to cut the tree & haul it off. A really good scrounge is getting paid to cut, haul, & they burn the brush. Furthest I ran years back was about 30 miles to a friend's farm. He had a bunch of Oak that needed to go & I needed wood. It worked out well.
I guess the value I use when judging a scrounge is just how long that particular load of wood will last...2 days? a week? 2 weeks? I got two scrounges this fall and the wood is just about gone from them. About a month worth of heat and hot water.
Furthest I've gone is about 10 miles one way, farmer clearing land so take as much as you want kinda deal Pulled about 20 or so cord home with my 3 ton repurposed grain truck, all oak and ash Still a ton more, probably enough for 10 years for me But..... found another area 2 miles away with a buttload of standing trees, haven't looked what it is yet I won't go with a pickup as not really worth the time involved so I will let someone else know about it and hope it works for them Loading a truck by hand that holds 4 cords is not overly appealing so I've always been lucky and had a front end loader available I tried a tree guy a while back, to him everything is oak or ash, lol!! Brought me poplar and Manitoba maple (boxelder)he thought I was nuts when I told him and adamant it was oak and ash lol!
I drive 45 miles or so to get wood from the golf course my buddies dad runs. They cut down so many trees each winter that they don't have room for them. I run out we spend the day playing with toys ( back hoe, skid loader, chainsaws, eat Mexican food) then load the wood up in in our trucks and drive it out to my house. When their pile gets pretty big I rent a dump trailer and make a handful of trips over the weekend. This is my 2nd season burning the outdoor wood boiler. We had it installed last sept was supposed to be in earlier but they were trying to finish up other jobs and I wasn't for certain it would be installed. So I bought 1 cord of dry wood to get us going. I have several trees that need to come down on my property of ive cut down and they are just a pita to get to with the hill being so high and at a steel angle. I still check out the Cl and FB ads. And when I drive into the city to work I see trees being cut down I stop and ask if they are keeping it or want to get rid of it. Im running rookie numbers here and trying to go towards major league horder
Best scrounge is when they bring it to me. and yes that is locust in that load. the guy in the pic has upgraded to a dump truck and has brought me several loads of walnut.
I've driven about 30 miles max for a scrounge, but usually its within a 15 mile radius of home. This year it's been mainly roadside EAB ash. I'm getting closer to that 3 year plan, and have become a bit of a wood snob. If I dont get to play with my saw and cut it to my preferred length, I will often pass. I will usually take a ride by in the company car during the day to scope out what they have before deciding if its worth of driving the ol jalopy over.to load it up.
Some of the CL scrounges I go on are too far to be practical, especially as my car only holds a quarter cord of splits. I go just for fun sometimes. Last summer I leapfrogged 3 carloads of hawthorn from a scrounge 37 miles away to my brother's driveway in the next town over. Then the following weekend, I picked up the three loads at my brother's place and brought them home. It turned out to be great wood, but I don't think I'll do anything like that again.
I've gone about 10 miles a couple of time to get some silver maple. I was helping a friend get rid of some storm damage at his home.
That's a common occurance here after Nor-Easters! Maples are very shallow rooted here in the sandy soil and generally the first to go over! I've burn't many tons of maple! Been lucky lately, I'll have 3 full years of all oak after this last load I got.
I'll do 10 - 15 miles, maybe more if it's good stuff that I don't see much of like locust,hickory,mulberry, or beech. I always look at ads with pics so I can see its decent, no pics I'll kindly ask for a picture just so am not disappointed when I arrive. Mostly everything around here is oak, oak and more oak and maple. I've been holding off on scrounging as I need to build more racks or build that big wood shed floating around in my head that will house my yet to be purchased splitter, lawn tractor and a couple of cords of wood
The kicker for me is when they say they have a grapple loader and I just have to show up with my dump trailer. If it's just a regular scrounge I have to know I'll be the only one there, my truck and trailer hold a lot and I'm not driving an hour to compete for the wood with someone else that showed up before me. I generally don't scrounge much anymore, people call and ask me to pickup or if they can just come and dump.
I know it, I suck. Everything I get is dumped by tree guys. Scrounging is done by picking up the phone and telling somebody to bring me wood. Grapple loads from one guy and rounds from a few others depending on my mood.
