A lady friend has been bugging me to come take care of some free oak at the end of her driveway. Her dad was supposed to take care of it all, but left one big round plus a 4' long log. Last night I had nothing going on, so I took a drive to collect my free bounty. As soon as I pulled up I knew I was in trouble. Both the round and the log were full of knots. The round had already been beat on quite a bit with no progress made. When I asked her about it she said her dad tried splitting it with a few different things but couldn't get it to pop. So she put it at the end of the driveway with a "free" sign on it and no one has claimed it. Lots of people have looked at it. But everyone has left it sitting. After 30 minutes of beating on the round with the x27, I managed to make a little progress but not much. Cried uncle for the night and told her I'd try to find someone with a log splitter that could take care of it. If I'm not able to, I'll buck the log into rounds, load it all up and toss it in my "needs more than the x27" pile. I'm new to this. First time I've ever walked away from "free". What makes you walk away or turn down "free" wood?
Yes I have , I actually have passed a couple times over the past few months. BRAD actually got in touch a few days ago about some white oak that was just cut and sitting curbside a mile or two away but I had to say no. I have a good size pile I need to split and stack now that I have not had time to get to and enough split for the next couple years , until I clean up what I have I just have to pass for now. I am however on the prowl for log length wood that I can band-saw mill , even with that I am still getting plenty of woof from all cutoffs from the outside of the logs. Some maybe a little more bark than I would like but still plenty of good burnable slabs as well.
If I never walked away from free firewood, I wouldn't have a backyard to walk in I used take anything and everything, even if I didn't know what it was. Now I try to be selective, although certain types of "lesser" woods I still won't shy away from. Free is never free when considering your time and labor.
Same here, I took everything when I started out. Now I am much more selective but like Eric Schamell said I still take lesser valued woods and yes time and labor is everything. My setup and process is pretty time and labor intensive so I have be prepared to take wood.
Too much available to me. I walk away all the time. Roadside wood is easy to get here. Like Eric Schamell i would have my yard and many others full of wood. Ive seen his yard and give him a ton of credit for his hoard organization. I have four areas yet to get wood that are confirmed. At least two PU fulls from each! I pick and choose. Has to be easy and quality wood and close to home. Over ten minutes is too far. Classic example: I was driving home Friday evening and come to a tree service doing a job. Bucked rounds of white oak stacked right next to the road. Manageable size too. I stop, ask and guys says help yourself. It was HARD to drive away. Called buzz-saw (he lives two minutes from me) and told him about it. Went by Saturday and still there. Hard to drive away again. Even mentioned it to Eric Schamell. Yesterday the rounds had been moved back next to the house. Guess they decided to keep them. I can sleep again! Certain species are on my dont take list...Elm, sycamore and gum. Softwoods too. Quality of rounds and ease of score my main criteria.
1. Sweet gum 2. "Free wood" that is closer to being compost than firewood 3. Wood that's just too small to mess with (literally mostly small limbs) or too large to be efficient and worth the effort 4. Owner's (of said "free wood") crazy expectations...
Yesterday I was loading wood up when two older guys in a truck pulled up. One said he lived at the top of the hill and around the bend, and there were four "dead oaks" in his pasture I was welcome to take. He promised there was easy drive-up access, and I was welcome to use his splitter if I wanted. Sounds like a sweat deal, right? I thought about it for a moment, and told him maybe I'd stop by at some undetermined future date. Even assuming there's no hidden gotcha to these trees, I don't have room for four big oaks right now, and I doubt he wants me to show up and take one at a time every six months. And I don't like working for an audience, and I got the feeling that this guy was definitely intending to be the supervisor. I guess I just like cutting where I can do it on my terms.
Yes, every time I drive by the local State Park. They have recently taken down some large Oaks that are just laying there all limbed up on hard surfaced paths waiting to be bucked up & hauled off. I have 32 cord here at home, another 20 cord @ my brothers farm & close to 1-1/2 cord laying in the field that still needs picked up. That said the heat & too busy with haying has made me say no as well as what seems to be hernia type symptoms have put me on the DL for a bit. I literally have to force myself not to drive into the Park & look the stuff over.
Roadside wood around here usually involves putting your life at risk due to no shoulders. I usually pass on that. People take it 50mph blind corner roads. And covered in poison ivy.
I pass it up all the time. Went on a collecting spree in 2018- 2019 and still have t processed everything I’ve collected. One of these days I need to go on a splitting and stacking spree. Sounds like you need to learn how to noodle
I pass up wood all the time for a lot of reasons already mentioned: too big or knotty, no easy truck access, wood is junk, covered in poison ivy and mostly because I can’t keep up with what tree guys drop off for me.
If it’s hard to get, punky, knotty, or a hard to split species like gum or sycamore I’ll pass. Being years ahead allows me to be more picky.
If I can't get 4" splits off the side, I fire up the 290. In my younger days, I'd whack away with the 20 lb monster maul. Not sure if I'm smarter, lazier or jus gettin old.
Here's a classic case thats hard to drive by. Dead ash cut maybe a month ago. Drive by it almost daily. On a steep embankment right near a "T" intersection. X2!
