On the dirt road where I’ve been cutting dead ash for months, a tree crew dropped dozens of trees along the road last week. I had some time this morning to go cherry pick the best of the best. The first row is all white oak. The second row is more white oak, some bitternut hickory, and sugar maple. The last row is all sugar maple as well. On the way out I topped off the load with a smattering of dead ash rounds. Beautiful sunny, cold day here perfect for scrounging.
What an awesome honey hole that road has been! Definitely some prime burning wood. Hoard on! Keep the pics coming.
For a minute I thought you were on the street I grew up on! Bristol isn't that far from Ellington. Nice scores!
Thanks, I'm trying to get all the bull work done before the warm weather hits. I've got a little ways to go before I refill what I sold off this winter, on top of what I burned.
I went up there this morning intent on stocking up for wood to sell eventually, but I can't bring myself to part with any of this Well, not the white oak and hickory for sure. There's a bunch more sugar maple up there I want/need to go after.
Reminds me of my current Asplundh score. I was en route to another cut (never have made it back there) and ten PU fulls later im still going strong. Supposed to go Saturday and cut red oak there with buzz-saw but weather not looking good. Go back and get that primo wood!
I am absolutely amazed that you guys in CT seem to be able to score all of the primo firewood at will. I swear, around here if a branch breaks off a poplar tree and lands in the road, the next guy driving past gonna grab it and claim it as firewood. I have stopped for a single split laying in the ditch, that fell off a truck. And we're more "rural" up here than you. Why is this a phenomenon? I'm less than 100 miles from parts of CT and so my Facebook Marketplace radius covers northwestern CT, and I see tons of firewood ads and guys selling full log trucks of tree-length hardwoods for $100 or so a cord, and that is just not a thing up here in VT. The idea of "free wood" is just ridiculous. There's even a price on pine.
Great question, but as a born and raised Nutmegger, I'm glad it's the way things are down here. Took a couple weeks of trying about I was able to find a local arbor dude who when I call him is able to drop a load of wood at my house for free. Sometimes full log lengths, sometimes already cut. But always free.
I said same thing so many times.. Now I am on other end of lake.. BUT tree cutters have mini processors; but I have gotten few cord of sugar maple stumps.. you earn them they keep the easy stuff… 30” rounds minimum
I can promise you it's not at will LOL. Timing is everything. More times than I could possibly count I've spotted something on the side of the road, gone home to get my saw, come back an hour later to find its all gone. I have 2 main scrounging areas I frequent, and when something fresh comes up I pounce on it because there are no guarantees in this business. It's feast or famine and competition is fierce. The only way I can sustain inventory levels is by constantly collecting a little at a time. Sometimes it's a full load, sometimes it's one round. With diligence I can maintain.
Nice job Eric. You just keep going at it. As for Ct scroungability. There’s a few reasons for it. We had the gypsy moths kill a lot of oaks then the EAB hit right after. Beech is getting hit now with that new fungus thing. So there’s a lot of dead or dying trees and LOTS of power lines on LOTS of little roads all over the state. Ct has always had unhindered tree growth on the sides of their roads compared to many states. The utility companies are working non stop cutting down trees on one side of the road and the towns cut the other. Makes for a target rich environment. It does appear near Eric and Brad they’re taking more healthy tree than where I live. Often by the time they take them down near me they’re already toilet paper JMO
I also keep forgetting about that flood of tornadoes or macorbursts -whatever they were called- that swept through about 7 years ago. Aside from complete devastation through the corridor the storm went through- there was such a glut of wood in my area. It was pretty easy to get wood without any effort for a bit and that had some knock on effects where people who might have normally snapped up something on the side of the road were all set from the 100 foot tree that smashed into the side of their house. Not making fun of anyone who had tree damage- just saying it was widespread.
