It's been awhile friends. Been very busy with the YT channel and life in general. Hope everyone is doing well!!! There is a huge Red Oak that went down in a storm probably a good 12+ months back. Its approx. 1.5 miles from my house. The way it fell its laying perpendicular to the road, maybe 12-15 feet off the roadway on this persons lawn. The branches and tops have been mostly cut up. By huge...I mean the trunk is easily 60"+ in diameter and probably a good 20-25 feet long. Easily 2.5-3 full cords in this "log". My question is... Do I offer to cut it up? I'm considering it, but I'd likely ask for money in addition to the wood. This is gonna be a ton of work, I'm up to my eyeballs in Red Oak, and I have 30ish full cords processed already. I don't sell wood, just burn it for myself. The monster has been there probably a year now at least with no takers. On the plus side... * It would help them out, I'm sure they got prices from tree outfits and decided to not go forth. A tree that size would likely cost a pretty penny to clean up. * It would give me some wood. * It would make for a great YT video. Not often you get to tackle trees this size. I'd love to offer to cut it up for free, but the amount of work it would take isn't worth the effort to me. I have access to much easier, and smaller wood, especially Red Oak. If did charge them, it'd be just enough to cover costs. Maybe 200-300 dollars, and I'd offer them a form to sign so if I get hurt on their property I can't/won't sue. Like Brad's liability form. Looking for the members thoughts I guess. Yay or nay
Yay for doing it for an agreed upon price. But I wouldn’t short yourself. Even if you said $1000 they’re still getting a heck of a deal for the amount of labor involved. Got any hoarding friends nearby willing to help that could share in the spoils? I know personally that’s more of a job than I’m willing to tackle alone.
Hey Eric, Yes, my brother and father both burn wood, and live nearby. If I could get a grand and offer to split the wood and money with either of them, I think they'd go for it. I wonder what a tree service would charge for this. Id want enough to cover a day of labor for 2 guys or two days for myself. Your probably right with the amount. To add to my first post. I have plenty of big saws, and could drive my Kioti with forks or grapple down there to assist loading trailers or trucks.
YES! Definitely get it. I love these monster oak scores. They produce so many splits per round, usually nice, straight grained and easy to split. Work, yes but we don't hoard to get away from some work. edit: my last monster score I was happy to saw and remove all the wood, for no charge. It ended up being 5 cords in one tree. That's a winters worth for us.
I've done my fair share of "good deed" tree work over the years/decades. I cleaned up this storm disaster 50" Red Oak for my SIL last year. FOR FREE... It was split 10 feet in the air. Absolutely massive Red Oak takedown Guess what??? I found out after the fact that they complained to other family members behind my back that I didn't "clean up" the brush to their liking. I should have "brought in a chipper" they said. I took down 4 trees for my brother last year. He was a quite literally a day away from paying a tree guy $1,000 cash to drop them and leave. We had them down in about an hour and bucked up in a pile in half a day. Guess what??? He was grateful, but his wife came out on the deck and screamed "he better not hit the house or I'll be pizzed"... Not do you want coffee?....Not thank you so much for saving us a thousand dollars. Nope. ...AND I"VE SINCE again helped the same brother and his wife with another 26" dead standing Red Oak takedown...for free. I could go on and on. I've spend many days helping people for free. They often don't appreciate it. So sorry to the members who think I'm being greedy or selfish, but I want to be fairly compensated for my time and effort.
Sounds like you know what direction is right for you. Make some firewood, make good YouTube content, make your neighbor happy, and make a little coin doing all of it.
Hmmmm. Asking hoarders if hoarding is acceptable. There's lots of sexually/romance starved angry suburban housewives out there . Worry about your own hoarding affliction. Ya gotta have priorities.
Not judging at all. I see it as the wood being payment in that it saves us from buying oil. If I ran across similar aggravation, I would feel the same, especially family. I'd call their azzes out.
I just couldn't tell. Kind of like when people say "What a nice guy!" Do you agree its fair of me to charge him in addition to keeping the wood?
Here's the thread from helping my brother... A little White oak from my brothers Here's one where I "thought" I was being a "good neighbor" and helping this person clear a huge Ash that had fallen across her driveway, only to get yelled at for taking the wood. Scrounge gone wrong??? I've been burned too many times being "a nice guy". Not just with wood either. I lent my BIL a truck to make multiple trips moving 60 miles away and he returned it completely empty, after it started on a full tank. Another time I helped my aunt empty a 20 foot car hauler of her crap from FL. She said she wanted to take me, my wife and our daughter out to get clams as a thank you. Upon ordering the food my wife pulls out her debit card and I said I thought Aunt Terri was paying. My aunt yelled out "I can't I'm broke!" Then ordered literally 3 meals totaling $50 for herself and threw half of it away. Needless to say, I wasn't too happy. I noticed when I need return favors everyone's always "busy". My new motto is get paid or find someone else.
Well, in the long run it really only matters if you and the other party feel like you got a fair deal. If they have no way to deal with the log and want it gone I’d say a couple hundred isn’t bad I’ll bet they got a brother or uncle or whatever that is “going to take it”. Anyways it doesn't hurt to ask. I absolutely hate approaching people about stuff like this so if I really wanted the wood I would just say I’d get it out of there. If I was looking to make a few bucks with my equipment I’d put an add in the local paper.
As you already know, there's a ton of good wood in that "log", but there's a couple tons of work. I say figure out how much work you're willing to do for what payment...as in for the wood, or wood plus $x. Then go talk to them. They may not be willing to pay anything, then you decide. If you do work out something, I would make sure both parties understand what is expected, like in the case you mentioned with family and the chipper. I wouldn't want to (nor would I) clean up all the sawdust and scrap thats going to be left from that "log", unless they were forking over real good $$. Bottom line make sure everyone knows what's expected, and preferably have it in writing. Just my $.02.
Yeah, that would be a ton of stuff I wouldn't want to mess with unless $$. But there's gonna be a lot of sawdust just from bucking, less if you cut to sizes your tractor can pickup. And perhaps lots of bark that will come off. And I don't know if you're a noodler, but lawd knows how much if you decide to noodle on site....
Noodles for days The tractor (Kioti NX) will lift 2800 lbs. I agree there will be a boatload of sawdust. I'd probably use the forks, as I don't think my grapple would hold onto a log that big. Probably load the 20" long cookies with my front forks onto my trailer 1 cookie on a load. A 20" long x 60" diameter "cookie" will still be 2000 lbs. Go the 1.5 miles to my house and pull the cookie off the trailer with my little Ford. I'd offer to blow the sawdust to the edge of the yard for the agreed upon price with my backpack blower. No brush work, no raking, no guarantees the lawn wont be affected in some way from tractor tires or cookie skidding. I'm actually excited thinking about the job, but the price has to be right.
