When I hear a chainsaw, and some serious thuds. Could it be? So, I walked over to my neighbor's house. The place where I got about a cord of white oak a couple of months ago. There's a tree service there, taking down some red oaks. Two of them today. Another two, some point in the next few weeks. The owner was there, so I chatted him up, asked how things were going. He bought the property, a small lot, and will be putting a pre-fab house on the lot. There's 4 red oaks and one really big white pine that need to be taken down. They've already drilled a well(380ft) and located a spot for a septic tight tank. I told him that I'd happy to help him clean up the lot, as we watched limbs falling. He's more than pleased to see that I'd want the wood, just to get it out of his way. Wood I? damm straight I do. ~happy dance~ I'd be over there now sawing things up to size that I can handle, but my time is already spoken for today. He said he'd be back in the morning, with a dump truck. He then asked if it was ok if he could just dump the wood in my yard? I tried to hold back my excitement, and simply said "sure"! So, I'll be over Sunday morning with both my chain saws and start helping him clear the stuff out. I'd feel guilty(well.. maybe) if I didn't help him load up a dump truck that was destined to be dumped in my yard. As the weather looks to be cooperating, I expect to be over there most every morning next week, cutting and wheeling pieces over to my property, a short distance through some woods. I know, I know... until there's pictures, someone will be calling B.S. on my story. So, I'll be posting various pictures beginning tomorrow of the process and "inventory". The trees are I would guess to be 3ft DBH. I'm terrible at guessing heights, but I'd say 70-80 feet high. The only real downer is that there's metal growing out of the bottom 15ft. The best wood, but I won't risk my saw trying to get it. 2021-2022, year 4, here I come.
Sounds like you've got plenty of work to do, right in your backyard. Speaking of which..... Gotta eat some breakfast and get in some work on my own neighbors free firewood hauling...
Wow Mike that's great! It sounds like a huge amount of wood. You really won't slice up the bottom 15 feet? How about into 4 ft long chunks? After a couple years, those are splittable. My neighbor had some cherry trees cut yesterday, but he had the logs stacked in his back yard. I think I'm giving him ideas. Maybe after a while, when the bark gets rotten, he'll decide they're no good. One can always hope.
Not with metal wires growing out of them. There was a house trailer on the site for years. Electrical wires, including the meter, were tacked to the trees from the street. Over many years, the trees consumed the wires. Along with other straps and such. I hate to pass up literally tons of wood, but I'm not going to risk trashing multiple chains trying to cut the trunks to length. Sent from my SM-T280 using Tapatalk
Wow Mike, this is great! Wishing you good luck on cleaning up the mess. Now about that bottom log, that could be interesting.
I see your point. Not just nails, but wires and strapping running along the length. But, on one side only?
Here's an example. This is the trunks of the white oak that I passed on, several weeks ago. Looks above the leaves - metal/ Straps, electrical blocks. The red oaks that are being taken down are similar. Without a metal detector, there's no way of telling what's lurking an inch or 5 into the wood.
Man, that just kills me. There must be some human ingenuity that would solve that problem. A two-man hand saw, like in the FHC logo? An axe? An impact hammer? An acetylene torch?
How about if you used a long drill bit, and drilled 6" holes around the perimeter where you would cut? Then you could girdle the log with a handsaw without a lot of effort. 6" in growth would equal how many years? Go deep enough to predate electricity, or at least the construction date of the house that the wires were connected to? I'm sensing that you're feeling so wood-bloated, that the desperation of these measures isn't getting you on board...
Nice score Mike! As far as the metal goes, I'd probably buy a few cheap chains and give it a try. Cut about a foot above and below where you see metal. If you hit some, resharpen and go lower. I wish I had neighbors offering up free oak!
Huge wood score! I'm with ya on the metal. My BIL and I were given permission to cut in a bulldozed apple orchard once that was full of wires used to train limbs when the trees were small. Most of it was grown over. We hit it about three times then loaded up and called the orchard owner and explained. He was very sorry and didn't know because he bought the farm established. It's not even worth it to me to throw a junk chain on. If you know it's there, pass!! Keep those pics coming!
I would a chance cutting that Bottom trunk choose spots in between the metal and cut. Even if you start with a new chain and have to sharpen it a few times and end up ruining it and have to get a new chain still a great deal and there are a lot of good BTU's in that log.
You were just saying you needed a hookup for free delivered wood in my sugar maple thread the other day, and look at this! It happened! Good on ya for helping out the loggers, and congrats on the stroke of good luck.
Red oak trunks and the associated "jumble" The black "thing" is a piece of black plastic pipe. Some sawing and throwing/stacking And, some dumped into my yard I expect to be doing sawing and re-locating wood each morning this week, for a few hours each day. A closer inspection of the two red oak trunks, shows that there's perhaps less metal than in the white oak. I'm happy to keep dealing with the non-trunk wood for now. If I get bored, I'll have to think hard about those trunks. They are pretty big for my 16" Husky. I'm pretty sure I can get through them, working various angles. We'll see. He's planning to have a 3rd red oak and a huge white pine felled, next weekend. So, there'll be pulenty of thick limbs and branches to be had, before even thinking about tackling the thick stuff.
