Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[Ambull01]

Georgia is pretty spiffy for an eastern state. We got from swamps/palm trees alligators in the southern and coastal parts of the state to decent enough at least cross country skiing in the winter in the mountains. We get a few to several snows a winter up in the northern part of the state every year, and plenty of teens and twenties days, and some single digits. Below zero I have only seen I think three times here. Any snowfall past two inches is just knee slapping hysterical funny, everyone still tries to go everyplace and it just plain doesn't work! HAHAHAHA! Every winter, never fails, just watch, it will be on TV again this winter.

I am way way way more used to the heat than the cold. When I was younger and lived up north, it was the opposite. Now, I call it "southern fried wuss"! HAHAHAHAHA

That's why I recommended to you heated handles saw for cold hands, cuz I want one meself for cutting in the winter!

Sounds a bit like NC. I lived in the mountains for a year after I got out of the Marine Corps. Went from living in Hawaii to the some serious for me mounting winter. It was my first experience with black ice. Not a good experience.

You should see MD/DC area. Even with just a little rain everyone loses their mind. Accidents everywhere.

Was it GA that had that crazy traffic build up last year? People were on the highway with no where to go.

I was a total wuss in the mountains. Beautiful country but I wasn't ready for that. Man that was cold. There was snow in May! Could only take it for one year.

 

[Philbert]

How can you tell hardwood from softwood pallets?

What Zogger said (somewhere in there)! Mostly by grain. Some are marked.

Philbert

 

[svk]

Eastern TN/Western NC down into GA is awesome. If I had to live somewhere else east of the Mississippi and I couldn't go to Vermont I'd probably end up down there.

 

[Ambull01]

That's most of it. Some have boards that are quite thick and spaced close together, to hold something *heavy*. You can look at the grain, too.

I would have a hard time cutting one of those up, those I use to store wood on when I find them, which isn't very often anymore. Economy not too great around here, hard to scrounge free heavy duty pallets. Lot of guys scrounge them and there are two places in the next little town where guys rebuild them and resell them, they done scrounged em up I think. I mostly get oddballs. You can buy the heavy duty regular ones, but free, not so much. I take any size or weight pallet I can find anymore, use them all for wood. I need like 50 more this winter. I still have a lot of used RxR ties, but pallets I am short on. About this time of year my regular work slows down to the point I can go cut a lot, trying to double my production over last year, maybe more. Just as much for the exercise as to get the wood, older ya get, the more ya need to workout.

Wait I missed this. What are the RxR ties for? Better yet, what does RxR mean? I'm assuming rail road?

 

[Philbert]

Yes. But don't burn them. Use them to stack wood on. The creosote preservative is nasty stuff to put in the air.

Philbert

 

[Ambull01]

Eastern TN/Western NC down into GA is awesome. If I had to live somewhere else east of the Mississippi and I couldn't go to Vermont I'd probably end up down there.

Where did you go in western NC? I really like Asheville, despite the hippies. Boone is cool too, college kids not so much. Beautiful scenery up there.

Minneapolis is one of the cleanest cities I've been to. Went there for a finance conference several years ago. I checked out that mall where you can walk over the street to. Don't remember what they call those pedestrian bridges

 

[Ambull01]

Yes. But don't burn them. Use them to stack wood on. The creosote preservative is nasty stuff to put in the air.

Philbert

WTH! RR ties are made out of wood!? What happened to good strong steel.

 

[svk]

Where did you go in western NC? I really like Asheville, despite the hippies. Boone is cool too, college kids not so much. Beautiful scenery up there.

Minneapolis is one of the cleanest cities I've been to. Went there for a finance conference several years ago. I checked out that mall where you can walk over the street to. Don't remember what they call those pedestrian bridges

I don't really remember which towns but we were driving from north Florida into Gatlinburg. That last 20 miles is a sweet drive.

Minneapolis is pretty good as far as big cities go. Traffic to-from suburbs could be improved as there are several choke points that should have extra lanes. But very clean and fairly easy to navigate. Are you talking about the skyways that connect all of the buildings?

 

[Philbert]

WTH! RR ties are made out of wood!? What happened to good strong steel.

Ties are the wood part. Rails are the metal part.

Philbert

 

[Ambull01]

I don't really remember which towns but we were driving from north Florida into Gatlinburg. That last 20 miles is a sweet drive.

Minneapolis is pretty good as far as big cities go. Traffic to-from suburbs could be improved as there are several choke points that should have extra lanes. But very clean and fairly easy to navigate. Are you talking about the skyways that connect all of the buildings?

Yes that's it, skyways. Thought that was pretty cool. Real pedestrian friendly. Although they probably don't have a choice. I imagine it's kind of hard to walk around with all the snow you guys get

 

[Ambull01]

Ties are the wood part. Rails are the metal part.

Philbert

Ahhh, thanks for clearing that up. I should probably stop posting every question that comes to mind. I think I'm starting to sound like a blonde.

 

[zogger]

Wait I missed this. What are the RxR ties for? Better yet, what does RxR mean? I'm assuming rail road?

Ya, I lay two ties down then straddle the pallets across them, then stack. Ties don't rot, pallets will rot directly on the ground, plus more airflow underneath. Another bonus is the kittycats can get under there, they like it and helps them on rodentia patrol.

I am stacking for years ahead, so anything to help keep things aired out and drier the better, this side of a big dedicated dry shed. Boss has a dozen or so big bundles of ties here, ghost of projects long past, said I could use them. Pallets I scrounge in town.

 

[svk]

Quiet in here tonight. Y'all must be glued to your tv's watching the "regime change" going on. LOL.

Just one big congress race here to keep track of then I'm hitting the sack.

 

[Ambull01]

Ya, I lay two ties down then straddle the pallets across them, then stack. Ties don't rot, pallets will rot directly on the ground, plus more airflow underneath. Another bonus is the kittycats can get under there, they like it and helps them on rodentia patrol.

I am stacking for years ahead, so anything to help keep things aired out and drier the better, this side of a big dedicated dry shed. Boss has a dozen or so big bundles of ties here, ghost of projects long past, said I could use them. Pallets I scrounge in town.

I'll have to add RR ties to my scrounge list. Was going to use pallets but I'd rather burn them as kindling. My backyard is going to look like a dump before long.

 

[greendohn]

Another tuckload made it home Monday,,rained out yesterday,,

 

[mainewoods]

After a long dry spell of scrounging I was just about to buy a load of logs when I got an email from a local homeowner. Five acres of standing and down trees plus a dozen live trees around the yard he wants gone. Drop em, top em, and push the junk into piles

MN, that's an excellent score of firewood. Care to share how/why you happened to "be the guy" who received the e-mail from the home owner. Fellow scroungers always like to hear the details of a score of scrounged wood, especially one of that magnitude!

 

[ncstihler]

Eastern TN/Western NC down into GA is awesome. If I had to live somewhere else east of the Mississippi and I couldn't go to Vermont I'd probably end up down there.

As a Minnesota boy who has dropped roots in the south, I would agree with this. I moved down here Dec '12. I wasn't happy while in city, Winston-Salem, but once I found a house out in the country, near a town similar in size to where I grew up, I was much happier! It's beautiful in teh fall, but damn are there a lot of leaves to deal with! Growing up in west central MN, we didn't have many trees, pretty much all farm land.

 

[Ambull01]

As a Minnesota boy who has dropped roots in the south, I would agree with this. I moved down here Dec '12. I wasn't happy while in city, Winston-Salem, but once I found a house out in the country, near a town similar in size to where I grew up, I was much happier! It's beautiful in teh fall, but damn are there a lot of leaves to deal with! Growing up in west central MN, we didn't have many trees, pretty much all farm land.

I know Winston-Salem. Used to live in Lexington. You ever go any of the foot hill towns (i.e. North Wilkesboro)? I wouldn't mind settling down somewhere like that when I retire, which unfortunately is a really long way off.

 

[Ambull01]

Another tuckload made it home Monday,,rained out yesterday,,View attachment 377697 View attachment 377698

Nice clean cuts. Looks like you know what you're doing with a chainsaw. My cuts are usually a little slanted down to the right lol.

How did your 1500 truck sit with all that wood?

 

[ncstihler]

I know Winston-Salem. Used to live in Lexington. You ever go any of the foot hill towns (i.e. North Wilkesboro)? I wouldn't mind settling down somewhere like that when I retire, which unfortunately is a really long way off.

Actually, I was over there about a month ago for the Brushy Mountain Apple Festival. Nice town and area.