Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[DFK]

If there are any wood Scroungers in North Alabama..... There is lots of wood to be had around Athens AL.
The tornado that went through there two weeks back sure made a mess. Knocked over lots of trees. Many have
been cut up and pulled up next to the streets. Just aks, I am sure most of the homeowers would let you take all
you wont.

David

 

[Philbert]

I have worked a number of storm clean ups, and people usually don't mind the wood getting re-purposed.

But, please consider helping to remove it from victim's yards (with permission), instead of cherry picking off the pile at the curb while others are helping out.

Philbert

 

[zogger]

I have worked a number of storm clean ups, and people usually don't mind the wood getting re-purposed.

But, please consider helping to remove it from victim's yards (with permission), instead of cherry picking off the pile at the curb while others are helping out.

Philbert

Good point. I know I would have loved some help dealing with the tornado blown into the house huge red oak branch. I had people stopping to take pictures, or just slowing down and gawking, or offers to rebuild the cabin for a fee from various contractors out driving around dropping off business cards at every place with damage, but no offers for help. Luckily joe boss owns a big excavator, I was able to trim it with the might 137 husky (what I owned at the time.) then we chained it up and bossman picked it out and off without doing any more damage.

 

[svk]

No scrounging for me this weekend, have tickets to St Paul Saints tonight and Twins tomorrow night. Hope my wife and I can fight off our colds to enjoy the games.

 

[MustangMike]

Was helping my brother out on Wed, about 2 hrs from home. Had to clear a steep little hill so they can grade it. We dropped 3 Oaks and a Maple all over 20", and 4 White Pines from 20 - 30", plus several smaller trees including Beach and Hemlock. It was a little windy and we had to rope and pull them all because there was an out building an electric lines on the far side. The 30" White Pine was leaning the wrong way, and was the only one that worried me, but it pulled over just fine. I dropped each one on target.

My Maasdam Long Haul Rope Puller (w/120 ft of rope) really came through for us. My brother was so impressed with it he ordered one for himself after we got back. (Bailey's sells them).

We took them all down and cut them to 6' lengths in one day. I got so tired I could barely lift the saw at the end of the day, or step over the logs. Working on the slope with the big pieces was tough. Both my saws ran great, had a 20" bar on the 362 and 24" in the 044, both with Sithl RSLK chain. That stuff works great, I'm going to have to get more of it. After my brother ran both my saws he broke out his 460, but it would not keep up with my 044 with the square file chain, so I gave him a 20" loop of square file to even the playing field. The square file chain cuts through hardwoods much faster, and just blows through the pine.

I told him when I put the dual port muffler and low restriction air filter on his 460 (like I did to my 044) it will be an absolute beast, but I have to find the time to pull his carb limiters, something my 044 thankfully did not have.

Not a bad days work for 2 guys over 60, enjoy the pics.

 

[zogger]

Was helping my brother out on Wed, about 2 hrs from home. Had to clear a steep little hill so they can grade it. We dropped 3 Oaks and a Maple all over 20", and 4 White Pines from 20 - 30", plus several smaller trees including Beach and Hemlock. It was a little windy and we had to rope and pull them all because there was an out building an electric lines on the far side. The 30" White Pine was leaning the wrong way, and was the only one that worried me, but it pulled over just fine. I dropped each one on target.

My Maasdam Long Haul Rope Puller (w/120 ft of rope) really came through for us. My brother was so impressed with it he ordered one for himself after we got back. (Bailey's sells them).

We took them all down and cut them to 6' lengths in one day. I got so tired I could barely lift the saw at the end of the day, or step over the logs. Working on the slope with the big pieces was tough. Both my saws ran great, had a 20" bar on the 362 and 24" in the 044, both with Sithl RSLK chain. That stuff works great, I'm going to have to get more of it. After my brother ran both my saws he broke out his 460, but it would not keep up with my 044 with the square file chain, so I gave him a 20" loop of square file to even the playing field. The square file chain cuts through hardwoods much faster, and just blows through the pine.

I told him when I put the dual port muffler and low restriction air filter on his 460 (like I did to my 044) it will be an absolute beast, but I have to find the time to pull his carb limiters, something my 044 thankfully did not have.

Not a bad days work for 2 guys over 60, enjoy the pics.

60 is the new 40!

err.no, it's not....

Still though, you guys did great!

I am still spring choring around here,although I keep putzing at the rounds stack making splits. Have a string of twisted oak that is not cooperating very well.

 

[MustangMike]

Thanks, it was a challenge and that made it fun, even though it was hard work.

 

[mainewoods]

[QUOTE="MustangMike, post:

Not a bad days work for 2 guys over 60, enjoy the pics.


Heck of a good days work Mike, I still think I'm 25, too!

 

[MustangMike]

Thanks Clint. I think I drank about 2 gallons of fluid. It reached the high 70s, and at the end of the day you could not drink enough.

 

[Topbuilder]

How things vary from one region to another. You cannot give wood away here. I placed CL ads for free oak wood that came out of a couple trees I cut down on a job. Probably 6-8 cords. I had people ask me if it was cut and split...
The tree services haul it to a mulching operation. Free dump but a 30 mile drive. On my personal property, I keep enough oak split to feed the BBQ pit and the fire ring for my kids get togethers with friends. The rest of the dead trees are cut into 6-8' lengths and dropped in a burn pile. Probably have torched 20 full size trees this year, dead from the drought. Still have another 100 to go. All oak. I had a couple a guys that NEEDED wood for heat in the winter. I told them I would drop the trees and carry the logs to a location where they could cut and throw pieces on the trailer. I would clean/burn the tops. They showed up with a saw that would not cut, got the trailer stuck going where I told them they would get stuck. I ended up cutting rounds for them since I would not "loan" them my saw. They took two loads and never came back. I later found out they were selling the wood for $100 per trailer load to a firewood seller.
I don't even have a wood burning fireplace. After last winter I'm looking pretty hard at a wood boiler system. We were all the way in the 30s...

 

[CTYank]

Around here, I am more worried about the ticks, but you can't stay inside worrying about them. They have diseases that can kill you, and worse! They have a new disease that is sometimes fatal that the doctors have no treatment for. Furthermore, some people that have "undetected" Lyme disease have horrible complications. Many times you will pull 2 or 3 ticks off the dog after you go for a walk or hike. You just have to live with it.

I try to cut poison ivy when it is not sappy, you are less likely to contract it, and if you know you have been in contact, wash the area as soon as possible. When I see those hairy vines, I try to spray the chips away from me (cut with the top of the bar). Wear gloves & sleeves, wash soon afterward, and it will likely be mild if you get it.

Luckily, at my upstate property, we don't encounter deer ticks (dog ticks don't carry Lyme).

Mike, there is a repellent that works against deer ticks. (Vice the many that are useless.) Sawyer permethrin repellent for clothing & gear is one- the spray-on version I use is .5% permethrin. You spray it on clothing, let it dry, then hit it again after 6 washings. I get the 24 oz size from Amazon.

Come spring, I take the stack of jeans I wear in the woods out on the porch, spread 'em out, and wet the lower legs and waist area with the spray, let 'em dry, and stack 'em up for use. You do NOT spray this on yourself or let cats in the area with wet repellent- potentially deadly.

They call it a repellent. Typically it repels deer ticks by killing them as they walk by.

 

[MustangMike]

Thanks for the advice, but anything that kills ticks scares me, those ticks are tough.

 

[pennsywoodburnr]

Thanks for the advice, but anything that kills ticks scares me, those ticks are tough.

I had one crawling on me the other day and as an experiment I submerged it in water. The thing was still crawling around underwater 10 minutes later when I came back and checked up on it. They are tough *******s for sure!!

 

[mainewoods]

I guess scrounging firewood is a much sought after subject, and a lot more than I thought it was. Over 19,000 views and, thanks to you guys, close to 700 posts since Feb. Good of you fellers to share your scores, tips and experiences with others, so willingly.

 

[audible fart]

I guess scrounging firewood is a much sought after subject, and a lot more than I thought it was. Over 19,000 views and, thanks to you guys, close to 700 posts since Feb. Good of you fellers to share your scores, tips and experiences with others, so willingly. View attachment 350704

I'll bet you never thought you'd be an internet superstar.

 

[MountainHigh]

I was going into withdrawals and had to take time away from work to get up the hill !

Loader operator placed some nice 30' to 40'+ maples (visible on the bank), alder and a little pine for me.



When I get really desperate (lots of work digging them out), here's just a little 5 cord burn pile - one of dozens on any given logging site. Scroungers might have the summer to pick away before they light these piles up in wet Fall weather, but it's too hard for most to access. Amount of wood wasted in BC forests is complete disgrace. Sweden has evidently created a new industry around waste wood - converting a huge number of homes to special Swedish made high tech pellet furnaces (ding ding ding - jobs for Swedes- what a novel idea ), they use most all of the waste wood that we would just discard and burn in piles. In contrast, current BC politicians are in pockets of industry and exercise zero foresight (unless it feathers their nests)! We ship raw logs to China and then buy back goods. Something seriously wrong with that BullSshnipp.


Back saver working from the tailgate! This is a load going onto the tailgate for moving to a different spot on my property, but it also works well the other way around, when splitting directly from a raw load of bucked logs directly into my woodshed.


Age 65 is the new 50 - I'm telling that to my knees every day

.

 

[BillNole]

...
Unfortunately, after fighting with my saw for an hour and not being able to get it started...

I finally had time to look into the issue with the saw and would you believe... Could it be that it was a simple as "old gas"?!

I used some gas that was about a month old that I'd added some Sta-bil to when I first purchased it. I visited a local station with non-E gas to replace what I'd had for a month. Upon draining the saw and putting in fresh gas, I set the brake, flipped the switch to choke and gave it a good pull. It popped! On first pull!!! I flipped the switch to run and gave it another good pull and off it went, albeit with a good bit of smoking and sputtering for about 10 seconds.

I did nothing else at all, with the saw sitting on my bench, right where it had been sitting since last used a month or so ago, other than when I fought with it last weekend. I'm hard pressed to believe that changing the fuel could make a difference on the first pull, given that the fuel line and carb would still need to be cleared, which should take a number of pulls to move fuel through the system, but there it was.

I'm not gonna put too much thought into this as I don't wanna look this gift-horse in the mouth, but what the @#$*@#(? was that all about?!?!?!

 

[mainewoods]

Sounds like it was flooded from the last attempt. If it was bad gas, it wouldn't have started(fired) any better with fresh gas, on the first pull. The old gas should have still been in the line.

 

[dancan]

Well , as you all know dragging wood in a sled sucks when the snow is gone .
Mechanization is the only answer so I brought my tiller home .

I disconnected the hydro tiller section and fabbed up a hitch .

Took it for a test drive today .

It worked fine , got me a small load in the RonCo wood hauler 2.0

BTW , when I get out there , I forget all my troubles .

 

[chucker]

Well , as you all know dragging wood in a sled sucks when the snow is gone .
Mechanization is the only answer so I brought my tiller home .

I disconnected the hydro tiller section and fabbed up a hitch .

Took it for a test drive today .

It worked fine , got me a small load in the RonCo wood hauler 2.0

BTW , when I get out there , I forget all my troubles .

what ever it takes to make life easier, and with a view like that it would not matter to me if I got a lot of wood(work) accomplished either way!!