2 free firewood pickups showed up on CL within my territory today. Both of which, the homeowners dont know what type of tree.
"I dont think its a pine tree but Im really not sure"
How does someone make it out of the second grade without knowing what the f a pine tree is.
I work in the city. A guy that does yard cleanups sometimes offers me wood from some jobs. He doesn't know much about trees though. When I first met him he said he knew a tree is taller than a shrub. It took a year of work before he'd remember to look for needles to ID the tree. But for some reason he still couldn't tell a pine tree in winter. Turns out I'd shown him a Tamarack as one example of a tree with needles so he thought the needles fell off all pines in the winter.
I scrounge wood. I don't like to say scrounge though because I don't consider the wood free. There's a cost to run the saw, run the truck, and there's time, too. And there's the work you have to do to ensure the job is done well. Seems like thinking the wood is free is the wrong way to look at it.
One time I paid $30 to cover the cost of filing an insurance liability waiver to get "free" wood. The waiver allowed me to get whatever I could from 150 acres that had been logged by a pretty rough crew. That was a good deal but I only got about 3 1/2 cord out due to the weather and my weekend schedules not working out. But it was all excellent hardwood. Thing was, the guy trying to place the ad kept getting called a scammer. Free wood should be free! That's just a ripoff! I was told to get as much as I wanted from that site. If I had the equipment and time I could have hauled 20 cord out. For $30.
For a few years I grabbed wood from a wood dump. That was a good deal. The property owner was letting a tree service dump wood as free fill. In the fall he'd run an ad on Craigslist. I would pick up wood all summer, here and there as I had time and continue through the winter when all the easy pickins were gone. I cut and bucked some pretty big pieces once the snow started. Seems as though most people looking for wood there wanted stuff they could throw in the truck with a minimum of work and that was frustrating to see. But I did help a couple of guys that really needed it. One disabled vet gimping around with a bad leg was grabbing wet pine off the top and trying to load it into an S10 Blazer in the middle of winter. He was working pretty hard for some poor firewood so I found a hole on the backside of the pile with some really nice seasoned Beech and cut enough to fill his truck twice. Maybe I didn't spend money to get wood from that site, but it sure didn't seem right not to spend some time helping out since I'd gotten so much out of the place.
I bought a chipper/shredder so I can offer to chip brush on site. I've had to take piles of brush to get wood in the past and that's a bunch of work. So far no one's said "no" when I offer to chip instead of of loading and removing a brush pile. Saves a ton of time. I cut pieces down to 1" for the woodpile anyway so the brush I leave is usually small and it goes quickly. Well, except for green Birch twigs and Bittersweet vines, which will get wrapped up around the flywheel if I'm not careful.
For a long time I wouldn't ask for wood if I saw a chimney or a woodpile. Why bother... that guy won't say yes. But I was talking with a neighbor once who complained that he didn't have enough time to cut up a fallen tree, even though he burns. So I offered to do the cutting for half the wood. Done deal. And it ended up better for me because he didn't want anything below 3" around. Now I watch to see how quickly downed wood gets cleaned up in front of a wood burner's house. If it sits for a few weeks, or if I know the owner is older, I'll stop in and make the same offer. Sometimes I get a yes. I always try to get the to take down my number though. I once got a call three years after making that offer... "Come get it. I haven't burned as much as I thought and I don't want it to go to waste." I nearly filled the woodshed with that score.
Never talk negative about someone else, either. "Well, So-and-so stopped by and asked for that pile last week." You might be thinking "Geez... that guy makes a mess of everything" but don't say it. "Ok. But if for some reason that doesn't work out, or if you still need anything cleaned up after he's done, feel free to call." One elderly lady said no to a beautiful pile of Apple because her nephew next door wanted it. Well, nephew bought a pile of log length and never touched the Apple. The pile sat there for years. The lady flagged me down as I drove by one day and said "You might as well take this." "Thanks, ma'am, but that wood's rotten now. I couldn't burn it with gasoline." Boy was she was steamed at the nephew and she apologized to me several times A few weeks later there was a brand new fence between those houses.
So be respectful, be grateful, and be willing to work. Remember that you're likely to get more "No" responses than "Yes" and don't be upset when it happens. Over time you'll develop a style and approach that works for you. I've made plenty of friends and even gotten some interesting stuff out of places that turned out to be "No" for free wood.
