Somedays you're better off staying in bed

[Buckethead]

Hi All. I cut and split about 40 cord a year with 2 guys I work with. We each burn about 6 cord a year and sell the rest to cover expenses. We get our wood from a couple of different tree services in the area.

Today we went to pickup some white oak and black oak..about 4 cord. We arrived at the house and found that the trees were down but not yet cut into 18" rounds for us (part of the "deal"). So, we figured that we'd just grab the larger limbs so the day wasn't a total waste. We backed the pickups to the limbs and started loading when the "Mrs." stuck her head out the window and told us we had to get the trucks off the lawn because it was "too wet." Hmmm...we didn't leave any ruts and barely left the grass bent over. It became clear very quickly that her mind was made up and we were NOT going to change it. The man of the house came out and agreed that we were not hurting anything but pointed out that he had to live with her...the 3 of us are married and understood his situation.

We schleped some of the smaller pieces to the trucks and decided to wait for the lawn to "dry out". So much for a day of hauling wood.

I just hope that we don't have to move all that wood to the trucks by hand. Maybe it will be dry enough by next friday.

Karl

 

[country boy]

Maybe you should go to the house first and explain what you are doing there and ask the homeowners permision first. Just a Thought

 

[Marc]

Maybe you should go to the house first and explain what you are doing there and ask the homeowners permision first. Just a Thought

Here in New England, strangers almost never talk to other strangers. It's part of our Puritan heritage to always be miserable. Even if you're not miserable, you have to give the impression of being miserable, otherwise you'll be blackballed as an "out of towner" and a "wierdo." :biggrinbounce2:

That's a nice deal you got going there, Buckethead. How did you first set it up? Did you know people at the tree services already?

 

[Turner-N-Burner]

Here in New England, strangers almost never talk to other strangers. It's part of our Puritan heritage to always be miserable. Even if you're not miserable, you have to give the impression of being miserable, otherwise you'll be blackballed as an "out of towner" and a "wierdo." :biggrinbounce2:
QUOTE]

LOL - last time I bought firewood, (and I do mean the LAST time) I had to yell at the guy for driving his truck over my lawn and leaving ruts. And he thought he was being nice by pulling up to my wood rack!

Sorry buckethead, but even if your truck wasn't leaving ruts when it was empty, full of wood, it would have. The ground is still pretty soft, and some of us are particular about our yards.

Do you have any scrap plywood? Putting it down under the tires would solve that problem.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Maybe you should go to the house first and explain what you are doing there and ask the homeowners permision first. Just a Thought

Oh, man! That's a weird idea!

 

[country boy]

Oh, man! That's a weird idea!

In my neck of the wood you just dont go driving off in someones yard . It would be common coutersy to at least notify the owners that you were there and what you was doing . If a stranger showed up at my place cuttin ruts in my yard or doing other damage without my permission they are going to be looking at the barrel of a 12 gauge shotgun . I just beleive in giving people the respect that i would .

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

That was a bit of sarcasm, country. I'm with you. Of course you ask first! I'm amazed this guy didn't.

 

[husky455rancher]

its a new england thing really. the electiric company cut down about 10 huge oaks at my parents house 2 years ago. it was right on the street by the power lines. anyways there was a ton of wood so i was lovin it to say the least. so i go over there bring my truck , saws. i go in the house for a few mins. when i came out theres this guy there trying to load his car down with my wood! i yelled hey what the hell are you doing! he goes oh like to make camp fires these will burn great. i told him it was mine and to go burn skids and pine for his campfires not oak. so he unloaded and left, needless to say i got all the wood away from the road that same day. the thing is is the house it right there maybe 50 ft max off the road.

 

[EastwoodGang4]

Permission!?

Ha ha ha...this makes me think of a good one of my bloopers. I had a former boss that gave me some maple from his multi million dollar estate. Even allowed me to back thru the yard to load it just as long as i stayed away from some buried pipes. no problemo right...NO on the second day i backed in fine... but got buried coming out!!!! he had to pull me out with the tractor. nice ruts across the front of his nice manicured lawn! oops luckily i was good pals with the groundskeeper, so he helped me out! ha ha ha I learned my lesson that day!!

 

[Buckethead]

country boy

Maybe you should go to the house first and explain what you are doing there and ask the homeowners permision first. Just a Thought

Well, I may be a fool but I'm not a damn fool .

We had made contact with the husband both prior to the trees coming down as well as the day we were picking up the wood and explained our plan. Unfortunately, the husband's plan (and ours) was MUCH different than his wife's.

In my neck of the wood you just dont go driving off in someones yard . It would be common coutersy to at least notify the owners that you were there and what you was doing . If a stranger showed up at my place cuttin ruts in my yard or doing other damage without my permission they are going to be looking at the barrel of a 12 gauge shotgun . I just beleive in giving people the respect that i would .

One morning I woke up to someone loading large timbers from our side yard on to his trailer. I grabbed my .45 to go find out what was going on. Thankfully he quickly explained that my wife had given him the green light to take the stuff....she just didn't mention it to me (and no the .45 never left the holster).

 

[country boy]

Buckethead
Not trying to make anyone upset just replying to the post the way that i understood it . I read it like you showed up at the people house without prior consent and then was all bummed out that they didnt want you tearing up the yard.

 

[Buckethead]

That's a nice deal you got going there, Buckethead. How did you first set it up? Did you know people at the tree services already?

Actually it's a very sweet deal. We started off getting truckloads of logs (about 9-11 cord)delivered to the house in exchange for a 30-pack. This was from a tree service guy that one of my buddies knew. Then word got around that we were okay to deal with and that got us connected with another guy who will just drop the trees and we go cut them into rounds and haul them away for splitting. Now, there is a new guy that will bid the job and include the cost of removing the wood seperately. However he'll drop that cost from the bid if the homeowner makes their own arrangements to remove the wood and the tree guy gives the homeowner our number. We then get a chance to look at the job to see if we want it.

So far it's worked great. We've picked up a lot of oak, maple, ash, cherry, pear, and sycamore. Total cost to us.....five 30-packs in 3 years. We've also been very lucky that everyone is willing to work around our work schedule. Thankfully, we usually have time off during the week and the wood never sits longer than 4 days. Even if we can't get it all at once we'll make every effort to at least grab a truckload a day until it's all gone...that keeps most folks happy.

Karl

 

[Buckethead]

Buckethead
Not trying to make anyone upset just replying to the post the way that i understood it . I read it like you showed up at the people house without prior consent and then was all bummed out that they didnt want you tearing up the yard.

Hey Country Boy,

No offense taken at your comments. I reread my first post and realized that I left out that key bit of information.

I feel the same way you do about folks "just showing up" in my yard. I also know that if we make people unhappy then our wood supply will dry up...a good reputation can be lost with one screw up.

Stay safe!

Karl

 

[Kydan]

Life is what happens to you while your busy making other plans.
You will have good days and some bad. The Good is great- the bad O'well.
.....Peace!....Have a good One.!

 

[country boy]

Hey Country Boy,

No offense taken at your comments. I reread my first post and realized that I left out that key bit of information.

I feel the same way you do about folks "just showing up" in my yard. I also know that if we make people unhappy then our wood supply will dry up...a good reputation can be lost with one screw up.

Stay safe!

Karl

Thanks buckethead , I may have been a little to quick to judge you , my apologies , country boy