What happened to free wood? Laugh of the day.

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.

Dmitry

Minister of Fire
Oct 4, 2014
1,159
CT
I see those ads more often. Along with punky logs covered in fungus "seasoned for three years" for $100.

What happened to free wood? Laugh of the day.
 
My response to that ad would be:

"So when I pickup those logs from your yard, do you pay me the $400 by cash or cheque?" Lol
 
  • Like
Reactions: rpwalton
But that maple is cutted.

Cutted maple is worth more.
 
I like the ones where they show the tree still standing, and claim the "wood" is free! I swear one of them actually posted this, and the tree in question was close to both their garage and house -- just where you want some amateur to practice dropping a tree!
People--smh...
 
  • Like
Reactions: webfish and Ashful
That tree is highly valuable. Everyone on the planet knows that.
Its going to be more valuable after "seasoning", which means getting rot and fungus after sitting there for two years.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sawset
Or they put up poplar for sale talking bout seasoned firewood, i dont even want free poplar not wasrting time splitting that
 
We get a lot of "you cut it, you can gave the wood" ads around here. Then they go on to say you have to have insurance and you have to haul the brush away and grind the stump, etc... I always tell them I can cut it and remove the large wood for $100, but have never had a bite.
 
We get a lot of "you cut it, you can gave the wood" ads around here. Then they go on to say you have to have insurance and you have to haul the brush away and grind the stump, etc... I always tell them I can cut it and remove the large wood for $100, but have never had a bite.
We see those ads here, too. I never have time to answer any, to see how reasonable the poster is, since I seem to have enough friends and coworkers always asking me for the same. My deal is simple, and no one ever turns it down:

1. I won't touch any tree that can fall on a house. I'm not insured, and even the pro's sometimes make a mistake. But I have cut many trees overhanging garages and sheds, if I know the owner well enough, and they understand the risk.

2. I drop the tree and take the trunk, and will even flush the stump as much as is practical without ruining a bar and chain. You deal with the branch wood and stump grinder.

3. Free transaction. I ain't giving you anything for the wood, and I won't charge you anything to take it.

4. I need to be able to back my trailer to within ~50 feet of the tree for an easy pull with my winch cable.

I can drop a tree and have it on my trailer in under an hour. I can safely haul about 5000 lb. of wood, along with my gear. So I can take a few trees in a single Saturday morning, if the homeowner can keep pace with me on the branch wood, etc.
 
City is always taking down trees in our neighborhood. Lots of old Maples that are rounding that 100+ year range. They usually take down the trees cut them up into 3'-4' sections and wait for someone like myself to come haul it off. I felt bad the other day I was loading the last of the tree up they had cut and some young kid in a pickup that had just rented a uhaul trailer showed up to snag it. Felt bad, but not that bad. I think he got the next one a couple days later.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Isaac Carlson
I don't sit around when I find wood on the ground. That stuff gets hauled home ASAP.
When I was just getting started, and needed more wood than I had, I would occasionally ask a homeowner about a tree that had been cut up and left in their yard. Almost every one of them would claim they were going to use it, or had a family member who wanted it. But then I'd almost invariably see that wood still sitting and rotting in the same pile for the next 1 - 3 years. ;lol
 
I’d go to the local brush dump on the first warm spring weekend. People would bring all the wood from the trees they cut down over the winter. I burnt a lot of pine, but it dried real fast and kept the family warm. Free pallets also disappeared into the stove.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Isaac Carlson
When I was just getting started, and needed more wood than I had, I would occasionally ask a homeowner about a tree that had been cut up and left in their yard. Almost every one of them would claim they were going to use it, or had a family member who wanted it. But then I'd almost invariably see that wood still sitting and rotting in the same pile for the next 1 - 3 years. ;lol
I still ask about that stuff, and I still get the same answer, and it still sits there. I have even gone back a year later and they insist that it will get used....
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ashful
I've had the opposite problem, the last few years, thanks to a few real killer storms and EAB. So many ash trees dying in the yards or small woods of many friends and coworkers, that I just can't keep up with them. I have 3 years worth of logs piled up, about all I can manage to store without it becoming a real eyesore. I've even started stacking the logs of neighbors on their own property, telling them I just can't store it myself right now, and that I'll come back and fetch the pile as soon as it comes up in the rotation (FIFO inventory).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Isaac Carlson
I have a pile right now too, but I have a hard time turning down more. I have a pile of wood to bring home when the snow is gone, that I couldn't bring home in the fall.
 
If things don't thin out soon, I'm going to have to come up with some better log storage, as I'm having issues with rot setting in before I get to process them. I stack them on sleepers, but by the time you have a 6' high pile of twenty to fifty 15-foot logs, the weight is so much that the sleepers just end up buried and the bottom row ends up in the mud. Also, they don't dry well, the pile holds leaves and moisture, overall not a great situation.

Top covering would be worse, I think, without some way to keep ground moisture from being trapped under said top cover. The obvious solution is to just stop bringing home more than I have room to split and stack, but like you... I have trouble saying "no". ;lol
 
If things don't thin out soon, I'm going to have to come up with some better log storage, as I'm having issues with rot setting in before I get to process them. I stack them on sleepers, but by the time you have a 6' high pile of twenty to fifty 15-foot logs, the weight is so much that the sleepers just end up buried and the bottom row ends up in the mud. Also, they don't dry well, the pile holds leaves and moisture, overall not a great situation.

Top covering would be worse, I think, without some way to keep ground moisture from being trapped under said top cover. The obvious solution is to just stop bringing home more than I have room to split and stack, but like you... I have trouble saying "no". ;lol
I set mine on the ground because I don't have any way to move them. I picked up a 10 ton running gear and a hoist this fall, I just have to put them together so I can move and stack logs. I also have collected parts for a nice log arch. 😁
 
I set mine on the ground because I don't have any way to move them. I picked up a 10 ton running gear and a hoist this fall, I just have to put them together so I can move and stack logs. I also have collected parts for a nice log arch. 😁
Nice! Post pics when you get it together. I'd like to see it.

Moving logs was the thing that finally forced me to buy a newer and bigger tractor. I tipped the old one up onto its front wheels several times, and broke the front axle housing once, due to the constant heavy lifting and unintended wheel stands. Now I can pick up 1000 lb. logs and stack them without any effort, and can even manage to lift up to 3000 lb. logs onto a pile, with some care and planning. Anything bigger than that just gets dragged or rolled with the bucket, and put on the bottom of the pile.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Isaac Carlson
City is always taking down trees in our neighborhood. Lots of old Maples that are rounding that 100+ year range. They usually take down the trees cut them up into 3'-4' sections and wait for someone like myself to come haul it off. I felt bad the other day I was loading the last of the tree up they had cut and some young kid in a pickup that had just rented a uhaul trailer showed up to snag it. Felt bad, but not that bad. I think he got the next one a couple days later.
This is a yard where the city of Milwaukee drops off their street trees they cut. There is a saw mill there. They have plenty of ash, but need to truck in oak from northern Wisconsin. There are probably thousands of logs, on 5acres or more. These they get free, so definately not interested in purchasing any.

What happened to free wood? Laugh of the day.