do you own woods or scrounge

[zogger]

Cut on the farm I live and work on mostly. Have taken some wood elsewhere, cut for friends and targets of opportunity driving by when roadwork trimming is going on, or after storms in the road. The latter has been less than 1% of my overall wood harvesting though. I really have no big need to drive anyplace far.

Not sure how much acreage is here, but do know if I was motivated and equipped enough, could take a cord a day the rest of my life, still leaving the bulk of the better timber.

 

[oldmatelot]

Live on 40 acres -- about 30 wooded. Managed to cut here only for 20 years but 2 years ago I had to buy a load of logs as I was getting to a point of feeling unsafe walking on the uneven ground (had a knee replacement 3 years ago) - This year I will have to buy a cord of cut/split as due to the cold weather have used much more than previous years. We will see how it goes from here on

 

[Jere39]

Live on 13 acres, 10 of which are second growth PA hardwood. Mostly Red Oak, but some white oak, some beech and birch. Seems the Oak Wilt is taking a toll on the Red Oak, sad, but keeping me busy cutting some dead, but magnificent 100 year old Red Oaks every year. Pulling about 10 cord of this per year. Another 6 cord comes from friends and neighbors who know I cut and have a tree or two they want taken down and hauled away. I'd have to change my preferred operation to handle any more. One saw (Dolmar 510, one splitting ax Fiskars x27, one maul - 6lb unknown, a couple wedges, one ATV-Bombardier xt650, one log arch - home made, one trailer, one cart, and most important - one chief of security

 

[knothole]

Both, I'm a scrounge from way back. I have access to a large grove of locust which is getting hammered by some type of grub. Sad to see the trees dying before your eyes but the free heat is awesome. I'm not bragging but the grove looks a lot better with the dead stuff cleaned up.

 

[Rockarosa]

You make a good point, sir. However, I'd still try to do at least a little of both if the scrounge is still easy. Might be nice to sit back with a hot cup of coffee and enjoy the view of your woodlot instead of your stump lot. Don't get me wrong, I love layin' them down, but I'd still rather see trees than stumps any day of the week.

Yes, trees are much nicer to look at than stumps. But Where I live almost everyone that is healthy is burning wood. I do occasionally get a break and get some scrounged wood, but mostly cut on my farm. I got lucky last summer when the local power company cut down some trees and I was able to pick up 7 pick-up truck loads.

 

[Mike-M]

I scrounge, mostly off craigslist. There is so much free oak on my local cl, that i wont get it unless its directly on my way home from work.

That being said, I really enjoy pulling logs out of the woods when I get an opportunity to, and would much rather do that if I had access to local woods.

 

[JackpineSap]

Hello all, New here, I own and live on 80 acres of pine and hardwood mix in central WI, I do also cut wood on a 400 acre farm 15miles west of me, thats where I can get cherry, love burning cherry.!

 

[CTYank]

Neither, scrounge nor cut my own land. Not necessary, since I volunteer (with varous saws) for local land trust and HUGE Audubon Center. Total areas involved, somewhere around 1000 acres, but who's counting?

We've been bucking huge amounts of "Sandy" blowdowns on both the above, so they can be reforested. Land Trust has Morbark 8, so anything below 8" gets chipped. The rest of that gets bucked to ~16" for whoever wants to take it home. I generally have to fight off the other guys, wanting to load my p/u with white ash, black locust, and poplar (I saw that poplar, cut it out) I've been trying to recruit any scavengers I can, on a variety of forums and neighbors who burn wood. We'll have huge amounts of wood to clean up on land trust properties for some time. Are you listening, @MechanicMatt? Are you working on a scheme to get loads past NY DEP? We can try to bury you. Short trip onto 684.

Damage on Audubon Center woods was/is huge. Fortunately, for big (say 30+" dbh) accessible downers we have access to a skid-steer that can haul out 10-footers; they get hauled out next a parking lot for bucking to length & splitting. Plenty of big oak & hickory hangers to test out your response time and pupil responses. Fortunately, for me, a few prime shagbark hickory sticks, that I'll always make room for. Estimates there involve cutting, stacking, hauling on both their properties until at least June. Fortunately, volunteers help with pulling & stacking brush.

 

[pennsywoodburnr]

I do a little of both. My wife and I have a little over 3 acres which has powerlines running smack down the middle, so I'm guessing about 2/2 and a half of it is actual woods. All the dead and dying stuff has been knocked down the last couple years we've been here and now I'm focusing more on big trees growing too close to the house. After I take those down, I'll let the rest of it sit until time takes its toll on something else. Some of my other firewood comes from tree takedowns for people. This spring I've got a guy I was doing removals for last year call up and say he wants another oak dropped. He's still down vacationing in his trailer in Florida so when it warms up and he gets back we'll do that. Another guy wants me to send 5 trees downward this spring so he can take back some of his yard. He doesn't burn, so it's all mine. Then my neighbor down the road needs some trees cleared up on the backside of his 1+ acre property and he doesn't burn either, so that's mine as well. One of my coworkers who does burn wants me to drop 2 ash trees on his property this spring too. I'm actually glad he's keeping that, as I'm not wild about hauling it 40 miles back to my place. He's paying, so that's why I'm doing that one for him.

 

[SteveSS]

Hello all, New here,

Welcome, JackpineSap.

 

[Wood Cutter]

Jackpinesap, where you at in wi??

 

[JackpineSap]

I live outside of Hatfield. Northeast of Black River Falls.

 

[Wood Cutter]

Ha that's crazy, I'm just on the west side of brf

 

[Fubar]

i scrounge , i get a forestry permit for $20 dollars for 4 cords of wood and any blow down or standing dead tree is fair game ,hardwoods , pine, cedar and fir too, its all good a friend of mine owns a sawmill close by , i scrounge slabs there as well , i got about 4 truck loads of Lebanese cedar slabs , oh it burns great and smells awesome ..
but still even buying 20 cords worth of permits is just $100 which i think is still a great deal , and i also get the occasional come get this tree if you want it freebie too ...

 

[JackpineSap]

Small world WC, 18 below out in the swamp this a.m

 

[Sawyer Rob]

do you own woods or scrounge

"BOTH"

As long as I can get FREE firewood from other places, why should I cut my own tree's down? But, I do, do a lot of clean up on my own property too......and right now I have a LOT of tornado damaged tree's to take care of!

SR

 

[Wood Cutter]

Yep sure is jps, if you ever run out fort McCoy is a good place to cut. Lots of standing dead oak

 

[Mike-M]

Neither, scrounge nor cut my own land. Not necessary, since I volunteer (with varous saws) for local land trust and HUGE Audubon Center. Total areas involved, somewhere around 1000 acres, but who's counting?

Hey I think I may have been there when I was a kid. I used to live in millerton ny, is it the one near there?

 

[Stlshrk]

We own 7.5 ac and cut on the in-law's 60 ac. I very rarely drop a tree as there are more than enough that fall on their own. If I can get it somewhere else and save the stuff around the house then I do. That is, if it is located within a 10-15 mile radius or so. I've never paid for any wood, but have been paid to remove some. Usually I just bank the favor as you'll never know when you will be the one in need of some help.

 

[CTYank]

Hey I think I may have been there when I was a kid. I used to live in millerton ny, is it the one near there?

Likely not. There's an Audubon Center in Sharon CT IIRC, that you might be thinking of- haven't been there myself. Millerton is a bit west of there. The one I work at is in the NW corner of Greenwich CT, with a separate property maybe 1/2-mile S of that. Large total area, that suffered at the hands of Sandy. Lots of tall timber on ridgelines got put down around here.