Scrounging gone wrong - Not mine

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reddogrunner

ArboristSite Operative
Joined
Jan 18, 2013
Messages
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Location
Norwich, OH
For the last 2-3 months I have driven by a very tempting scrounge opportunity in my neighborhood. A land owner had decided to drop every tree in a 1/4 mile long fence line into a growing rye field. A logging company dropped he trees, some of them falling on an old fence, but the tops all landing in the rye field. I had my hands full with finishing up the fruits of last season's scrounging, so I did not stop to ask. I'm regretting that now. I watched a guy with one saw and truck "nibble" at the select trees all the while making a mess of the limbs and leaving tracks through the rye. I kept wondering how long it would take him to clean up the 30-40 mature trees at the pace of 2 truck loads a day, maybe. The guy hasn't been back to cut in weeks and I noticed the rye had been cut for straw. They couldn't cut it all because if the branches and still fallen trees lying in the crop. Must have made the farmer mad. He sent his boys up to drag the branchless trees up to the road so I finally stopped and offered my assistance of time, equipment and money and they are going to discuss with their pop and let me know. Goes to show, should have asked from day 1. Would have had a happy farmer and I would have had more wood than I knew what to do with for a year or more.

If you are a scrounger, please take care of your land owner. You are making it harder for the rest of us to score. Clean up your mess, be respectful of the impact to the property and do not impact their operation - whatever that might be.
 
Good points. Guys like the original scrounger who bite off more they can chew are one of the reasons many places choose to chip or burn rather than let folks take it for free.

I made 2 very good scores on black locust after the original took a nibble and neveer showed back up. From the cuts they left it was obvious they were tackling big trees with Wal Mart special saws.
 
!! "SORRY STEVE" I didn't mean to leave it that way! you see it was just a bad day at the wood's, found out the blade was upside down and the chain cutter thing was on backwards! also the gas that I was told to mix at the fuel station I got it at only had green handled pumps... the mix that I added was 40% of mix to 1% of the green handled pump solution stuff.. so I had a bad day in the woods..... !! again I am "REALLY SORRY" for the extra work you had to go through to get that scrounged load of birchnut....
 
Some of the timber that the company I work for is no use to the owner or the company at that time, so the firewood scroungers descend thinking it's easy pickings & free wood,after a few hours they have cut the amount they require or it's a much harder task than they thought so they exit stage left leaving a right mess as they pick at the easy bits never to be seen again, & the owner is in a tizzy as he thought it would be clean & tided up & is miffed because he was the one who thought he was doing a good turn & has been let down, the land owners in a lot of cases now leave it to my boss to give permission to the reliable guys to cut & take the wood, a loud series of moans have been heard from the un reliable ones as to Joe Bloggs always gets the free wood If they would do a proper job they would possibly get a go.
 
Good points. Guys like the original scrounger who bite off more they can chew are one of the reasons many places choose to chip or burn rather than let folks take it for free.

I tell landowners up front, "This is a hobby for me, I have a full time job (sometimes with OT), I have kids in 2 different sports (+1 in college), I don't work in the rain, and I am slow. If you are in a hurry I am not your guy." Normally I can do one decent size tree in 1-3 evenings or one Saturday---no big deal. However, I have been working on a piece of land since last September. A landowner had multiple trees blown over in a storm, some very large. It has been 6 weeks since I could get out there (rain, GTG, sports, out of town). All red oak and pecan with a small osage orange. Landowner is happy and so am I. He drags all the limbs to a pile with his tractor, I take the wood. I have helped him remove dead and rotten trees also.
 
A guy down the road from me took two big yard cottonwoods down. Everything disappeared but the trunks have been laying around for a while. I'm tempted to stop by with my big saws and cut them into rounds so someone can move them around. I have no interest in that garbage lol.

I'm with you on cottonwood. May be a different species here but the one I did would NOT split even after curing for 2 years. Even cutting 16" rounds into 8" all the splitter would do was mash it's way through. I swore never to touch another cottonwood. Out here in Eastern Washington anything with leaves is looked upon as green gold...not cottonwood for me.
 
I do cleanup other scrounges that hacks loot and leave. I got ticked at one home owner big time. I went to scrounge and the owner told me that because we did not know each other I had to take the brush 1st. It was a large maple so I did as he asked and took the brush 1st. When I got back that day he let someone else take all the good wood:mad: His answer was 1st come 1st to take it. I told him off big time. Later on I thought I should have brought back his brush and put it behind his car. 1st come last served.
 

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