Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[Ambull01]

It’s all need and want. When Steve passed through a few years back, I got down to 12. How long has that been Steve? I got back up to about 90, then gave a bunch more away. I found an old dealer that had a garage full of big saws and bought 19 from him, $10-$20 each. Several were good runners, all were over 70 CC’s but one, five were over 100 CC’s. My major source of entertainment is auctions. I found a running Poulin Super 68 with a 31” bar on it for $40. Hardest part was finding a loop of 1/2“ chain. Farm auctions are good places to find saws. Terrible places to find axes. The axes are usually beat to death from being used as a wedge, or a sledge to drive a wedge. I bought a Super EZ the only thing wrong was so much Honey Suckle wrapped around the clutch it was locked up, and a Super XLAO that the fuel tank bolts had backed out and locked up the flywheel. 2 bucks each. I don’t have a pile of parts saws, and I don’t call a handle or cylinder a saw. All of my saws are complete, maybe less bars.

When it really comes down to it, my kids hit the nail on the head. They said, “Dad, you sent us to school so we can make enough money to BUY our firewood, not have to MAKE our own”.

So, if you are not in a related business, you don’t need any saws, you just want one.

I use my buddy’s quote, “ I’m not greedy, I just want one of each.”

Damn I may need to take a trip up to MD and try to snag some of these chainsaws. That's some great deals you found.

Wood you guys knock it the fu<k off before the thread gets locked! Lots of different things have been talked about in this thread without this bull$hit. I think/ thought we're all friends here so act like it. I'm going back to splitting wood.

lol. We need a Mad Max two man enter, one man leave ring or something lol. Think I'll just ignore people that seem to want to start an argument, I have enough crap to deal with as it is. For instance, how the hell to get these trailer wires out of this truck. Bought an online subscription to wiring diagrams for the truck and will go to work this weekend. Watch me mess something up and end up having to press the horn to turn my lights on haha

 

[svk]

Oh, here's another Border Patrol gem....

Straight north of me there is a chain of lakes on the border. But due to the lay of the lakes, the border is sometimes north and south versus east and west. If you head north from the first lake through the chain of lakes, the border switches to north and south so the west half of the lake is fully in the US and the east half of the lake is in Canada.

A bunch of new border patrol agents came on duty and went out to "catch people engaging in illegal border crossings" You guessed it, they went to the second lake then went west, crossed the portage into a lake that was fully within the US and were monitoring the other portage trail from that lake to nab "illegal aliens" aka snowmobilers who were (very lawfully) operating their snowmobiles fully within the US.

Things really got heated for a while when the people coming across the trail insisted they were not violating any border crossing rules. After that, they closed down operations for several days on account of "cold weather" and they all hung out at a local bar.

 

[farmer steve]

You are right they are also picky about potatoes and also surprisingly, dry dog food.

My friend had his black lab with him and they were harassing him about his bag of dry dog food. So he said, "I guess I will have to bring my gun next time". Agent: "What for? Friend tells him "so I can shoot a horse to feed my dog". Agent grumbles and lets him proceed with the dog food.

Not that I would recommend being a smart ass to a border rep, but the story is pretty funny as my friend tells it. And his father was a game warden so he is pretty good about pushing the limit but staying short of the line in the sand.

Years ago I went to Canada in my 1955 Cheby panel truck. Took my Doberman Pincher ( a big baby) with me. I had all the dogs proper paperwork so we could cross the border. The border guy saw we had a dog and walked to the back of the truck and opened up the door. Like I said she was a big baby but when the guy opened up the door it surprised her and she went at him like a shot. Lucky for the guy i had her on the leash and she stopped about 6 inches from him. He slammed the door and came up and said "ok to go".

 

[Haywire]

One time they had their sniffer dogs crawl through my bus. Made me unroll my sleeping bag. Not sure what they were looking for.

 

[farmer steve]

I've always wanted to go to Centralia to see the smoke coming out of the ground. Is that near you?

It's about an hour or so North of me. They figure it will burn for another 250 years.

 

[svk]

Another gem, this time from the USFS.

Up until the mid 80's there were a few old folks living on lakes up here that had been closed to development. The Government had chased most of the seasonal folks off these lakes but a few hearty souls told the govies to stick it and were eventually granted life tenancy.

As these folks passed of old age, the local USFS folks were tasked with demolishing their buildings and hauling out their belongings. The wooden/log cabins burned pretty easily but there were lots of other things ie snowmobiles, trash, metal, boats, motors, etc. The one homestead was originally a resort and had been occupied for over 70 years so needless to say they had a pretty good accumulation of stuff.

The USFS folks thought they pulled a fast one when they would go to the homestead right before ice out and pile all of the sinkable goodies out on the ice over deep water. Lo and behold, someone got wind of that and there were a lot of people in pretty hot water!!

In comparison, you as an individual cannot have cans and bottles out there and it is a minimum of a 50 dollar fine if they catch you with ONE can of pop or beer. These dudes literally sunk TONS of garbage into these pristine lakes.

 

[svk]

One time they had their sniffer dogs crawl through my bus. Made me unroll my sleeping bag. Not sure what they were looking for.

I had my duffel bag swabbed for explosives at the airport once.

Ironically it was used for contraband many times but never explosives other than an occasional box of pistol ammo....it was a plasticized nylon bag that we used to fill full of beer and hide in the cellar at our hobby farm before I was 21.

 

[old CB]

My buddy Doug has a camp on an island in a north country NY lake (heaven out there, best fishing in the lake is off his front deck). Last year he replaced a lot of old rotting deck and deck railing, the old stuff full of nails piled up for disposal. A month or so back he and a friend dragged all that stuff out onto the ice and burned it. Nothing but old wood and nails, so no harm done.

But USFS putting real stuff on the ice?! Jeez Louise!

 

[svk]

My buddy Doug has a camp on an island in a north country NY lake (heaven out there, best fishing in the lake is off his front deck). Last year he replaced a lot of old rotting deck and deck railing, the old stuff full of nails piled up for disposal. A month or so back he and a friend dragged all that stuff out onto the ice and burned it. Nothing but old wood and nails, so no harm done.

But USFS putting real stuff on the ice?! Jeez Louise!

Yep. Oh and they torched EVERYTHING burnable including ashalt shingles on shore.

34 years later and there’s still tar on the rocks.

 

[old CB]

Was in line at the airport a few yrs back with a joint in my underwear and a guy walked a dog thru the line going between each of us. Had me a little uncomfortable, but my instincts were correct--they can't be bothered with small amounts of weed, those dogs are after explosives, etc. as they should be.

 

[farmer steve]

Was in line at the airport a few yrs back with a joint in my underwear and a guy walked a dog thru the line going between each of us. Had me a little uncomfortable, but my instincts were correct--they can't be bothered with small amounts of weed, those dogs are after explosives, etc. as they should be.

No even gonna go there .

 

[svk]

Let’s all silently say a prayer that this guy’s parking brake holds out. I would have offered to help secure it if he had stopped.

 

[old CB]

WOW! Nothing else but WOW!

 

[Ambull01]

Just got my new chainsaw parts from Sawagain. Can’t wait to put them on the saw although I have nothing to cut.

Svk, where did you get that Sugihara bar? I think it was you that posted a pic of a saw with a Sugi bar.

 

[farmer steve]

The wood gods are good. Tree trimming guy stopped wirh this on his truck. I almost said no because of the wood chips on top but a second look said take it. Not many chips mostly Norway maple and wait for it ...............................................................some HVBW.

 

[svk]

Just got my new chainsaw parts from Sawagain. Can’t wait to put them on the saw although I have nothing to cut.

Svk, where did you get that Sugihara bar? I think it was you that posted a pic of a saw with a Sugi bar.

I got the Sugi bar from HLS although I found them for about $3 apiece less somewhere else after I bought. Woodcutter something or another in Wisconsin I think....

 

[svk]

Woodcutters Garage LLC is the place in Wisconsin....I haven't heard anything bad about him so I would be inclined to support him as a small business owner versus a corporation.

 

[chipper1]

Let’s all silently say a prayer that this guy’s parking brake holds out. I would have offered to help secure it if he had stopped.
View attachment 901396

Seeing it strapped like that, I'd question if it was even in gear, let alone if the parking brake was set.

 

[svk]

If there is any saving grace, he is heading up a road that runs out of pavement in a few miles so he will be traveling slowly. If he had headed to town and got onto the highway I would regrettably have had to call 911 if I wasn't able to help him.

The fear with a load like this is he, as the driver is in no danger but if that thing came off it could be deadly to another vehicle or pedestrian.

 

[chipper1]

The wood gods are good. Tree trimming guy stopped wirh this on his truck. I almost said no because of the wood chips on top but a second look said take it. Not many chips mostly Norway maple and wait for it ...............................................................some HVBW.
View attachment 901397View attachment 901398

Nice score.
I set the rest of the costly black walnut log aside, I'll wait until I have a work out chain to buck that up. The nails I hit were totally inside the bark who knows what's lurking under the surface .