Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[mainewoods]

Even the tree companies clearing the overhead lines up here don't chip anything over 6". They leave it where it falls and it's usually gone by the next day. Thank god for scroungers!

 

[mainewoods]

And thank God for common sense!

 

[MuskokaSplitter]

Was at the cottage on the weekend and my neighbor took down a rather large manitoba maple. was about 25-30" at the base. I wish i took some pictures but i didnt have any camera with me...oh well. went and talk to him and asked if he wanted a hand. He is an older guy so i thought id as just to be nice and get to run my saws in some big wood . He and his wife just bought the place last year and i havent really met them so this was a great way to say hi. He said sure come help and you can take what ever you want. Im like well arent you going to burn it? and he tell me he has about 100 acre farm with a large wood lot that he gets his wood from. So after we limb the tree and i haul away the brush down the road he starts splitting the wood. I take a few small trailer loads on the ATV back to my place. and his wife just insists we take more LOL. so after cutting splitting and hauling my friend that was with me head back to there place and we talk and have a beer as the sun was going down.

In all i got about half a cord of wood (another neighbor helped and also took some) but that doesnt really even matter after meeting some great people.

Kevin.

 

[Mike-M]

I didn't know anything about it until you messaged last week, then I heard it on the news the next day.

There was a huge hardwood clearcut done here last year, right behind our place. Don't know exactly how big but likely in the 3 figures of acres. They were going 24/7 for three months, it all left in chips. They were back at it just a couple weeks ago, chipping what they got snowed out on in the fall. Went through it this winter on the sled, no tops or nothing - just the odd cradle hill stump poking through the snow. Looked like a big field. Pretty sad, knowing what it looked like the winter before - almost all hard maple.

What do they do with all those wood chips?

 

[dancan]

Some of it gets shipped to Asia , some for fuel for powerplants , some for paper .
So at the end of the day , big business profits , a few get to work in the plants and the contractors and land owners get pennies specially since the hog fuel is deemed "low value" wood and the plants set the price .

 

[4x4American]

the thing i dont get about the 50 mile law here in ny is that it only applies to firewood. any other kinda wood like sawlogs, brush, pulpwood, etc. it dont matter. they claim that because in the end product any invasive species can't survive. what are they fireproof?

 

[NSMaple1]

What do they do with all those wood chips?

Our trees have been crossing oceans in chip form for years. Then there's that new biomass plant...

 

[zogger]

the thing i dont get about the 50 mile law here in ny is that it only applies to firewood. any other kinda wood like sawlogs, brush, pulpwood, etc. it dont matter. they claim that because in the end product any invasive species can't survive. what are they fireproof?

I didn't know that! Hmm..does seem to be yet another hypocritical ripoff of the regular dude and getting independent of the man. Big corporate money gets a ride, little guy...nada.

I am sure they have some scientifical reason for it, but...last I knew insects can't read and are rather lax about dotted lines on maps anyway.

Maybe..guessing... proly because guys store their wood for year or years, etc, the bugs hatch out, fly away, go do the bug wild thing, more baby bugs, etc. The other forms get processed quickly. that's my best guess on the reasoning..not that I think the fifty mile rule or one county or two county, etc is the least bit effective. bureaucrats get hired to come up with regulations, that's about all they got to do..so..they do it. Good thing they are mostly lazy or we would have 10 thou percent more regs to deal with.

Here's something the last few weeks I have never seen in far north georgia..armadillos! Mid to south georgia, sure, zillions, up here, none until the last few weeks.

 

[vanhalenps4]

Chipping is pretty effective in killing the Emerald ash borer. Cutting into logs just doesn't do it. With the huge volume of trees that have been killed or will be killed, it's a huge amount of firewood that could wind up anywhere without some kind of control on it.. This is one of the most devastating invasive species the country has ever seen, causing billions of dollars in damage. The beetles could potentially make the ash almost extinct in the United States. I see dead ash trees everywhere I go. There are at least 10 one ft diam. on my property that have to come down. It's a shame. Jobs go to Asia, bugs come to America. Anything that can possibly slow this process down should be done, in my opinion.

 

[mainewoods]

According to one of the most exhaustive scientific studies ever done in the US, it is estimated that the EAB was infecting trees in Michigan 10-12 years before they were discovered in 2002. The beetle lives about 20 days and can fly at least 1/2 mile from the tree it emerged from. The larvae live under the bark of a tree from July to May of the following year when they emerge as adults. EAB larvae has been found in saplings and branches as small as 1" in dia. Moving firewood,logs and nursery stock from an infected area to a non-infected area is without a doubt the fastest way to speed up the spread of EAB. Not my words, the scientists words. Unfortunately the further firewood is moved, the faster the EAB is spread. Logs, trucked over longer distances, is even worse. Makes sense to me. We never had opossum's in Maine before,until they hitched a ride in tractor trailer truck boxes. Now they are everywhere.

 

[1project2many]

Up here we only have a ban on firewood transported from another state across our border. I would imagine that will all change once the ash borer is found to be in Maine.

It was the same here until Ash Borer was discovered in Concord. Now it's been found in Canterbury. I'm about 14 miles as the crow flies from a location where Ash Borer was just found so I'm sure I'll be seeing them soon. NH has brought in the parasitic wasps so we'll see how that goes. Maybe the state acted early enough to slow down the onslaught but I've already said my goodbyes to the trees on my property.

 

[MustangMike]

I agree with what you guys are saying, but once is is in an area, the transportation bans are nothing more than a nuisance. Politicians are very good at coming up with laws, not so good at removing them after their purpose is no longer valid.

When I spotted the first one in the Catskills years ago, I did not know what it was, they were not talking about it yet. They are always behind the times.

My upstate property is about 40% Ash. I can't imagine no more baseball bats!

There is a reason I'm building my new cabin from Ash (Post & Beam). It will be 20 X 24, open room and a loft.

My chainsaws converted logs to post & beam with the help of The Beam Machine.

 

[svk]

I agree with what you guys are saying, but once is is in an area, the transportation bans are nothing more than a nuisance. Politicians are very good at coming up with laws, not so good at removing them after their purpose is no longer valid.

When I spotted the first one in the Catskills years ago, I did not know what it was, they were not talking about it yet. They are always behind the times.

My upstate property is about 40% Ash. I can't imagine no more baseball bats!

There is a reason I'm building my new cabin from Ash (Post & Beam). It will be 20 X 24, open room and a loft.

My chainsaws converted logs to post & beam with the help of The Beam Machine.

Looking forward to progress pictures. Very nice location nested against the rocks.

 

[MustangMike]

It is in an old Bluestone quarry which gives it some protection from the wind and blow downs.

I do have to get back up there soon, just been too busy.

 

[mainewoods]

Great location Mike!

 

[MustangMike]

Thanks. My old 12 X 20 cabin is just off frame. That was built with store bought wood. I pre-fabed it in my driveway wand we went up and built it in a weekend.

The old one has 8' walls, so there is only room to sleep in the loft. The new one will have 12" walls, so the loft will be 9' high in the middle, giving us a little more room.

 

[Philbert]

Around here, I think that they let you transport ash if the bark was stripped off, as the EAB lives under the bark? That or kiln dried.

I would hate to chip a possum!

Philbert

 

[nomad_archer]

Well finally had a few days of dry weather so I was able to get out last night and get a smallish load of wood. I will be headed out today it will be a miserable 90 degrees with 70i% humidity. Just right for me so sweat while standing still. This will probably be my last load from this property and last for awhile at least until I get the huge pile of rounds split and stacked so they can start drying for the winter. It is amazing how much the heat and humidity really really slowed me down.

Load from last night.

 

[Mike-M]

todays score

 

[ReggieT]

I sure would like to, just not much of a market around here. Last winter for about a month was an aberration, firewood that was dry got bought out, but usually...150 tops and ain't no one moving a lot of it.

Ya, you can get a lot, just off this property I think I could cut a cord a day and never run out, just selling it is the problem. Craigslist in the winter has dozens of guys lowballing wood, oak and hickory. I imagine they sell some, but not much, because there is, like you said, so much free wood out there. People who burn for primary heat either cut their own or from the friends place or some neighbor who had a tree took down or something like that. heck the free wood ads are sometimes pretty good around here, although I don't bother going to do any, have all I can handle here, splitting and moving by hand. I would hate the make the investment in thousands of dollars in heavy equipment and maybe sell one thousand a winter worth of wood.....

I let about two cords of decent wood go this past winter in pickup loads (they haul), people stopping and asking, because it was the coldest in two decades around here. Think I made around 80 bucks and two busted chainsaws for that. Nuts, that wood was worth more to me for my own use. So now, back to stacking for myself. People just won't pay for good dry wood, they will buy cut this summer split in the fall sold in the winter wood for cheaper, stuff that is still half green/wet (that's what I see as "loads" being driven around in the fall and winter, obvious green wood) they aren't interested in good dry fire wood, just cheap fire wood.

Economy is too crappy around here, and too much free wood available. I even tried this summer bagged up hickory cooking wood, cut up splits with my chop saw into chunks, nuts, did two bags all year so far. Ain't worth it.

So, good for you to make a good living at it, wish I could..different areas have different markets.

Same here Zogger. After the recent storms...there is literally mega tons of downed Red Oak, Silver Maple & Pine...people are burning huge piles of it...just to be shed of it!
$65-75 a truck load...sometimes stacked is the average....