Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Have not been doing much scrounging, because I don't have much space to store wood.

But the other day I helped a neighbor clean up a city fence line, just to get some long 'sticks' that I could use to test the magnetic firewood measuring sticks I have been playing with in another thread.

Box elder, cedar, and ? (these are separate piles). Battery saw. It all burns.

View attachment 572880

View attachment 572881

Philbert
looks like some mulberry and what my dad always called sugar nellie.(aka hackberry)
 
Australians have a tendency to turn their noses up at anything that is not a eucalypt and would never burn stuff like pine or softwood or any sort of fruit or yard tree unless their lives depended on it. Mainly I think it's just an impression that they're no good or will make your flue catch fire. I recognise that this is not necessarily the case. I suppose the eucalypt in all it's multitude of species is the dominant large tree in this country so it's the obvious go-to choice.

It's interesting for me then to read about you blokes burning all sorts of different types of wood. How does hackberry go?
 
View attachment 572786 View attachment 572787 View attachment 572788 For the past 2 months, I've done a complete strip and repaint on my old 16' Naden. Still work to be done but the hull is finished. I used alkyd enamel with hardener so I hope it proves to be durable. I've, gulp, even turned down a scrounge because I've been so involved with this project. Back yard is too muddy to get to my split pile anyway and I hate moving wood twice...maybe if it's hard maple. Anyways the boat really isn't scrounge related other than I bought it with firewood money . But I thought you guys might find it interesting.
Looking damn good.
 
Since I gots no oak or eucalyptus and have been known to bust up pallets I went and picked up some of the spruce I cut yesterday .
ChYHzqJXtBiyEvEBEppPCndxdQeJs8sdbLWULaYn_3Zzmp2aU70MROrrCZcawqbn-lMKMa5eeBKlatBT6bysX9okN-GN7pKOEywFtTGza60oomYk8PbR74v1LtjgaGdepyTPn3rBEThsrcUM3GG4U3tDtAIJQLIgsZjCdQcpZ8TPYwsaU7c87usYJlZObgxu1w98bhMDw1e9nL3WrWWMCckHQhe_GYU-a5hewvzTEZGkZNcjFXrfhdnDtrRyF68oKtNKD-eTRS9juP_x0QJHAT_Ws1Ow8nYgzteiGigq9k419vB73QDqeC21p9MOIwOW740SaDgVqBdeGcCMTJxMNVzsCb4bQgP4LTrR7gsYXZWEm-EOy-4R6actjNvtUPYj9EbBU_2ORPSIwQvA36PXmLT70KXM_dEJ7y8ptkDbC_mY1JwrQQckjs_BmipyfJxGHJwBsgPRzzPAln5neApWK_y-cfFf6vJPNO6S2e__UuuIkJ4L2hLa9HuvpZdwYTAtD4dohAKEth2s7Tx5jJP97VvFPRq9k_chaZeOsrQ4PJLySbyH6gtOjqNluimPWqCCxyzRZiRelOJ_A7L_1qJrmq1CChbNgseuoD1EPnAlLcO5-6P23_vWiNWrMzX6CZct0L_78EU1kxo-S0xHcTlD5RiZLZXiR5TbH6hZjLVeV5c=w1000-no-tmp.jpg

I only had a bit of time so small load it was .
I figured I try the "Shear" ...
0_6oZSPIOuCGKQGKT5TMpW0PLOxh_6ydR-UY85DOt5Uk8QWJyF91RymQwtkMSLlJIVDrbyzpNZtjQRJY0UUiPw_3oS0_4NvJZouyq9572BT0J2GfXEL6tNrEikbSVrCA9PzOgxuw44mE6o5Z7vwqSyc4oElBnDNvV29wgZ5SDFKm6I4mq_v2Octl_O2z99aXLYcX3MZ826IoUtlN-_uoQ-Vg3p8UXvIkBQcdRm6tOF34GYDVUx-l3_NXmCsnS_VvuEf3nBKepPu0KWsMPpA2eWTFrjyyqlGULJzZWVb44WxpuNJkADy6DTQM4zakHvuAG8kCNNejTjw4qeGGzKaGZgOalkHTp3BYa--GBDC6ITIFHgLErek1LC43E6zoX0yog8WAvumXENBD0ecQb66TFqBPJmqwL5TIUdLxjNuHUdDLeiH5i4N1M4E0a8Aot-bLjGVVcJ52DkDF4zBLijJgrHvjUdqoqJvScsfhjFt9no9rNjmSvprxJDrTbcmjq645vbdkT3pOIkeabO7Otk4zEefJxJxO66-RtsSjjWZFu4NbAS5qW2YuoFd8AsAmztWMFNQKkzIwNRBDV14Kev-rZoeXEAQRig04bRZVRazDdt8QojrxKoLgaEquXYD1EQztg70oJzVMtb-m8m0baqmvq1Fj9p68S75Y5ZAszDolQ5A=w1000-no-tmp.jpg

8w1o5h_uGVD4Tp4-YQrrec7mn9vqzYylkz9wBTqEF7bgu19Rjcj1XQmvUNu3s4GpitHmCr_gpwIqL86l8rQi3T0TyX29me2F8SdJ2CWYoMJnJ1x3DXbkzmII1A6-TAJ96pkbOi0GgPEDVRkBlsq7aYEABs-lzqCmRHyDnMiqSiL7NtERM-U_WTswK0urgc5M7PqO6wMWEuvZU28pEvEE4-U-RnjJ7Fc3l2fkzlsIRSDikDqidWVx-mvdFhL3zp2HVGOkE9NW4a5pqxDokx_u6nEyMaaCV1z68wIJ9QL3MxOtJTZ_d6nYk-vtDV8GyTqJxLaaq4DI_IbQf_3rpn_r2qvW6NAUq3owt8vymLG5A9SCmMaIVDHKl8lW7R6TilRLEL_8Ahk4B1vfl8QNQZGJTjEV_cAoyn9cIkfJLCJj-h3VU9VWKW19MlZA24m7UAXSZth5TtXls-_r0RSmxtQuf6PWmfywkux2CPRgrDmcY286iRfqK5gn7Z7KTma1uOuWI1_OgAxlhWBdRpaxN6F6JiR15ZcBWbpPDLQXSdQMXRLkcpghSmtR0bHkAJGvinSsGDDfG5CHgCRMYnaDr8NOscORCERFgia5NsVPWhxxkmKvh6M61ftQ7FhN7Z0vWGW9uKBTHrwL9uM4Io_Au-KN30B4nK8UuutY4YGSIeOU6o0=w1000-no-tmp.jpg

eATIHVZZIX37kqjFyPBcX16_njgV8YC48rOjOu0QGF6ssQz5XWvr6Y8P4UllBUyoL0F3M4u11_o3tQt0c7k8Kc6NA0sW2kG8W1hvCyb-RpinzEQs3i77E59HBamsOWOZqujG4rIJ-QxvMKnC2XHN8jeVKntDBW0BF5kTC-NJzH5qbmdaK5Z4S_hEOQCsZUkgeEzUEIkvNpZqKZ2ZzPkKYrbIK_BaJCanonTarDGYhDbS9gHDoOItZKSUKZalfdNmbg1D2Ss-8XNthNuovpFZTudGtbUKt5Rbk3dZE4zs6qHH1p_Inc8oERiZMX9xTULuoxDZq7qW1i-4Tt0NYDDaEAhW57_qduxS42FIyM1QvK-hIJspcRwxHgEhmqz3PHF1q7YTt2xMNMUN7QoeDWhKXrwukf_geKWu2elHEF5rLzYNGoRXiuwccGoJLOn83nZO310SHwD1Jp0jR4Ktu6WDWrZ5zTDgXM54QJKCgbpsJ9YuY4UuMqLCQtMn9khmfC51jr59EjMbigej2BCOXX5SS_IBfduKNIDkwVKI_bhoj9ajH3NIQkeULyyXS5-Fk0ge9JBecGVSDTyCxG_WZrkknWWTHprIPOwuVZrUpF-j8Lq-wSVFXIbPPcN8NxhRfTFU-1KZ7Bg4nL2YjIv63MeunxyxD-QJBYQGVtAgDXY85Ww=w1000-no-tmp.jpg


Works great and it's fast :)
 
Have not been doing much scrounging, because I don't have much space to store wood.

But the other day I helped a neighbor clean up a city fence line, just to get some long 'sticks' that I could use to test the magnetic firewood measuring sticks I have been playing with in another thread.

Box elder, cedar, and ? (these are separate piles). Battery saw. It all burns.

View attachment 572880

View attachment 572881

Philbert
Hackberry, maybe some Siberian elm, and box elder?
 
Cowboy if you haven't tried it softwood is awesome stuff for getting the fire going. Big chunks of bone dry softwood followed by hardwood to slow things down. I've been heating the house with wood for about seven years now during that time here's a list of what I've burnt.

Year 1
Building off cuts from a mates Reno, mainly hardwood and Oregon.
Year 2
Jacaranda (creates an obscene amount of ash), various other scrounged off cuts from neighbors suburban trees.
Year 3
Pretty much exclusively hardwood fence paillings posts and rails, from a mates old fence. Also had a trailer load of blood wood eucalyptus for overnighters.
Year 4
First and last time I bought firewood. Trailer load of stringy bark eucalyptus. Plus 3 trailer loads of big rounds of radiata pine scrounged.
Year 5
Turpentine eucalyptus ( reputedly non flammable but I found it to be a nice slow burning wood). A load of liquid amber absolute nightmare to split.
Year 6
Spotted gum and iron bark..... now we're talking.
Year 7
Iron bark and yellow box plus A big dead pittoporum undulatum from my backyard. It was dead and easy to stack out the back yard rather than drag out to the front and pay to get rid of it. Much easier to send it up my chimney as C02.

My lesson learnt all wood will burn well if it seasoned for two years or more.
Now if I have the option I will go for eucalyptus, which I can do now as a mate has 15 acres of wooded iron bark near by.
 
I have heated with torn apart pallets. Fire's fire.

"Sure beats tryin to heat the house with snowballs"

I hear you there!

My old man heated our house for a winter with pallets and skids from his work when I was a kid. Money was tight back then for them and couldn't afford the electric bill from the base board heat. It was my job to clean out the ash and thousands of nails. Funny how I still remember how much heat those dried out oak pallets put out.

We also used cottonwood from 3 giant trees he took down (48"dbh) took like 5 years to burn all that crap. Russian olive too. Me and my bro were assigned the summer job of splitting and stacking all that when I was 14. Freshman year football practice was cake after doing forced labor for dad all summer. My kids don't know how good they got it!
 
Well the crappy 3oth arms on the chipper didn't last long. My 3 pth would only lift it about 3" off the ground and when I backed up the rear end dug in and bent the crap out of them. They won't bend next time and now it will fit any size tractor. And a sneak preview of my newest loader attachment.
IMG_20170411_182923.jpg IMG_20170415_132941.jpg IMG_20170415_145202.jpg IMG_20170415_181422.jpg
 
Cowboy if you haven't tried it softwood is awesome stuff for getting the fire going. Big chunks of bone dry softwood followed by hardwood to slow things down.

My lesson learnt all wood will burn well if it seasoned for two years or more.
Now if I have the option I will go for eucalyptus, which I can do now as a mate has 15 acres of wooded iron bark near by.

Agree with all that, Jeff. I suppose you do what you have to do. When I first started heating with wood there was a logging/thinning operation nearby and I'd go and scrounge the off cuts and daggy bits with a bow saw and that kept us warm for the three years we lived down near Wilson's Prom. Not sure what the eucalypt species was down there and didn't care - it kept us warm and because our place was small and with just the two of us we didn't need to heat through the day, my right arm could keep up. When I first moved to where I am I didn't know anyone in the first winter I scrounged some willow from a local caravan park that knocked a whole lot over - poof wood we called it because you'd chuck it in and "Poof", it was gone. That and some roadside scrounge worked.

Then for several years I'd go up into the local forests which had a lot of mountain and alpine ash - they are relatively lightweight eucalypts - killed after the 2003 bushfires and that kept us warm for several years but that is now running out as local scroungers have been after that for more than a decade.

Since I've had farm access for the last few years, I've been burning three common local valley eucalypt species and it has been great. They are medium density so they get going ok while the really heavy hardwoods probably don't - hence the softwood starter would be suitable. On our 2 acres we have a number of wattles that die frequently and they make great kindling. Since I have a large supply, I can put a lot of that in with a couple of big bits of blue gum, peppermint or candlebark, light and leave the fire to its own devices. I reckon I'm four years ahead now with mainly peppermint and blue gum. What happens after that, well...who knows, I might be burning fruit trees, yard trees and the kitchen table.
 
Back
Top