Confession: I've become an obsessive wood scrounger

[ChrisNJ]

It is my new hobby. !

My new "hobby" also, I used to hunt and fish prior to the kids and wood furnace, although I hope to go hunting and fishing again some day, but for now I scavenge and split.

 

[muncybob]

I looked at a maple on Saturday that I found on CL. It's on my way home from work so I said I would be back Monday. Loaded the saw and related gear into the car this morning and wife is looking at me a little funny. Explained going to cut it up tonight and go back with the truck Tuesday to pick up since I'll likely run out of daylight tonight. Her response is...you're not even coming home first!!??...like I just comitted a crime or something!

CL and word of mouth is great...I think after this autumn I will have 2+ years worth waiting to be split/stacked.

 

[midwestcoast]

About half the time when I take my dog for an evening walk, I come back carrying some 10' limb that is a hassle to cut up. I don't have a truck, so any real scores need to rent or borrow one. It's like being a junky with no cash to make a buy. Hope I don't start stealing pick-ups to feed my habit.

 

[azsteven]

I've thought about getting a $100 truck for just that reason...
I used to have one about 5 years ago, but the insurance cost me $400/year so I gave it up.

 

[Bspring]

I was thinking the other day that if I were to move further north I could burn more wood...

 

[allhandsworking]

So I'm driving home from work threw Williamsburg Brooklyn and a tree is down along the BQE so I stop and grab my saw out of my ford fusion, start cutting. Then I'm surrounded by about 6 Hasidim men that look puzzled. One with the grayest beard ask what I was doing "do I work for the city" I say yes am a fire fighter. The man then ask "where is your fire truck"? I say am off duty. He say oh your volunteering? I say yes I like to clear trees after storms it's good exercise! He then tells me there are two more trees down by the Synagogue that need help! I love NY! I was having so much fun talking to these men I couldn't bring my self to tell the truth! When I started to throw the rounds in my trunk the man walked away laughing so I think he was pulling my leg also! Lol

 

[WES999]

OK, so who is going to be the first member that will be featured on the TV show Hoarders?

I guess your not alone. I have a wood shed filled to the brim, ( about 4 or 5 cords), and about another cord sitting outside,
about half a cord of cut up pallets in the basement. I don't burn all that much, maybe 2 cords/yr.

I don't need any more wood. Yesterday a lady who gave me a few loads of wood last year, called, and said she had a small tree down in her yard, so instead of saying no thanks I have all the wood I need, I said I will be over next week. So, do I have a problem? ;-)

 

[firefighterjake]

Hi. My name is Jake . . . and I have a problem.

Not a scrounger . . . heck, I have access to over 150 acres of family land . . . and I know I have a problem with a wood fixation.

I visited Sturbridge Village the other day -- a "town" made up of buildings and re-enactors from the early 1800s . . . and I ended up taking all kinds of pictures of their woodstoves . . . only their woodstoves . . . nothing else . . . and at the end the one burning question I had was how many cords of wood they use each year.

I've got two years worth of wood in my woodshed and at least another year's worth of wood stacked outside . . . and I still find myself thinking about getting more wood.

My wife called to tell me the Asplundh tree trimming crew was in the area and my first question for her was if she could ask them what they do with the wood they cut . . .

The fire station needed to clear a lot for a fire pond and I did so . . . even though it was in a swampy, mucky area and I ended up getting a bad rash on my leg . . . and I was happy.

I go to the local small engine shop and go right by the ATVs and new sleds on display to check out the chainsaws . . .

I experiment with stacking and deliberately build a holz miete . . . not because I need the room . . . but because I think it looks neat.


Yes . . . I have an addiction.

 

[midwestcoast]

OK, so who is going to be the first member that will be featured on the TV show Hoarders?

I guess your not alone. I have a wood shed filled to the brim, ( about 4 or 5 cords), and about another cord sitting outside,
about half a cord of cut up pallets in the basement. I don't burn all that much, maybe 2 cords/yr.

I don't need any more wood. Yesterday a lady who gave me a few loads of wood last year, called, and said she had a small tree down in her yard, so instead of saying no thanks I have all the wood I need, I said I will be over next week. So, do I have a problem? ;-)

Yes, you have a problem. You don't burn enough wood! If you burn more, you can collect more. Problem solved

First member to be exposed on Hoarders? From what I've read it'd be Dennis, he has wood that's been sitting stacked since the Carter administration.

 

[Flatbedford]

I haven't scrounged since June. I just haven't had the time. I keep driving by all the wood that I will be bringing home as soon as I have a day. I only have room at the 1/4 acre family compound for about 10 cords. I can only bring home about 1/2 more until I get some of this stuff burnt. I am not handling this situation well. I have cravings just about every day. I need more land so I can keep more firewood. More room for tractors and trucks would be nice too! Oh yeah, and the money to buy and maintain them too. I guess I am pretty needy.

 

[Flatbedford]

So I'm driving home from work threw Williamsburg Brooklyn and a tree is down along the BQE so I stop and grab my saw out of my ford fusion, start cutting. Then I'm surrounded by about 6 Hasidim men that look puzzled. One with the grayest beard ask what I was doing "do I work for the city" I say yes am a fire fighter. The man then ask "where is your fire truck"? I say am off duty. He say oh your volunteering? I say yes I like to clear trees after storms it's good exercise! He then tells me there are two more trees down by the Synagogue that need help! I love NY! I was having so much fun talking to these men I couldn't bring my self to tell the truth! When I started to throw the rounds in my trunk the man walked away laughing so I think he was pulling my leg also! Lol

I used to work in Williamsburg. We used the Marcy St. Armory as studio space on few movies in the later '90s. I don't know if they still work there. That is such a strange neighborhood. I can't imagine scrounging for firewood in Brooklyn! I guess you don't have much competition there do you?

 

[Badfish740]

For me scrounging wood is one of the few simple pleasures left in life. Heating with wood rather than turning up a thermostat is satisfying in its own right, but when you're burning wood that you didn't have to fork over your hard earned cash for its even better. We couldn't afford to get started with wood heat until the second winter in our house. The first winter with oil prices being as high as they were we spent nearly $2000 on heat. The following winter when it was all said and done (the oil company had filled the tank at the end of the previous winter) at the end of the heating season we got a bill...for 25 gallons of oil! That's all we used from October 2009-March 2010! We burned about 4 cords that year, so if we were buying truly seasoned firewood I'd guess it would have cost us about $1000 delivered. Sure, there's still a savings there, but it still doesn't beat scrounging

I'm in the same boat.......my wife thinks I'm nuts....my parents think I'm loony....my neighbors want to do a wood intervention on me to see if they can make me stop.......well.....it ain't gonna work.....I enjoy it...I'm outside...fresh air....I love my kids but even they leave me alone when it comes to the wood stacks...the beer is cold....what's so bad about it????? do I sound like I'm trying to convince myself it's ok???? please tell me I'm gonna be all-right

My parents are quite used to my obsessive DIY attitude so they weren't surprised in the least when I installed the add-on furnace. I think my dad was even a little jealous. Needless to say he's become a partner in crime-in fact, I have to get down there soon to pick up a score of oak and ash that their neighbors had cut last week. He saw the tree guys cutting and bribed them with a six pack to drop it in his driveway. My in-laws really thought I was nuts, but after they saw our last oil bill they began to understand. My saint of a wife enjoys the unlimited heat (she listens to stories of other women at work who complain "it's freezing and he won't let me turn the heat on") but sometimes the piles and stacks everywhere try her patience. The woodshed I just built was as much for me as it was for her. Pallets get on her nerves the most-until they're processed the backyard resembles a freight yard. Keep on scrounging-there's no need to pay for heat with all the wood that's out there!

 

[wendell]

You guys are all nuts. I've never heard of such a thing Obsessing over free wood, ears perking up over the sound of a chainsaw, being on a first name basis with local arborists, feeling guilty because a couple of your saws having gotten run in a wek. I don't understand it!

 

[allhandsworking]

So I'm driving home from work threw Williamsburg Brooklyn and a tree is down along the BQE so I stop and grab my saw out of my ford fusion, start cutting. Then I'm surrounded by about 6 Hasidim men that look puzzled. One with the grayest beard ask what I was doing "do I work for the city" I say yes am a fire fighter. The man then ask "where is your fire truck"? I say am off duty. He say oh your volunteering? I say yes I like to clear trees after storms it's good exercise! He then tells me there are two more trees down by the Synagogue that need help! I love NY! I was having so much fun talking to these men I couldn't bring my self to tell the truth! When I started to throw the rounds in my trunk the man walked away laughing so I think he was pulling my leg also! Lol

I used to work in Williamsburg. We used the Marcy St. Armory as studio space on few movies in the later '90s. I don't know if they still work there. That is such a strange neighborhood. I can't imagine scrounging for firewood in Brooklyn! I guess you don't have much competition there do you?

Nope I even have a spot that gives me cut up pallets that I use for kindling. "urban burners got it tough"! The Navy yard has stiener studios hugh movie studios!

 

[Flatbedford]

I have only worked a few days at Stiener. When I was full time in the movies, Stiener Studios was only something that we heard might happen one day. We had shops in some of the older buildings there sometimes.