Ever get a score too big to handle?

[ruserious2008]

Man when it rains it pours- on the good side though
Thru networking and some CL postings I've been getting more offers than I can handle for wood but today is one I don't want to refuse but also feel I need to know my limits.
Was contacted by someone that has 15 oak trees, about 18" in diameter each , that are clean drops with no buildings etc near. He wants me to drop them, limb them and he will drag them with his tractor to the front of the lot and let me buck and haul them at my leisure. I'm figuring about 6-7 cords using a table on how much wood is in a tree that diameter. My problem is its only me, and my trailer can handle 1/2 cord and its about a 35 minute trip each way so it would be a bunch of hauling but man 6-7 cords of oak sounds nice Would sew up my stash for 2013 and 2014 nicely
I tried calling a few buds to see if they would split the effort but no takers.
What do you guys think? Too much for one guy or should I suck it up and kiss off fishing for June and get this stuff?

 

[Thistle]

Grab it. There will be other opportunities to fish,a big score like that Oak dont come around very often.

 

[Woody Stover]

1 hour+ round trip sounds like a lot. On the other hand, having to set up a bunch of smaller scores is a hassle too, even if they're closer. If you get this, you'll be so far ahead that you can cherry-pick. There's also something to be said for clean drops and not having to haul it out of the woods.

 

[NordicSplitter]

Rent a 24ft U-Haul for $19.95 a day. Probably get 75% of it on one trip. Just a thought. Wouldn't pound my vehicle with all those trips. The church I attend sits on 46 acres. Having a wood day planned for june soon. I'm bringing in a U-Haul for one massive pick-up. I figure the $20 bucks and $10 for gas is well worth the 8+ cords I'm going to get. All mixed hardwoods plus alot of cherry. Take what you can get and count your blessings. Don't look back a year from now and kick yourself for not taking it. Someone will. Best of luck.

 

[maxed_out]

+1 on Nordics reply for me. Best use of everyones interests. Plus you'll get to sleep at night.

 

[shawneyboy]

Isn't that what U-haul is for ???

Shawn

 

[fsr4538]

Do it!

The key is you can haul at your leisure. As long as that is the case you can get is done over time. I just finished a similar scrounge of Black locust 5-6 cords. It took me exactly one month to get it all. If he is going to haul the logs to the road for you the is a bigger help as I had to haul mine in rounds from the woods to my truck. However, it is nice to have a seasons worth of wood in one scrounge. Once it is done you can be more selective in what you choose to scrounge.

Good Luck.

Forrest

 

[iod0816]

U-Haul it... That's what I've done for 2 cords of shagbark hickory and 1.5 cords of black birch. Took your scenario and roughly cut my trips in half for about 35 bucks for the day for a 6x12.

 

[jensent]

Sounds good, but I would not want the wood dragged. Wood that has been dragged can be very dirty and extremely hard on various saw components. Maybe he would let you buck them where they fall. Just my $0.02 worth. Let us know how it goes!
Thanks
Tom

 

[fireview2788]

Anyone you can trust to work with you on it for a share of it? just a thought.


fv

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Tom is right! Dragging the logs can and most likely will get all sorts of dirt in the bark unless the logs can be raised off the ground. That dirt will ruin your chain fast! However, you or he could build yourself a dray very cheaply and solve the problem. Here is one I built.

I used some old landscape timbers. For the cross members I used an old 2 x 6. I had an old chain also for the front and all I had to buy were the bolts. The cost was less than $20 and it worked great either on snow or without snow. We used to use these (but on a much larger scale) when I was logging many moons ago.

btw ruserious2008, you want this oak for the 2013-2014 burning season. It might or might not be ready to burn then. We usually give oak 3 years, especially if it is red oak. Oak just doesn't like to give up its moisture.

If it were me, I'd get it.


One more thing: I know a man who got some logs that had dirt in the bark. He hauled them to where there was water available and used a pressure washer to spray the logs. He only sprayed where he was going to cut rather than the whole log but that still seems like a bit of a pain.

 

[Cowboy Billy]

I agree with Nordic and Jensent.

With a big truck it will burn more fuel but a lot less than multiple trips with a smaller truck and save time. The more you move wood the more dirt you get in it. One of the biggest things that slow cutting is dirty wood and having to stop and sharpen the chain every few cuts is a pain.

Billy

 

[Kenster]

Ruserious, the drop spot in the front of his property... is it close to a well traveled road? You might have to worry about pilfering if you buck everything in advance but haul the rounds out over a period of time. If I had that kind of stash, and it was secured, I would wait until the fall when it cools off. I hate working wood in the summer... and we've been having high 90s here for weeks and no rain for months.

To answer your question about scoring more than you can handle. I have a friend that manages a 550 acre ranch and lives on about 100 acres of his own.
Every time a tree comes down on the ranch, he shoves it into a dry creek bed. Right now the downed Pin and Water oak in the creek bed stretches about a third of a mile. It's mine for the taking.
On his own place he has about 40 standing dead oak that he would love for me to have.
The widow lady down the road from me let me have a large, freshly fallen pin oak a few weeks ago. Plus four large stacks of bucked up oak that have been sitting around her property for a few years - all dry enough to burn this year. Plus, she just 'gave' me a pretty good amount of water oak that was all busted up in a storm and pushed down into her creek bed about three years ago. Not a sign of punk on this wood and a fresh split of a 12 inch round I cut measured 18% MC, so that's good to go for this coming winter. PLUS.... further down on the edge of her creek is a HUGE water oak that came down a month or so ago. Still has the leaves on it. I'll bet that thing is worth at least two cords. I'm going to wait til winter time to work on it.

I have more wood available to me than I can ever burn in a few lifetimes. If I get a good splitter, like I want, I may try selling a little bit.

Back to your situation. If the land owner will let you, I think I might buck and split it all on site and then rent, or borrow a big trailer and try to get as much in one load as possible.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

Ever get a score too big to handle?

No

 

[Gark]

Don't know where this is from, but "it's better to have wood in times of no money than to have money in times of no wood."

 

[weatherguy]

Im in the same boat as you Ruse, ran into someone that dropped 11 oak trees, so far we got 4 truck loads and havent made much of a dent in it, I was thinking of going the truck rental route and get the rest in one fell swoop. Its only 8 miles one way so a 16 mile roundtrip but Id rather get it over with in one shot. After you get it you can stack the rounds and split at your leisure, Ive been spliiting a few rounds a day with my Fiskars but may get an electric splitter to take some strain off my elbow/shoulder/hip (im getting old ). :lol:

 

[mayhem]

Rent a U-Haul box truck, buck on site where you dropped them and haul the rounds out in the tractor's bucket, he can dump them right into the truck. Drive it all home, you cna do it in probably 2 trips.

Even better if you just split onsite too, then all you have to when you get home is stack it.

Its a big heap of work, no doubt...but when you're running your stove on that nice, 2 year seasoned oak you're going to realize it was all well worth your time.

 

[ruserious2008]

Thanks for all the posts folks and the continued training for this newbie
Did not know about the dragging/dirt issue. Thank you. Well , could not find anyone to go in on this score with me but just got the owner to agree to let me take down 5 trees and see how I do with that. After looking on bing.com at the site and talking with the owner I can get my SUV/trailer back to the location where they will be dropped (or a Uhaul as many suggested-I seem to remember there is an exclusion on Uhaul contracts about hauling firewood though???? Guess they would not know but wondering about liability if I got in an accident with the truck full of it????) so no need to have him drag them up front and that eliminated both the dirt and the theft potential also as I cart it out at my leisure. Using a chart I found the 5 trees should be around 3 cords so we'll see how I do with that amount first and hopefully this old guy can keep going- I keep reminding myself about a post here a while ago about an 80 old women that split multiple cords by hand every year as a motivator AND the denial of my contribution to my oil guys boat payments!
Thanks again for the ideas folks and I'll update later

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Just think. Some day you might be the 80 year old they are talking about!

 

[rottiman]

See if you can track down somebody with a log truck and clam in the area. If he's not busy you might get him to truck the whole load in one shot and still be $$$$$$ ahead. Often times these guys look for alittle xtra pocket money during slack periods.

 

[smokinj]

Man when it rains it pours- on the good side though
Thru networking and some CL postings I've been getting more offers than I can handle for wood but today is one I don't want to refuse but also feel I need to know my limits.
Was contacted by someone that has 15 oak trees, about 18" in diameter each , that are clean drops with no buildings etc near. He wants me to drop them, limb them and he will drag them with his tractor to the front of the lot and let me buck and haul them at my leisure. I'm figuring about 6-7 cords using a table on how much wood is in a tree that diameter. My problem is its only me, and my trailer can handle 1/2 cord and its about a 35 minute trip each way so it would be a bunch of hauling but man 6-7 cords of oak sounds nice Would sew up my stash for 2013 and 2014 nicely
I tried calling a few buds to see if they would split the effort but no takers.
What do you guys think? Too much for one guy or should I suck it up and kiss off fishing for June and get this stuff?

Suck it up! Should not have to worry about fishing or heating for a long time! :coolgrin: