It pays to ask

[mikepinto65]

There is a small lot of land with two nice Cherry trees down on my street. I did some asking around while walking my dog about a month ago and found out who owned it but had no idea where the person lived. I finally found out that the person is a Mechanical Contractor in town and has a small shop so I took a ride over to ask if I could cut the trees up about a week ago. I talked to the secretary and she wrote down my name and number. I assumed it was just tossed in the trash after I left as she looked at me like I had three heads.

Today my phone rings and it was the nicest older lady on the other end apologizing for not getting back to me sooner, and "of COURSE you can take that wood." She then goes on to invite me to her house tomorrow as she "has a whole bunch of trees" I can remove from her property on the other side of the lake! Not bad for taking the time to ask!!

Ill be sure to update with some pictures once I get to cutting and splitting!

 

[rdust]

Good going, you win and the tree's don't go to waste.

I have enough wood right now but when/if I get into a situation where I need to actively look I have a plan. Where I see empty land with tree's down I'll make note of where the property is and then head over to the township so I can look up the owners in order to make contact. I live in the country and it's amazing how many tree's are just rotting away. I mentioned it to my wife yesterday when we where driving around.

 

[Vic99]

I agree. I can't think of a case with wood that it was ever a negative for me to ask. As long as you are polite, you almost can't go wrong, even if they turn you down.

 

[mayhem]

Nice job. Make sure they understand precisely what you are going to do and what you aren't going to do. If you're going to remove the brush, chip the stumps, or just slice it up and take the logs and leave the rest.

Also beware that any trees you cut aren't near enough to overhead lines or structures that you might endanger.

 

[hareball]

Nice deal man!! My wheels were spinning this morning too so called my landscaper and asked if he had any firewood connections. He said I have alot sitting around here and there and plenty more where that came from!

 

[CrawfordCentury]

Good deal!

I don't own enough property to even unsustainably harvest firewood. So door knocking at properties where I'd seen dead and downed/storm damaged trees was how the woodstove got filled for years.

As time went on, enough kind folks extended open invitations to cut on their land that I have my pick of what and where to cut.

A word of advice if you are ever fortunate enough to get that kind of set up - remember them at Christmas with a small token gift of appreciation. Baked goods go over well. A little gratitude goes a long ways. Same deal if someone lets you hunt on their property too.

 

[savageactor7]

Good score Mike...my hats off to all you scroungers.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Yes, good score Mike. What you did was take some time to plant some seed. This time the seed really grew great.

 

[Summertime]

It never hurts to ask, I scored 11 loads of Hard Maple that was mostly cut last year by leaving a sticky note on a houses back door that was bieng totally renovated.The owner/contractor was very happy he had less work to do removing all of that wood!

 

[hareball]

Looks like asking the landscaper paid off. He went around scrounging yesterday and today and has a truck and trailer load of oak to drop off tomorrow and more to come!

 

[mikepinto65]

Looks like asking the landscaper paid off. He went around scrounging yesterday and today and has a truck and trailer load of oak to drop off tomorrow and more to come!

Wow, dosnt get much better than that!