Potentially Awesome New Wood Source...

[turn_n_burn]

Teekal, around here in Southern Idaho (high desert country) a cord of seasoned oak would go for damn near $300 US. I check craigslist ads all the time and Red Fir and Tamarack go for 250-275/cord (and these are softwoods), and your oak will put out a 1/2 again as many BTU's. If you can get a pallet full of oak for 50 bucks (and I will assume it's already dried and cured if used for lumber), you are one lucky guy. The best I can do out here is hope to scrounge some black locust that came down in a storm. It puts out (hee hee) about like red oak, but smells terrible when cut green and not much better burning after seasoning. I'd keep that one on the down low, otherwise half this forum would show up at the colony with flatbeds.

Can't speak to the traffic issues myself, the Mennonites out here prefer Chevy's and Fords and John Deeres, or anything with an engine. It's my observation that they are a very honest, decent faith. They put a lot of effort into community charity. My old man had to go to Ohio a couple years ago, and he said the turn signals and lights on the buggies were standard there, but they were pretty good about yielding right-of-way. And they sometimes enjoy watching the local news on TV at the cafe. I recently drove through Colorado City, AZ on the way to Vegas...........pastel prairie dresses and side-parted hair everywhere. And these folks ain't friendly at all. Look that place up on google sometime if you don't already know about it. They have a sister city (now split from the church) in Canada called Bountiful too.

 

[Buzz Saw]

My old man had to go to Ohio a couple years ago, and he said the turn signals and lights on the buggies were standard there, but they were pretty good about yielding right-of-way.

That all depends on the particular church. One Mennonite church as a set of rules and the next has a different set. Same goes for the Amish. Most Mennonite buggies do have great lighting on them. Flashing lights, LED'S that stobe left to right/ right to left. Some of the nicer buggies have large sound systems and undercarriage running lights. It's pretty impressive watching a dozen or so buggies like that roll out of a driveway.

Now the Amish, no lights, and no SMV's. The only lighting they have are lanterns that hang from the side of the buggies. You can't seem them until you are right up on them. It's kind of scary when they just pop up are 55mph in the pitch black night.

 

[Oldman47]

Around here all of the Amish buggies have decent lighting and SMV triangles. It is a requirement under state law. You either have the right equipment or you don't get to use the public roads.

 

[JA600L]

Wait till you are riding on a back country twisty road at a good clip...come up over a blind bluff and there's a friggen horse carriage going 3mph.

I almost sucked my custom Corbin seat up where the sun has never been.

I've got a bike too. I've been there.

 

[Bioburner]

Colorado City, AZ on the way to Vegas...........pastel prairie dresses and side-parted hair everywhere. And these folks ain't friendly at all

Sounds more like you ran across Warren Jeffs polygamist colony.

 

[turn_n_burn]

Bio, you are correct. I made the mistake of driving down the side streets and got followed by 2 big quad-cab trucks that were not exactly part of a welcoming committee. I feel bad for even bringing this up knowing what happened with the floods there a couple days ago, though. Fortunately Jeffs is behind bars where he belongs.

 

[teekal]

As an update to the original post, I visited the Hutterite colony this past Saturday with my wife and kids. My Mom's cousin showed us around and then he took me to the pallets of wood that he told me about.

If it were up to him he would have let me take it for free, but the boss said that they sell the wood to other colonies for $150-200 per pallet. Boss said that cousin could give me a pallet full for $50.

We picked through the three pallets that were there and took out most of the 4x4s, and the odd 2x4. He was a very easy going guy, and I could have probably kept going and filled the truck completely, but I wanted to hopefully leave a good first impression if I had the chance to pick up some more wood in winter.

I took the chop saw to the posts and they are now stacked in my garage (pictures below).

If I went back again I am guessing there would be no issues of bringing a larger truck and heaping it right full for $50 (this was a short box).

As far as the experience on the colony, it was great. I hadn't visited since I was a young boy but it's a fascinating lifestyle. Unfortunately as is the case with most communal living situations, one or two do rise above and control things and take advantage of power. I had a few great talks with my Mom's cousin about the colony, and he was pretty open about talking about the restrictions and downfalls to the way of life. It was really neat. They hosted us for a great meal for supper before we were on our way.

Let me know what you guys think of this - is it worth it for $50? Keeping in mind about an hour drive round-trip and a free meal I'm still not great at identifying wood, but he had said it's a mix of oak and other. There are one or two treated pieces in the mix so I'll just use those for burning outside in the campfire.

 

[turn_n_burn]

That's a good load of wood for what you paid. There are guys around here on CL that sell pickup beds of pine scraps for what you paid. You probably have some ash and maybe maple or whatnot mixed in there, and that stuff is in thicker pieces that would burn just like average sized splits, and it's all cut up and symmetrically, well, perfect. There might even be some locust posts in there too, hard to tell. That would be a steal in my neck of the woods. One or 2 of those posts cut up in the stove will throw heat for hours.

 

[Lake Girl]

As an update to the original post, I visited the Hutterite colony this past Saturday with my wife and kids.

I never realized there were that many Hutterite communities in Manitoba ... 118 according to their directory. Ukrainian roots and religious views very similar to Mennonite and Amish as they all have Anabaptist traditions. Which one did you visit?

Mennonite friend of ours lost a grandchild due to genetic disorder that can be traced back to Ukraine community roots. Families didn't realize they were carriers until...

 

[teekal]

Which one did you visit?

It's a colony that my grandparents left nearly 50 years ago. 8 kids and $50 dollars in their pockets and my Grandpa eventually started up his own large-scale hog operation!