RE: Getting someone else to chop up my wood . . . true story

[firefighterjake]

As a "born again woodburner behind the proverbial eight ball" I'm in full scrounge mode right now . . . mainly cleaning up a bunch of standing dead elm on my property, cutting up some slabs left over from some milling at my brother's place and soon I will be cutting some maple tops (cut this past Spring) and looking for some ash on my property . . . and in the meantime I'm doing what appears to be the new woodburner "thing to do" as I'm scrounging for pallets.

Well today I came into town early and picked up some pallets which I loaded on my trailer (custom built SS snowmobile/ATV/wood hauling trailer). Since space is at a premium at work I dropped the trailer off at the City's fenced in Training Facility since I knew the FD wasn't going to use the facility today. To make a long story short I went out this early afternoon to pick up some empty fire extinguishers and lo and behold what do I find but a firefighter training class going on . . . and get this . . . they're going right to town on my trailer load of pallets.

So I go up to the instructor and tell him that it's mighty nice of him to help me cut up my "firewood" . . . poor guy had no idea . . . turns out that this class was scheduled to cut up some pallets as part of their ventilation class and a local Fire Chief had agreed to drop off some pallets for the class at a different location. The guy heading up this class thought the Chief had simply dropped the pallets off at the training facility and so was chopping them up like there was no tomorrow.

Of course I told the guy that I had no problem with them chopping up my wood . . . as long as they load it back on to my trailer . . . and I asked him to tell the firefighters to try to chop it to 18 inch lengths. We'll see how good a job they've done when I pick up my trailer today after work.

 

[fossil]

Make sure you get yourself a copy of their training schedule! :lol: Rick

 

[Jags]

Your just lucky you got there before they lit up the business end of a road flare. At least thats how we always started practice fires.

Jags: Volunteer Fire Dept. 8yrs.
Reserve county deputy 4yrs.

I don't like politic'in so I hung up the fire hose AND the service weapon.

 

[Redox]

Thats funny! You probably couldn't have organized it better if you tried.

Jags is still looking for his true calling...

Chris

 

[BadDad320]

Great story........

 

[oilstinks]

Nice truck in your avatar jake. Wish our dept. had some better trucks. We have to buy our own radios if we want one. My turnout gear is from the '80s and our two tankers are from the 70s. We just got a bathroom at our substation this year.

 

[firefighterjake]

Nice truck in your avatar jake. Wish our dept. had some better trucks. We have to buy our own radios if we want one. My turnout gear is from the '80s and our two tankers are from the 70s. We just got a bathroom at our substation this year.

That's actually one of our older engines that I shot a few years back.

Have you guys applied for any of the Homeland Security grants? Sounds like you would be good candidates for the grants . . . many of the rural volunteer departments back home have made out pretty well with new trucks, bunker gear, etc. . . . and here in Bangor and Brewer they have gone absolutely nuts by buying a Command-abago (basically a Winnebago set up as a Command Vehicle . . . that rarely leaves the station except for dog and pony shows), a Heavy Rescue Truck (a nice buy) and over in Brewer they bought a hovercraft (although it keeps falling apart.)

While I could rant about wasted grants (i.e. I'm pretty sure the terrorists aren't going to attack Thorndike, Maine anytime soon unless they get upset with the Holsteins and Jersey cows there) and foolishness in my own department (i.e. the Command-abago) and some surrounding departments I will say that this grant has helped out some smaller departments and it sounds like you guys would be good candidates. If you haven't applied for this grant, do so . . . and it really is worth taking the time to find a good grant writer.

 

[firefighterjake]

Your just lucky you got there before they lit up the business end of a road flare. At least thats how we always started practice fires.

Jags: Volunteer Fire Dept. 8yrs.
Reserve county deputy 4yrs.

I don't like politic'in so I hung up the fire hose AND the service weapon.

Ah, politics . . . doesn't matter where you are or what you're doing . . . it creeps into everything. I hear ya on the politics end.

 

[firefighterjake]

Follow up . . . well maybe those firefighters did too good a job. I picked up the trailer at day's end and the firefighter/students helped load up my trailer with the pallet remains. My only real issue is that my first load of pallets I was able to saw up pretty neatly . . . busting the pallets with an ax however has left a whole lot of small pieces of wood which are more suitable as kindling . . . man those guys really got into the training -- not too many intact or large pieces of pallets were left.

 

[woodconvert]

As a "born again woodburner behind the proverbial eight ball" I'm in full scrounge mode right now . . . mainly cleaning up a bunch of standing dead elm on my property, cutting up some slabs left over from some milling at my brother's place and soon I will be cutting some maple tops (cut this past Spring) and looking for some ash on my property . . . and in the meantime I'm doing what appears to be the new woodburner "thing to do" as I'm scrounging for pallets.

Well today I came into town early and picked up some pallets which I loaded on my trailer (custom built SS snowmobile/ATV/wood hauling trailer). Since space is at a premium at work I dropped the trailer off at the City's fenced in Training Facility since I knew the FD wasn't going to use the facility today. To make a long story short I went out this early afternoon to pick up some empty fire extinguishers and lo and behold what do I find but a firefighter training class going on . . . and get this . . . they're going right to town on my trailer load of pallets.

Incredible...the same thing happened to me once...............well, not really. I don't have that kind of luck. You aughta supply them with some bucked wood and see what they can do

 

[Jags]

Jags is still looking for his true calling...

Chris

Yeah, if I ever find out that this computer stuff is just a fad, I will have something to fall back on. ;-P

Truth be told, I have always volunteered my time in the community somehow (until recently). Just something that happens in lots of small towns around the country. When it becomes more headache than help its time to move on. I don't like politic'in.

Back on topic. I wish I could find somebody that would chop up my wood. I still have about 7+ cords to be processed.

 

[lvfd50]

I simply rented my one place to 65yr old semi-retired mason. This guy just wont stop moving when he doesn't have a masonary job. On top of that he is a neat freak who couldn't stand the pile of unsplit wood in the back yard. Next thing I know I stop by one day and he has it all split and stacked in the woodshed. Now I'm thinking I should drop some more off from my other stash. I guess it works well. I give him cheap rent and he gets work done around the house.