RE: Trials and tribulations of a wanna-be scrounger

Confession time . . . I don't need to scrounge for wood since I have access to a large wood lot . . . but sometimes you come across something and the temptation to get free and easy wood is just too much to resist. Such was the case this past weekend.

As some of you may remember from another post the Northern Logging Expo was in town. Of course I made sure to go down a day early and check it over with the other Fire Inspector for any obvious hazards . . . well hazards other than the wicked sharp saws, grinders, splitters and moving equipment! In any case, we were done and just about to leave when the fella who runs the Civic Center/Auditorium mentioned something about wood being left over after the show. Of course, this interested me greatly since I had seen plenty of wood.

And so I made plans . . .

At 5 a.m. on Sunday morning (I was told to not bother showing up any earlier than Sunday morning) my friend Joe and I headed north to Bangor (a 45 minute, 33-mile drive). Honestly, we had no idea of what we would find . . . we could end up with nothing, we could end up with some good hardwood or we might just leave with some softwood stumps.

In any case, we pulled into the lot only to find that no one was around . . . fortunately, within 10 minutes or so Zac showed up. While he said he wasn't sure which wood could be taken he assured me that he would spend the next hour or so as folks came by to break down their tents and exhibits and find out if we could have any wood -- which actually worked out for us since it meant Joe and I could head down to Dysarts for breakfast.

An hour later we came back . . . to make a long story short . . . and to disappoint you guys . . . we did not strike it rich with the mother lode of split hardwood or the few remaining stacks of hardwood. However, we were able to load up Joe's pick-up and my trailer full of slab wood which we both use for Spring/Fall burns and as kindling.

Unfortunately, a) my trailer tire was a bit slack which meant we had to stop for air and b) after doing that and hitting the highway we realized that the trailer was a bit over the weight limit based on the squealing of the tire rubbing against the plywood base . . . well that and the smoke rolling out from under the deck.

So there we were on the side of the highway with this great load of free slabwood and both of us unsure of how to get it all back . . . at least until I realized the FD training facility was located at the next exit . . . and so we got there and off loaded about half of the wood.

At this point the story is pretty much dull and unexciting . . . well not that the rest of this story was a thrill-a-minute escapade . . . we dropped off our first load and then returrned for the second load . . . which made for a little bit longer day (home around noon) . . . but on the flip side I think we will both have enough slabwood for this year and next year.

Sometimes you have to measure not in cords, but in experience and memories.

I had the same thought when I was walking around there on sat. There was some wood getting split up. Ironic that your trailer started catching fire, that would have been priceless a few more miles down the road.

I'm pretty sure the split wood was spoken for . . . and sold. There was a pile of it in a dump truck and in a far corner . . . but I stuck with the stuff I knew was free and available.

Yeah, that would have been great . . . calling out the BFD for my trailer on fire with a whole load of slab wood fueling it!