Stolen Firewood - First Time For Me!

[quads]

I'm old enough to remember a time we did not lock our doors and we never ever lost the keys because we just left them in the truck all the time. I also remember the sick feeling when it all changed and I'm glad that the change hasn't fully reached Quads just yet.

We never locked our doors either. I honestly don't remember where the key for it was! Maybe Mom had it in her purse, but if she did we never needed it. If we were all gone somewhere (there were 7 of us) and company came to visit, they'd just go right in, put another log on the fire, and read the paper while they were waiting for us to get home.

I do lock my doors nowadays. There is quite a bit of stealing and stuff going on now, and getting more all the time. The big thing now is they steal all the wiring off the irrigation systems and sell it for scrap copper. They even got one of our family's old far houses (right across the road from me). Nobody lives in it permanently anymore, a cousin stays in it sometimes on the weekends to go snowmobiling or hunting. On Memorial Day weekend a couple years ago somebody broke into it, ripped a bunch of the wiring out, stole some of the plumbing fixtures (there was no running water in the house at that time), and they even pulled up as much as they could of the copper pipe that runs from the LP tank outside in the yard!

 

[firefighterjake]

I really liked the conclusion to this post . . . it says something about folks in your neck of the woods Quads . . . and says a whole lot about you as a person. I, for one, am glad to have you here at hearth.com . . . definitely one of those people I would like to meet some day if it ever worked out.

 

[quads]

I really liked the conclusion to this post . . . it says something about folks in your neck of the woods Quads . . . and says a whole lot about you as a person. I, for one, am glad to have you here at hearth.com . . . definitely one of those people I would like to meet some day if it ever worked out.

Thanks Jake! I almost got to meet a few members from here last Fall at the Hearth.com Wisconsin get-together, but couldn't make it. Maybe someday we'll meet!

 

[Danno77]

i guess i never paid attention to where you are, Quads. We travel up to wisconsin pretty regularly to visit the wife's family. This past weekend we visited Mukwonago, then went skiing up in Portage, and the drove over to Fond du lac to see some family friends.

 

[quads]

I used to work in Portage, at Penda making bed liners for pickups.

 

[Battenkiller]

I'm old enough to remember a time we did not lock our doors and we never ever lost the keys because we just left them in the truck all the time. I also remember the sick feeling when it all changed and I'm glad that the change hasn't fully reached Quads just yet.

Funny, my wife's parents were like that, even though they lived in a small community college town. But they were both depression era country folk growing up and they never lost their country ways. My MIL would rent out rooms to the out-of-town students for extra cash. Kids would be coming and going all day long, and she'd have an envelope full of cash just sitting there on the table, and she never once got ripped off. Seems sometimes we set ourselves up with all our paranoia.

My wife's dad died in 2000, and her mom went on for another six years. All during that time she never thought to lock the doors and still left the keys in the car. Then the very next day after she passed, her suspicious and conniving son padlocked house and barn and drove the car to his garage and locked it up. He lives out in the country.

 

[quads]

And the story continues....................


So this customer comes every night well after dark, sometimes in the middle of the night, since the first time when I thought the wood had been stolen. He takes a couple armfuls at a time, loads them in his trunk, and heads home. It took him the better part of a week to tote his $25 worth home, last night he finished it up. I had offered to deliver it to his house (free of charge), but he refused and wouldn't even tell me exactly where he lived. Ok, I won't push it. I think what he's doing is like most people do, they go out to the woodpile everyday and bring in the day's worth of wood, except the only difference here is that it's my woodpile he's getting the wood from. Which is ok with me if that's the way he wants it, and he did pay me for the wood.

The only problem I have with it is that when people drive by, see my $25 sign and there is only part of a stack under the sign, I can't have it look like that. I guess it was ok for the days that it took him to finish taking it home, this one time. Then yesterday he only had a couple armfuls left, so I set that off to the side for him and refilled my display under the sign. Problem solved and now my stack is filled for people driving by to see.

Last night I was starting to milk the cows and do the chores. I noticed this same customer parked in the end of the driveway to my house, by my firewood display. I was up in the hay loft and he pulled down into the driveway by the barn. When I got out of the hay loft, he was leaving and waving at me as he went down the road. I assumed he was letting me know that he got the last of his wood.

Well, after chores I look to see if he got the armful that was left which I had set off to the side. He did indeed, but to my surprise he also took some off the top of my display stack again! I think he is going to buy another $25 worth, but hasn't paid for the next stack yet or talked to me about it. I figure he'll stop down to the barn tonight, or sometime, and settle up with me. I'm not too worried about it being a little bit harder to keep track of what he's paid for and what he hasn't, if he gets a few more free splits it's ok, but I really don't want to go the rest of the winter with my display stack in various stages of emptiness.

I don't quite know what to think of this customer yet, and am not sure if I can trust him unsupervised in my special reserve stacks in the back. And since he comes at odd hours, I can't guarantee that I would be around to assist him with getting firewood from the back stacks. So here is the solution I am going to work on today. I am going to create another $25 stack, somewhere near my normal display stack, just for him. That way he can peck away at it a little at a time all he wants, until it's gone, without my display being partially empty.

Now, if I can just get to talk to him again, hopefully with 25 bucks in his hand! Ha!

 

[K2Orion]

I guess the customer is always right.
:roll:

 

[quads]

It seems to be all working out. He called me last night, I told him about the stack I made just for him, and during the night sometime he came and got some more wood from his stack, so did not partially empty my display. He said he was going to try to pay me sometime today. Told me he has an outdoor boiler and he is taking home just enough everyday to keep it going.

 

[rphurley]

I'm old enough to remember a time we did not lock our doors and we never ever lost the keys because we just left them in the truck all the time. I also remember the sick feeling when it all changed and I'm glad that the change hasn't fully reached Quads just yet.

Funny, my wife's parents were like that, even though they lived in a small community college town. But they were both depression era country folk growing up and they never lost their country ways. My MIL would rent out rooms to the out-of-town students for extra cash. Kids would be coming and going all day long, and she'd have an envelope full of cash just sitting there on the table, and she never once got ripped off. Seems sometimes we set ourselves up with all our paranoia.

My wife's dad died in 2000, and her mom went on for another six years. All during that time she never thought to lock the doors and still left the keys in the car. Then the very next day after she passed, her suspicious and conniving son padlocked house and barn and drove the car to his garage and locked it up. He lives out in the country.

Gotta love family!