Good news Folks,
I just installed my wood stove insert around the end of last month and its been awesome so far. There's nothing quite like heating the entire house with free fuel. In my quest for free fuel I've been doing some pretty major scrounging primarily by using the ole Craigslist free ads. While this has produced some decent scores I've also showed up to some locations only to find sawdust. Not a big deal, thats just part of the game I guess but there has to be a better way to score some free wood.
Here in Colorado, we can gather wood from National Forests but the forests around here mostly contain softwoods. And while there's no shortage of pine it still takes twice as much to equal the output of oak or a similar hardwood. That leaves us to scrounge for city wood. Years ago folks planted non-native species like elm, red oak, locust and others here in the Front Range plains around the Denver metro area. So one of the best bets for free good hardwood is to luck out from a Craigslist ad but you have to jump on these ads and since I work a day job by the time I can go gather the wood its usually long gone.
Since local tree services do most of their work here in the metro area they are the best bet for good wood which is why most sell firewood as part of their business model. So I just recently posted a CL free ad for a free place for tree services and/or arborists to dump their wood...my front yard. My ad explained to call me for my address and to chat beforehand. The beauty is that they avoid paying dump fees and I avoid having to scrounge or pay for wood, plus my location is convenient for most of this area. Within a half hour of posting the ad I received a call from a nice gentleman that owns a local tree service that just got out of the firewood business and he took me up on my offer to dump his wood at my place! I'll be getting 4 trees worth of elm, delivered, for free, starting next week (one of the better woods we can get out here). He also deals with a lot of locust and some other premium Colorado woods. We agreed to restrict this to 5" or larger diameter pieces, no small branches, and no Cottonwood. His comment was "get ready for a LOT of wood, we're super busy". That was like sweet music to my ears! A friend of mine that heats with wood lives only 1/2 mile away has a 25 ton splitter. I offered him half the wood I get if he brings his splitter over from time to time to which he agreed. Life is good!
At any rate, this has probably been done before and may be old news but I thought I'd share the plan as an idea for others.
I just installed my wood stove insert around the end of last month and its been awesome so far. There's nothing quite like heating the entire house with free fuel. In my quest for free fuel I've been doing some pretty major scrounging primarily by using the ole Craigslist free ads. While this has produced some decent scores I've also showed up to some locations only to find sawdust. Not a big deal, thats just part of the game I guess but there has to be a better way to score some free wood.
Here in Colorado, we can gather wood from National Forests but the forests around here mostly contain softwoods. And while there's no shortage of pine it still takes twice as much to equal the output of oak or a similar hardwood. That leaves us to scrounge for city wood. Years ago folks planted non-native species like elm, red oak, locust and others here in the Front Range plains around the Denver metro area. So one of the best bets for free good hardwood is to luck out from a Craigslist ad but you have to jump on these ads and since I work a day job by the time I can go gather the wood its usually long gone.
Since local tree services do most of their work here in the metro area they are the best bet for good wood which is why most sell firewood as part of their business model. So I just recently posted a CL free ad for a free place for tree services and/or arborists to dump their wood...my front yard. My ad explained to call me for my address and to chat beforehand. The beauty is that they avoid paying dump fees and I avoid having to scrounge or pay for wood, plus my location is convenient for most of this area. Within a half hour of posting the ad I received a call from a nice gentleman that owns a local tree service that just got out of the firewood business and he took me up on my offer to dump his wood at my place! I'll be getting 4 trees worth of elm, delivered, for free, starting next week (one of the better woods we can get out here). He also deals with a lot of locust and some other premium Colorado woods. We agreed to restrict this to 5" or larger diameter pieces, no small branches, and no Cottonwood. His comment was "get ready for a LOT of wood, we're super busy". That was like sweet music to my ears! A friend of mine that heats with wood lives only 1/2 mile away has a 25 ton splitter. I offered him half the wood I get if he brings his splitter over from time to time to which he agreed. Life is good!
At any rate, this has probably been done before and may be old news but I thought I'd share the plan as an idea for others.
