FREE FIREWOOD!! (that I don't want)

[spot]

I recently got a hot tip from a friend at work about a great source of free firewood.
All walnut, all you can haul. (the sound you hear is my jaw hitting the floor)
He said it was a mill that uses walnut exclusively to make boards.
The parts of the tree that they can't make into good lumber (knots, V's etc.) gets thrown out and you can take it. FREE.

I burn rubber out of the parking lot.

I stop in at the front office to ask the secretary where the "firewood" is, and she points down a long dirt road lined with stacks of lumber and uncut logs.
"Don't take the good stuff!" she warns "at the end of that road is the 'junk' pile... you can have that."

Fishtailing down the road 'Dukes of Hazzard' style, I arrive at what is simply the largest pile of wood I have ever seen.
There was literally tons of solid walnut there. It was also the only pile that wasn't neatly stacked and tagged... so it was obviously wasn't destined for the mill.
The clouds parted and angels sang! This was it! The proverbial jackpot! The gold at the end of the rainbow! Enough wood to last a lifetime! All solid walnut! All free!

...wait... I don't want this because...

This massive pile was made up entirely of huge ... STUMPS!
Each stump was at least 6 feet across and just as long, all frozen together under a foot of snow and ice.

There was no way I could move even the smallest of these --even if they weren't frozen together!
And trying to 'chip' off usable pieces with my puny chainsaw ... forget it.
I laughed and left empty-handed.

The next day my tipster got a dope-slap on the back of the head.

 

[MrGriz]

Wood...Wood everywhere...And not a split to burn.....

 

[Shane]

When summer comes I'd be back there with a come-a-long, rented chainsaw and that friend to help load!

 

[wahoowad]

I know the feeling.

Last weekend I went to someone's land to cut up the free firewood they told me about. They said it was a bunch of oak and hickory logs dropped by loggers but not taken away. I show up and find a bunch of branches. I drove further than I normally would hoping to establish a good relationship with some new landowner. I cut up some of the thicker ones but it wasn't the load I expected. No hickory either.

Sometimes you score, sometimes you just take what you get

 

[Roospike]

Its a sad story for sure. I have had my own awesome score stories with the same outcome , too much of a good thing and more than i could handle.

So what did i do ? Bought a big chainsaw just for times like this , now i don't have to walk away with the head hung low . Once the options are opened up the scores come easy.

Great story spot.

 

[got wood?]

been there...town dump has huge trees laying from trimmed power lines, but they don't allow chainsaws in there to buck em!! These rounds are so big and so long there is no hope!

`not a split to burn'

 

[sstanis]

Mine was even worse, in a previous post (little over a week ago) I mentioned that I came across about 8 to 9 cords of shagbark and white oak in manageable stumps and logs. Stuff burned longer and hotter than stuff have had in past. The people who owned the house had the stuff for over a year, and couldn't get anyone to take it. Loaded up as much as I could. Guess their neighbors figured this cold snap was gonna last a bit longer. Went back the other day, it wall all gone, completely gone. Answered another craigslist ad, these people had old rotten popular, stuff sitting in a pile of mud. The lady said" you better take it now, b/c people have been taking it." Hit one big round with the maul and it shattered into a million of pieces. After cleaning up the mess from hitting that round, had to decline it saying it wouldn't burn good in my stove.

 

[Scraper]

Man...those are some sorry stories...y'all need to hook up with tree services. Do you realize trhey actually pay to dispose of their wood? I guess it helps I own a landscaping business and have many tree service friends, but I will still stop when I see a "foreign" tree service dropping an oak or cherry or whatever good wood and ask whether they want to drop it all at my place or if I can haul it away. You wouldn't believe how much wood you can score that way. I am almost set fpr next winter at this point and go thru about 10 cords/winter. I just had a triaxle leave me a 50' Ash lead in my front yard along with some oak for free!

I will admit that ther are times I am not happy with what gets dropped as it may be 2" too long for my stoves, but wood is wood. You take what you can get and use as much as you can. The worst is when you split it and thousands of carpenter ants come pouring out. I find it amazing how many carpenter ants can live in a 2'x1.5' round.

 

[restorer]

So, in my real life I get around a lot of tools and machinery. Had a scrounger I know ask if I had seen a used, "jaws of life". I said I hadn't, but I'd keep my eye looking for one. After a few I had to ask, "What do you want a jaws of life for?" He said his brother in law made special "ends" that they used to split stumps. Didn't register then, but does now. A very high pressure jaw system to split stumps into pieces to move. The BIN works full-time removing stumps. Any ideas here?