How hard are you willing to work for oak?

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ckarotka

Minister of Fire
Sep 21, 2009
641
Northwest PA on the lake
I'm going to look at a CL potential score in the morning. The guy says he's cleared land for a new house. The wood has been piled off the road by an excavator. I'm guessing around 50-70ft. I can't drive up to it and I don't own a tractor or wheeler. I do have a wheelbarrow though. I will be attempting to fill a dump truck, I estimate from scores past I can get 1 cord in it split, more in rounds all organized.

The guy also says there is a lot of pine mixed in with hardwoods he cant I.D. and some oak he could. Getting some (oak) right now for me would be great because it goes in the 2013 stacks, plenty of time to season. I haven't been able to get anything but maple this summer so I really think I want to junp on this even if it's tougher than normal.

I can't wait to go take a look.

Whats your hardest score you've worked, and was it worth it?

Charlie
 
There are worse ways to spend your free time. If its stacked up real bad it would be nice to drag out the logs you want somehow. Climbing around on a log pile weilding a chainsaw isnt real fun
 
ckarotka said:
Whats your hardest score you've worked, and was it worth it?

Hardest was a bunch of logs down over a 50 ft embankement. Took the tractor over and winched them out for about 12 cord. Definitely worth it. Biggest PIA score was a bulldozed dirty pile this week. Not as hard as the winch and skid, but won't do it again.

Go get a load, worse thing that happens is you get one and decide not to do a second.
 
IMHO, unless you could pull individual logs out somehow I would pass on that. Maple (sugar maple that is) is pretty good wood, only slightly lower BTU content than oak, splits much easier, and seasons more quickly.

Climbing in a big pile of logs is dangerous, and a lot of work, not to mention that many of them are probably going to have pressure on them and may spring in unpredictable directions. After all that you still have to haul them a ways.
 
I too found a CL ad for oak in my local area 2 years ago. Guy said the tree was downed by pros, and left to be cut up and hauled away. My problem was it was down a hill behind his house and I had to cut it, split it by maul and then haul it up the hill after buying a wheelbarrow.

After getting about 2 pickups somewhat full, I sent the guy a message that it was too much work for an old man like me. I wont do it again as it was much more work than I thought. Sometimes a tree is just too much work for what you get out of it.

Shipper
 
Shipper50 said:
I too found a CL ad for oak in my local area 2 years ago. Guy said the tree was downed by pros, and left to be cut up and hauled away. My problem was it was down a hill behind his house and I had to cut it, split it by maul and then haul it up the hill after buying a wheelbarrow.

After getting about 2 pickups somewhat full, I sent the guy a message that it was too much work for an old man like me. I wont do it again as it was much more work than I thought. Sometimes a tree is just too much work for what you get out of it.

Shipper
Agreed, it's the carrying that really takes all the work. So far the furthest I've had to haul wood was about 30' slightly uphill to the truck. If I can't get the truck fairly close to it I'll leave it until I'm in dire need of wood.
 
My only wood hauler is a wheelbarrow, and I wheel loads of rounds on my property from varying distances of up to 400', including a 20' uphill. But I only wheel on a path that's firm and smooth. My primary paths get tamped down quickly (clay-based soil). If there is a fairly short side path with problems, I lay down either overlapping strips of 3/8" plywood or 2x8/10s if it's wet or muddy. The uphill also has overlapping 2x8s. So, if your path out is basically ok , but with a couple of tough spots, maybe a few of these overlapping strips of wood might make it worth the effort. Take a pic if you do it - I love good wheelbarrow stories :lol:
 
Wow, you really need to pick up a cheap lawn tractor and trailer!!!
 
Any chance you can find a pal with a tractor , skid steer or 4wheeler ? After you go check it out and see what it looks like maybe even see what a weekend rental of a skid steer would run.
I recall one where I had only space to get a wheelbarrow in and had to go 200 - 300 feet and up a really steep hill to get the wood out .... more fun than I need.
 
you need to spend a couple of bucks on a winch and some rope and drag those to the road. if it were over 100ft then it gets harder, but for 50-70ft I think that will do it. Just cut them enough to get them to the road, then cut them up a little closer to the truck.
 
Shipper50 said:
I too found a CL ad for oak in my local area 2 years ago. Guy said the tree was downed by pros, and left to be cut up and hauled away. My problem was it was down a hill behind his house and I had to cut it, split it by maul and then haul it up the hill after buying a wheelbarrow.

After getting about 2 pickups somewhat full, I sent the guy a message that it was too much work for an old man like me. I wont do it again as it was much more work than I thought. Sometimes a tree is just too much work for what you get out of it.

Shipper
I struggled under almost identical conditions earlier this summer, except I already owned the wheelbarrow, and most of the wood was already cut into rounds. But I did have to bring my chainsaw and reduce some logs in length. There was a whole bunch of difficult hand splitting, to get those huge rounds small enough to lift. Some of the work took place on some 100 °F heat effect days. It was a tough, 15ft climb with each and every piece of Red Oak I removed, and I got 2+ cords in all, as I remember. Was it all worth it? Hard to say, really, but I'm not sorry I did it. BTW the home owner was so pleased he gave me another cord or so of Red Oak rounds he had stacked elsewhere. That job was considerably easier, but still involved a hill (not quite as bad). So I guess I've earned all those notches I've carved into my axe handle (just kidding). ;-)

Ain't Craig's List great? %-P
 
ckarotka, you are the only one who can determine if it is worth the work or not. To some folks it would be well worth it. To others, they would laugh. For sure oak is excellent wood to burn and you'd love it when it came time to burn it. At the same time, while doing the tough work, you might learn a few extra words that you might not want to use around your mother.
 
Well............it turned out to be a typical CL listing. It was a pile of branches and logs that looked pushed by a dozer ten years ago. Saplings and four to five ft brush and weeds all around and growing in-between. You could barely see the wood with all the growth and dirt.

From the looks of things, he wanted someone to clean up his yard for free. I didn't even get out of the car.

Oh well. I still know where some more maple is that I plan on getting when it cools down.

Charlie
 
That's too bad. Sounds like mine this week.
 
willworkforwood said:
My only wood hauler is a wheelbarrow, and I wheel loads of rounds on my property from varying distances of up to 400', including a 20' uphill. But I only wheel on a path that's firm and smooth. My primary paths get tamped down quickly (clay-based soil). If there is a fairly short side path with problems, I lay down either overlapping strips of 3/8" plywood or 2x8/10s if it's wet or muddy. The uphill also has overlapping 2x8s. So, if your path out is basically ok , but with a couple of tough spots, maybe a few of these overlapping strips of wood might make it worth the effort. Take a pic if you do it - I love good wheelbarrow stories :lol:

I've been using a wheel barrow to move the wood on the lot I'm clearing. It's not ideal but you can move wood with it. The pyramids were built long before the combustion engine.
 
In the relatively flat DC suburbs I've been amazed how many folks' backyards plunge down into ravines. I've done my share of manually hauling logs up hills, but now that's one of my standard questions before I'll go for a load. Free wood is just too easy to get curbside or even delivered to be breaking my back.
 
Just reading these posts about wheel barrowing wood for several hundred feet makes me tired and sore, has to be a better way, of course I am old. :lol:
 
I have a Deere tractor and there are times and places a wheel barrow is just easier .
 
I do have a large garden cart I take wood into the house in the winter some times, holds about 3 times what a wheel barrow does and a lot easier to manuver.
 
Danno77 said:
you need to spend a couple of bucks on a winch and some rope and drag those to the road. if it were over 100ft then it gets harder, but for 50-70ft I think that will do it. Just cut them enough to get them to the road, then cut them up a little closer to the truck.

I'll second that!
I spent about $150 on a 100' 7/8" double braid rope and use it all the time. between the rope and a pulley you can pull wood out from just about anywhere, Add a winch and you can boldly go where no scrounger has gone before!

Sorry to hear of the bust, but that's par for the course on CL!
 
That is a typical CL add, amazing what people call firewood, also amazing how so many of the adds mention the need to cut the tree down and buck them.
 
ChrisNJ said:
That is a typical CL add, amazing what people call firewood, also amazing how so many of the adds mention the need to cut the tree down and buck them.

And make sure you are insured and a professional (that has nothing better to do with his time)
 
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