Not a true scrounge...

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buggyspapa

Member
Nov 26, 2011
82
Scarborough, Maine
cuz it's $30 a load, but since there isn't much but red maple to cut on this property anymore, I wanted to get something with a bit more heft.

Funny, this guy is a college prof. He's been digging out and chopping the roots with an axe, then uses a house jack to lift the stumps out. He trims the limbs down to the trunk with a bow saw. Used a bottle jack to split some of the multiple trunks. Rolls or drags them up to his driveway with a sled. I wish I had some pics of the process! 5 trees took him 4 months. And all three of his immediate neighbors have Kubotas sitting outside. Glutton for punishment, I guess. Couple of pix of the loads at home.

Bl Locust piled 2.45.jpgBl Locust round 2.19.jpg
 
Looks like a sweeping good deal to me! :) Maybe the guy is Amish or something, and doesn't like the modern power equipment, who knows.
 
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A hard way to go about it but many have done it and still do it that way.
 
Glutton for punishment? Bottle jack, house jack, sled, axe and whatever. Give the guy some slack. He either is stuck in his ways and too stubborn to change or a little off. Who cares? Frank said it best " I did it my way".
Take care,
Tim
 
What is it, locust?
 
Oh, yeah, it's all black locust.

Nice, I just picked some up this weekend, rare around where I live but I found someone who got rid of his woodstove and had over 3 cords of wood, about 1 cord was locust. I picked it all up Saturday, next weekend Im going to sort out the locust and put it aside for the coldest weather.
 
$30 is still a good score. How far do you have to go to pick it up?
 
He was moving those BL logs? Ooooff!! :oops:
So how many loads was that? Do you have to pick it up or did he deliver the loads? Seems like a lot of work for that guy for just $30/load, even if he doesn't deliver it.
 
I googled house jack today and figured out he must have been using something called a railroad jack from the description. Yeah, with the exception of the main trunks which I cut and split on site and are to the right in the second pic, he was rolling or sledding the rest up about 50' on an incline to the drive. He looked in a lot better shape than the first time I went over there last January! For some reason, he's just not happy with BL in the yard. 4 more trees to come down, but he wants to do it his way. September, maybe?

He's about 13 miles away, and I made two trips for that. It's looking like about 1 1/2 cord as I get it c/s/s. Spent $75 on the van rental all together, which was more than I expected. They get 59 cents a mile! Budget was .79 I'm looking for a hauler. That van was squatting pretty well on both loads. Pics over here.
 
For 30 bucs that aint half bad. 30 dollars is 2 trips to Mcdonalds.
 
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