Scrounging tips for n00bs to scrounging

[Poindexter]

Can you guys chime in with what works for you? I searched on "scrounge" in thread titles and found a lot of "So my friend called me yesterday.." but not a lot of how to be a successful scrounger.

I know there is more than one way to skin this cat, but if we each share what works for us we can probably help each other out _and_ take the new burners to school all at once.

I'll start....

 

[Poindexter]

I live in Fairbanks, Alaska. I burn 7-8 cords every winter.

I can buy wood from the state, ten dollars a cord for standing timber. What this really means is I have to drive about 22 miles one way, fell my own trees and drag everything home. One cord takes four or five trips in my wee tiny 4x4 Ranger. Really it costs me about $80 per cord cash out of pocket which isn't too bad - and four nights after work of humping hard to get one cord of rounds on the landing at my house.

I scrounge every stick I can get.

1. Christmas tree. When I toss my tree off the deck out into the yard after the holidays I drag it over to my splitter. Then I chainsaw buzz the branches off and put those in my kindling pile. The trunk (I have eight foot interior ceilings) is usually worth about four small pieces of firewood, but it beats taking the whole tree to the dump.

2. All my co-workers know I have a truck and a saw.

I am not expert at felling, by any stretch, but I know my limits. What I did was hire a local arborist to show me how to fell trees out at the state woodlot where I couldn't hurt anything by dropping a tree wrong. Best case of beer I ever gave away. I do routinely set an empty gatorade bottle down on the ground and try to crush the bottle with the main stem of the trunk when I fell a tree. I am getting better.

3. My co-workers, and many of their friends know when they have a tree down in their back yard there is a guy (me) that calls back promptly and shows up promptly. I think this is important to my continuing to get calls. I call back right away, state when I am available and show up when I say I am going to show up.

If the tree is on the ground I will generally cut it up and take away all the firewood - and all the slash cut. I have been to a couple places where the homeowner "paid a guy" to fell a problem tree, but "that guy" just dropped the tree, took all the trunk as rounds, but left behind the top and all the slash cut. Said he would be back tomorrow, doesn't return calls anymore.

When I do take a residential tree all I leave behind is sawdust and leaves with advance agreement the homeowner will rake that stuff up himself and not owe me a dime. If he wants the leaves and sawdust raked up I offer to do it for a reasonable fee. If the guy has a disabled veteran plate I'll rake for nothing, if there is a BMW in the driveway there will be some shekels changing hands for me to bring a rake.

4. I have a sawbuck and I am keeping it. Imagine a rack made out of 2x4. You put "logs" in it from maybe golf ball diameter up to 3-4 inches in diameter. FWIW my truck bed is only six feet but my sawbuck is eight feet long. My sawbuck is just deep enough that I can reach all the way across it with one pass of my chainsaw. Going end to end down my saw buck there is a pair of vertical 2x4 every 16" - one pair on each side of the buck. So I fill that thing up with little sticks the other guys leave behind - and then buzz buzz buzz I cut all those logs in 16" lengths in nothing flat. Beautiful. Those little sticks burn just fine once they are cured and fill in the spaces between big pieces in my firebox real nice.

5. I turn down about half the "tree fell in my backyard" calls I get. While I am there I explain why I shouldn't be the one to finish felling this tree - no insurance being first on the list - but I almost always offer to dispose of the tree once it is on the ground so all the homeowner will need is a rake. And a pro to drop the problem tree. I do try to estimate the weight of the standing timber and let them know about how big a piece of lawn is going to need fixed.

So far I have only scrounged pallets to stack cordwood on, look forward to tips about that.

I keep an eye on craigslist, but I don't haunt it.

6. Don't deal with tenants. I had one co worker who rents a place with a fenced yard, and owns a little tiny dog. A tree fell across the fence. I came and looked, I could handle it, but no way was that tree coming off without tearing up the fence some more. I left my number with the tenant and told her I would be happy to meet with the property owner, but no way was I going to tear the fence up even more without talking to the owner first. The owner never called me, it wasn't worth half a cord.

Look forward to more tips and hints and what works for you.

 

[Lockpicker]

Keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut works for me.

 

[BigCountryNY]

I bought my place in Feb of this year after moving from northern California. I have 3.6 acres that is mostly forest, with a good bit of standing dead as the previous owners didn't do much to take care of the property except right around the house.

We also have a lot of trees that fall during storms and such. The electric company just clears the roadway and leaves the tree on the side of the road. I'm always on the lookout for those.

I scrounge pallets from work, as we have to pay to have them hauled away and so they are ok with me taking as many as I want.

I have a couple of friends that call me if they have a tree that needs to go or if they know where there is wood, but I'm still working on growing my "network" here. That's what works for me and the area that I live in.

 

[Clyde S. Dale]

Keep more of an eye on Craiglist. I have gotten some awesome scores off of there. Yes, there is a lot of junk listings as seen in the "Craigslist laugh of the day" thread, but there can be good ones too. Search this site for an RSS feed thread someone posted a few years back. I have not done this in a while but you can have e-mails sent to you when someone posts a new listing under searchs you save (i.e. Free Firewood).

I scored about a cord of white oak off CL about a month ago. The posting had been up for almost 2 weeks when I saw it and I thought no way it's still available. I responded and sure enough, it was all still there.

 

[Longstreet]

I can buy wood from the state, ten dollars a cord for standing timber. What this really means is I have to drive about 22 miles one way, fell my own trees and drag everything home. One cord takes four or five trips in my wee tiny 4x4 Ranger. Really it costs me about $80 per cord cash out of pocket which isn't too bad - and four nights after work of humping hard to get one cord of rounds on the landing at my house.

Can you get a trailer? If equipped right, some Rangers can tow 5000+lbs. Don't know what you are cutting on state land, but I figure you could get about a cord a trip if done right.

 

[Ashful]

What I did was hire a local arborist to show me how to fell trees out at the state woodlot where I couldn't hurt anything by dropping a tree wrong. Best case of beer I ever gave away.

Excellent idea!

I'll repeat the recommendation for a trailer. You can haul way more, and put off unloading until the weekend, rather doing doing it at night after work. Definitely the way to go, when bringing wood home.

 

[Poindexter]

FWIW I have two 16' skiffs, one little boat trailer with a 500# capacity axle, and no empty parking spaces. My next trailer will indeed have a single 3500# axle. According to manual in my truck I have a class II hitch, 350# tongue weight, 3500# tow weight max. A cord of green birch comes in right at 3000# with the sap up.

 

[red oak]

Yeah a trailer is what I was thinking also. I have a Ranger and like it for the most part except for the fact that it takes more trips per cord. Luckily the places where I cut are all within 10 miles. If it was more I would definitely look into a trailer.

 

[prezes13]

I think the best is getting a hookup with a tree guy. I had eight or more cords delivered to my house for $50(beer money). Yesterday I stopped by a tree crew who we're cutting some trees and asked if the wood is spoken for. Owner of the house was keeping it but they asked me about my address and said they are always looking for places to dump wood. They said it's always cut to fire wood length because it's much easier for them to load a trailer that way. I do cut a skids at work we get fire hydrants shipped to us on pretty beefy skids. They are made mostly of oak with a bit of poplar and pine.

 

[STIHLY DAN]

I think Alaska is a different animal. I believe you have the most wood burners per capita. A bigger truck may be the best way to go. With a trailer.

 

[BSH1F]

I live about 45 mins from Baltimore and Harrisburg, right on the mason Dixon line. We have a great area geographically for scrounging. I love Craigslist for free wood, i noticed closer to the cities people only see wood as trash. I saw 2 cords of white oak rounds sitting on a curb free on Craigslist in the getto, if it wasn't 30 mins away and 3 days old i would of did a drive by lol. Out in the country the people who have access to wood usually leave the rounds from the power companies trimming back in the spring down by the road because in about 3 days if its not pine it will be gone. Also anytime i see someone had a tree cut up and it's laying there for a week I'll stop and ask if they need those ugly rounds out of their yard. i love people who see a bunch of downed wood as a mess that they just want gone. no problem I'll take care of that

 

[firefighterjake]

A lot of scrounging techniques depends on your location and circumstances . . . up here so many folks burn wood that many tree trimming companies leave the wood on the land for the owners . . . or they leave it figuring someone will come along and grab it. Many other private companies keep the wood and burn it themselves or sell the wood . . . and "junk wood" can often be disposed of easily and cheaply (or free) at local "wood dumps." Craigslist postings for free wood are almost non-existent. Again . . . most of my scrounging has been luck in just seeing some wood that was free or from friends who know I burn wood and let me know when they need a tree removed.

 

[bigbarf48]

My advice: call every tree cutter around and ask what they do with the wood and if you can have any they don't use. Lots sell firewood, but generally they only keep oak and hickory. Hit them up for the wood they don't want (maple, pine, etc). Companies that don't sell the wood pay to dump it. If you give them a free place to drop logs, they'll keep them coming

Don't be afraid to take less desirable wood from a tree cutter. I got my foot in the door with my tree guy when I took sweetgum from across the street. That was the WORST load of gum I've ever split, but it opened the door for numerous cords of oak and beech, along with some elm, maple, magnolia, and yellowwood

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

friends and word of mouth has worked for me so far. A friend hooked me up with 2 of her friends that needed their wood lots cleaned up and while doing that a neighbor saw me and offered me the wood on his property and then the neighbor next to him found out and offered me the trees on her property so i have enough cutting to put me a few years ahead. Alot of it is already cut to length, i just have to go load it up. Sure beats dragging wood 200 miles from my own land.

 

[midwestcoast]

As others have said, location matters a lot.
Honestly scrounging is easy around here. There's just not that much pressure from other burners. Lots of people know who I am & that I heat with wood. They'll gladly call me if they have a tree come down.
I know exactly 5 other people that burn for heat in my community & we will share tips on scores because there's enough to go around and, well, Karma...
Tree companies are pretty happy to dump wood, the hardest thing is convincing them that I really do want a whole truckload & not just a log or 2 for the fireplace.
In Alaska, I'd be betting on the State forests and a trailer behind your truck. Dog eat dog is how I imagine the scrounging scene around you.

 

[Jutt77]

Craigslist RSS notification for 'free firewood'. I also posted a CL ad that stated I will remove any logs or unwanted firewood but no small branches. Got a few hits from that.

A couple of CL free firewood ads were placed by tree services and a few of those guys will now call me before posting to the masses. Mainly because I showed up when I told them I would.

CL scrounge works pretty good here just gotta jump on it most of the time.

 

[KD0AXS]

I think Alaska is a different animal. I believe you have the most wood burners per capita. A bigger truck may be the best way to go. With a trailer.

+1 on that. When I bought my truck (before I started heating with wood) I was mainly looking at half tons. I ran across a deal I couldn't pass up on a nice F-350 and bought it, even though I certainly didn't need a 1 ton pickup. Now that I'm collecting firewood, I'm sure glad I have a 1 ton pickup.

 

[bassJAM]

According to manual in my truck I have a class II hitch, 350# tongue weight, 3500# tow weight max..

If you've got a 4 cylinder that's about the best you can do. But if you've got the 3.0 liter or 4.0 liter V6, rip that hitch off and get a class III. I think Rangers with a V6 are good for 5000 lbs towing.

I've got a Frontier with a 5' bed, which is close to 6.5' with the bed extender. I've done a lot of scrounging after work, finding free wood on CL and stopping on the way home and getting a load. It's OK, but what takes 3 trips can be done in one trip if I have my 5 x 10 trailer. Unfortunately I park in a parking garage at work, so there's no way to take that with me on days I know I'll be getting wood.

Luckily enough people I know now will call me when they have wood, so I haven't had to deal with CL for the past 2 years. One of my best scores came from a local online forum of motorcycle riders. They had it posted for 2 weeks before I saw it, they had never considered trying to list it on CL where it probably would have went in a day. I always make it a point to get to those places within a few days so it's not sitting in their yard too long. Even when I didn't want the wood I pass the info along to someone else, trying to ensure I'll continue to get the calls in the future.

 

[Ashful]

I sort of fell into a lot of free wood by accident, or more accurately, just being my usual idiot self. I'm a former motorhead without a hot rod to tinker these days, and well-known for, well... over-doing just about anything. So, when I got into heating with wood, I went out and bought an 85 cc pro saw with 28" and 36" bars. A few friends and co-workers saw this ridiculous setup (for a firewood cutter), and told their friends... now I get calls pretty regularly from anyone who has a tree larger than they want to fell or move themselves.

So, I'm kept in more wood than I have time to split... the only down-side being that I bring home a lot of rounds in the 40" - 60" diameter range, not too quick or easy for processing.

 

[MI wood guy]

friends and family have gotten me a ton of free wood.and big storms are my busy time.i simply stop and knock on doors and ask if i could cut and haul there wood away,offer to pile brush in 1 location.worse they can say is no.some want to keep it.
some i probably could have charged $.they asked how much i said ill do it just for the wood.watched there eyes light up

 

[bluedogz]

Pulling over and asking anytime I see a tree coming down has worked for me- just ask who's in charge and in 60 seconds you either have the wood or a No.

 

[D8Chumley]

I have a good source from the jobs I work on, there's almost always something left over from the clearing guys or something like the Ash blowdown I just got off this job I'm on now. I have lots down or standing dead on my property but I just can't stop hoarding from the jobsites where it would otherwise lay there and rot. I can get after that stuff if I get seasonally laid off this winter. Anybody buying a high $400's townhouse ain't worried about burning that tree that's down in the woods behind their house. So, I say thank you very much, tree fairies

 

[jillybeansisme]

So, Ignoramus Newbie asks, just how do you get the logs loaded onto some sort of vehicle in order to get them to their final destination? I'm 5'4" tall and 28 y.o. on one side (the other side is another 28 y.o.). I have a Toyota Rav4, 6 cyl.

 

[D8Chumley]

Id say a trailer of some sort might be a good option for a smaller SUV