Last January a tornado ripped up an area about 20 minutes from my house. The next weekend I went with a group to help with the cleanup and I was surprised that so much had already been done. At every curb there were piles and piles of trees stacked and waiting for the city to haul away. This was an opportunity for a unique and plentiful scrounge. Until then I had been buying my wood and was progressively getting tired of paying, waiting, and then sometimes getting it too green. So I bought a new saw and some gear, asked a buddy with some land if I could park some wood at his place, and then went to it. Free time and Saturdays I went to the area and loaded up. If it was pine or too hard to get I would just drive by. I cut rounds on site at 20†and loaded them into a 6x10 trailer until the fenders almost touched. I lost count of how many trips I made probably because it wore me out. I just stacked the rounds until later.
Found plastic pallets for $2, rented a splitter, and followed the stacking advice found on this site. It took 2 of us 9 hours over 2 days to split it. Only bummer was that my buddy, once he saw how big the pile was getting, said we needed to move it farther from the house. I almost died. We split and tossed into the bucket of his tractor and moved it to pasture to stack later. I planned to stack right there but hey it’s his place so I didn’t complain. It took me a day and a half to stack it and I’m pretty happy with how it all turned out. Each double stack is 22' long and 4 1/2' high. This was my first scrounge and storing up of wood. I’ll never forget my first. Just need to go back and get some more.
Here is a video of a helicopter fly-over of the damage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG4QAcj9Mxs&feature=related
Found plastic pallets for $2, rented a splitter, and followed the stacking advice found on this site. It took 2 of us 9 hours over 2 days to split it. Only bummer was that my buddy, once he saw how big the pile was getting, said we needed to move it farther from the house. I almost died. We split and tossed into the bucket of his tractor and moved it to pasture to stack later. I planned to stack right there but hey it’s his place so I didn’t complain. It took me a day and a half to stack it and I’m pretty happy with how it all turned out. Each double stack is 22' long and 4 1/2' high. This was my first scrounge and storing up of wood. I’ll never forget my first. Just need to go back and get some more.
Here is a video of a helicopter fly-over of the damage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG4QAcj9Mxs&feature=related