Would you keep it & burn it?

[CountryBoy19]

A guy I know needs a couple willow trees taken care of at his uncle's place. His uncle got a quote to have them removed and it was pretty high. According to the guy I know there is nothing in the way (no nearby homes/buildings etc) so we are going to tackle the tree removal together.

The wood is all available to me if I want it.

My problem is that I have about a 6 year supply of good wood (~25 cords of oak, ash, hickory, hedge, maple) and don't necessarily need anymore or really even have a good place to put it...

My buddy is willing to haul the wood away and dump it so I told him I'm not interested in the wood but the wood "scrounger" in me is saying that maybe I should consider it...

If you were in my situation what would you do?

If it were good wood I wouldn't be able to turn it down, but considering that it's not the greatest wood I'm having a hard time justifying it's place in my wood stacks...

Edit: I forgot to mention, he's paying me a pretty healthy sum for what he estimates to be "one evenings worth of work". I have no skin in keeping or ditching the wood, it's just available if I want it...

 

[Jags]

Hmmm...would you rather burn oak,ash,hickory,hedge and maple during the shoulder season...or willow? Maybe save a couple of cords just for that??

 

[claydogg84]

I wouldn't bother with it given your current wood situation.

 

[gzecc]

Leave it.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Yeah, I would pass on it too.....

 

[Poindexter]

sell it on craigslist? As above, not useless for shoulder season.

I wouldn't spend a lot of time on it, but hard to let go of being thrifty.

 

[English BoB]

Pass on it.

 

[JA600L]

If I were you I would take a few straight sections out of it and leave the rest. Maybe mix it on for shoulder season. Any kind of hard effort and it's immediately not worth it.

 

[saskwoodburner]

I'm a happy peasant scrounging/burning poplar and willow, but I wouldn't work real hard for it, especially with you sitting on tons of good wood already.

 

[msjones2452]

The first thing that comes to mind for me is to put it on CL for free. I know I've scored several truck loads of wood that way and it's been very much appreciated. I started in May of this year and have been able to scrounge about two cord of Ash, HL, Elm, Maple, Pine and a little bit of mixed other stuff. Willow may not be very high on the BTU scale but for someone like me that doesn't have a huge supply of hardwoods, it is greatly appreciated when I can scrounge some to burn in place of that hardwood.

 

[Sconnie Burner]

If its easy I say take it and sell it on CL, depending on your campfire wood market of course. I can make $85 on a tossed 6.5 ft box load a little mounded. From cut to split to stacked its roughly 3 hrs work. I have made over $700 (payed for my splitter) on "junk wood". Not bad for playing with saw and splitter which I enjoy.

 

[CountryBoy19]

The selling market is WAY low here... lots of poverty in my area and plenty of wood to be cut/sold. I can buy "ricks" of good wood for $45 delivered. I doubt I'd ever be able to sell it and even make minimum wage on the cutting/splitting effort.

Thanks for all the responses, I think most have reaffirmed my initial gut reaction: just pass it on... I am going to go cut it though, can't beat what he's offered to pay me for my help.

 

[Fred Wright]

If I had your wood stock I'd probably pass.

Jags makes a good point about shoulder season wood and, if I didn't have much laid in I'd keep some of it. Otherwise, it's time, transport and effort vested in low output fuel wood.

 

[Jags]

There are times that I actually prefer to burn lesser BTU fuel, just like shoulder seasons. There are other plus sides to lesser BTU stuff...things like burning down a deep coal bed or carrying the fire for just an hour or two before a full overnight reload, etc. I actually miss not having the stuff around. I don't want my stacks to be loaded with it, but at 10-15% of my fuel - you betcha.