Pilfering fire wood

Well, it's early Sunday morning and I just made a firewood run. Every day for the past week I've driven by a large oak tree that was blown over in the wind last week. It's on the side of a busy intersection, technically, it's probably on the wooded property of the adjacent business park complex. We only own an electric chain saw which is great for triming things around our house but not much good here. So I took my dad's old 36 inch bow saw, one of those ones with a very thin razor sharp blade; I remember him using it New York when we lived there in the mid 60's so who knows how old it is. I also took a broad axe.

I drove my old Suburban up on the grass and within minutes was knocking of small branches with the axe and then sawing up logs. I mostly went after branches in the 3-7 inch range; they won't need to be split and that is about the max to cut with a hand saw. I cut them to 6 to 8 foot lenths to load and recut later. Even though it is about 27 degrees I soon worked up a sweat and had to strip off a layer.

A stream of cars turned on the corner, it's an upscale area so many big fancy SUVs and the usual Lexus and Mercedes. Mostly people going to church I imagine. Many of them slowed down and stared. I figure in this area of town they just order fire wood delivered or just have gas logs and forego the firewood altogether. I think they would mostly see hispanic laborers doing the kind of work I was doing.

I wondered if what I was doing is legal, would someone call the police or the building management next door. I thought of that scene in Dr. Zhivago, where Omar Shariff is stealing wood from a fence in Moscow and his half brother sees him and follows him home.

All I know is, I really like the sound, sight and heat from a fire on a cold winter night!

Yes, it's illegal but if anyone cared, it wouldn't be laying there a week later. Anyone that gathers firewood with a bow saw and axe, gets a special dispensation directly from God. It's the equivalent of those guys on the news beating themselves with chains and poking pipes through their cheeks.

Firewood warms you at least twice, cutting it and burning it....sometimes moving, splitting, and stacking will warm you more times.

The trunk is the part with value. You were harvesting "slash" that loggers normally burn, chip or leave in the woods. If someone took your license plate number and you get a complaint later, present them with a bill for services rendered...... $100 per hour for clearing slash.

Uh.....wait...bow saw? $200 per hour! :D

Chris You must be a hell of a lot tuffer than me. I use a Huskie chain saw and still don't like it.

Here is my haul for the day!

xoxoxoBruce wrote:

Yes, it's illegal but if anyone cared, it wouldn't be laying there a week later.

I agree. Besides, a blown down tree? The property owner is responsible for getting rid of it. If it really is part of the business park, they would probably pay somebody to do it, with a better than even chance that the person they pay will keep the wood or sell it. You may actually be saving the owner money.

If you pay the postage I'll send you my poulan 18" chainsaw. I don't need it as I've cut down all the no account, shit for DNA, Norway maples on my property. It's yours. seriously. Mazel Tov. Ride that arborial rocket. pm me.

In an earlier decade, we would clear roads fifty feet wide. Take down trees, cut the logs into fireplace length, and leave them. Anyone who wanted unsplit firewood was welcome to it. You would not believe how many could not be bothered to want the firewood only because it was too green or not yet split.

Take the wood home. Leave it sit for 6 months. Wait for temperatures to be real low because wood splits so easily then. We were happy to have - literally encouraged - others come and haul logs off the land. We even had to cut it to fireplace lengths - else they would not take it. Just more trash that otherwise would have to be buried.

Some of my peers would even play a game. One would pick a spot and stand there while another cut down the tree. Winner was the one closest to the fallen tree - therefore got the coolest breeze from that tree - without moving or being hit by the tree.

Learned to appreciate everything made by Stihl.

Do not leave those logs not cut to fireplace length. Cut them now before the wood hardens and while the cutting is still easy on saw blades. An old trick. First mark the entire log in fireplace lengths. Then go wild cutting them at each marked spot.

footfootfoot wrote:

If you pay the postage I'll send you my poulan 18" chainsaw. I don't need it as I've cut down all the no account, shit for DNA, Norway maples on my property. It's yours. seriously. Mazel Tov. Ride that arborial rocket. pm me.

Watsa matta with Norway Maples?

Spexxvet wrote:

Watsa matta with Norway Maples?

I remember planting one on Mother's Day with my dad when I was a kid. One year, I noticed to my surprise that it was no longer a little sapling, but a real tree. A big tree. It grew pretty fast. It also got diseased or something pretty quickly after that. Now it's dead and gone. I'm 39. So that tree probably lived about 30-33 years before it died. I'd expect a tree to live longer than that.

And for everyone of those 30-33 years, it made a big mess. :smack:

Around here, oak goes for something like $200.00/cord. You really are doing the business park a favor by getting rid of it, and the firewood is your well deserved reward.

I "steal" firewood all the time when I'm camping -mainly dead juniper. It makes a wonderful hot campfire and keeps down a teensy bit of the slash which contributes to our wildfires out west here.

I suggest a Stiehl chainsaw, btw. ;)

Spexxvet wrote:

Watsa matta with Norway Maples?

They're lazy, dishonest, and they'll drink all your good booze after you're asleep.

You can't use them to make maple syrup, the wood is for shit-useless as firewood or furniture wood, they grow too fast and are disease prone, they are good hosts for black spot (fungus), they don't turn a particularly amusing color in the fall, they pee on the carpet, and they are unrepentant. They create too much shade.

Other than that, they're great.

Sounds almost as good as the magnolias which somebody decided to plant in our housing development, back in the 1950s I guess!

Now, really, I have nothing against magnolias. But they don't seem suited for the Philadelphia climate. The petals die at the slightest frost, so it isn't unusual for them to be dead after only a few days if a warm spell is followed by a late spring cold snap. Even in a good year, they're not around that long, and between the dead blossoms, the seed pods, and the leaves, you're pretty much cleaning up after it several times a year.

..... and so are all your neighbors for 2 blocks around you :cuss:

I drove by the downed tree yesterday afternoon and about 1/3 more of it was gone! Seems i'm not the only one who likes free firewood.:)

Tonchi wrote:

..... and so are all your neighbors for 2 blocks around you :cuss:

It's true, though there are at least six of the things in the neighborhood, so it's not like it's just our tree.

chrisinhouston wrote:

I drove by the downed tree yesterday afternoon and about 1/3 more of it was gone! Seems i'm not the only one who likes free firewood.:)

Someone probably saw you out there with your saw, and decided they wanted some too.

I'm pleased that you have helped yourself to this waste tree. I've helped myself to wood before too. After hurricane Isabel, there was a small walnut tree that came down across a bike path in my neighborhood. The county cut it up and dragged the logs over to the side of the trail to rot. So I came back with my bow saw and cut off a 3 or 4 foot length of the thickest part of the trunk. Cut planks from the log and let them air dry. One Christmas a few years later I carved those planks into salad tongs for presents for a few people. It was an experiment to see if I could do it. I probably wouldn't do it again, because it was a lot of work, but it was fun. Talk about a home made present.

Common sight here in Missouri. You see a felled tree and it's up for grabs. If it's on someone's property you just knock on the door and ask. Most of the time you're doing someone a favor. If they're seniors you just ask if you can cut it up and ask if you can share the wood booty.

I burn about a cord during the winter months. Provides good heat and saves a chunk on my gas bill.

Don't own a chain saw. Use a saw (for trees) and one sharp axe. I chop my own. Helps keep me in shape during the winter.

glatt wrote:

After hurricane Isabel, there was a small walnut tree that came down across a bike path in my neighborhood. The county cut it up and dragged the logs over to the side of the trail to rot.

Yea, in Houston after hurricand Rita last year our city clean up crew cut all the oak limbs and trunks into nice 15 inch slices; just right for loading up and I rented a spliter later on!

[QUOTE=tw]
Take the wood home. Leave it sit for 6 months. Wait for temperatures to be real low because wood splits so easily then.


Do not leave those logs not cut to fireplace length. Cut them now before the wood hardens and while the cutting is still easy on saw blades.[/QUOTE]

tw, maybe I'm taking the above out of context

I think he's right, buster. Easy to split is not necessarily easy to cut.

Yep. You want to cut the wood while it's green because it's easier and also better for your saw blade/chain. You want to split it when it's frozen, Febuary and March are prime splitting months.