robutacion
Member
Hi peoples,
Last Wednesday 20-7-11, I organized for a local hearth moving business, to pick up and transport some large Olive root stumps that I score, after they were ripped-off the ground by a big D-9 Caterpillar bulldozer, a couple of months ago, next to a road, just outside of McLaren Vale.
These were removed to allow building of 2 driveways for a new wine making factory, that is now in its initial construction stages. I didn't know about this, until all, the "good" wood was taken away by some wood-turners in the area, but the bulk of the wood was cut and taken by an Italian fellow that I know.
He uses it for firewood and in one of my last visits to his place, I say a large pile of big Olive wood logs that he didn't have a few weeks back so, I asked him if the trees were cut at ground level or the roots have been pulled out, as I was looking for some Olive roots, thats when he said that, the full trees(10) were ripped off the ground in one piece and piled in 2 large piles about 2 months ago.
He never told me anything as we had already a few "arguments" about him burning the olive wood as firewood when I struggle to get any decent Olive wood logs for wood-turning but that to him means nothing, as he only burns that sort of timbers and keep all his finds very close to his chest because if I know about it, I will buy it for my use while he pays nothing for it, as people sometimes don't thing that the Olive wood has any value...!
So, and while he knows that I get mad when I find that he found good quality Olive wood and cut it all up for damn firewood...! I can't do anything after he got it cut that small so, telling me about the root/stumps, didn't bother him as they have no value to him, as they are always full of soil/rocks all other sort of stuff that requires lots of time cleaning, before the chainsaws can get near the wood. It is also the fact of the shear weight of some of the roots, in excess to 1 tonne, making handling them manually, and impossible task.
Anyway, I drove to the location and spoke to the person in charge, that didn't hesitate in saying, "Mate, take as much as you want, the more the better...!". Sure, for him, having someone to clean the mess up for him was a good thing as, those stumps are normally burn but, he couldn't do it where they were close to the road and under power lines so, he had either to get someone to picked them up, put them in a truck and take to the middle of a paddock somewhere where they could be burn or drive to the local bump, where it would cost him $50 per tone to dump it, plus the truck and machinery time.
Still, when I mentioned that I had to contract someone with tip trucks and a bob-cat to get as much as I could, everything if it would fit, and that I would expect him to contribute with some of the expenses, he obviously rejected any involvement in any costs so, I was left all by myself to pay the bill...!
I really wanted some of those large/old olive wood stumps so, I had no other choice than to cover the cost of sending someone from my town with a double truck and a medium size bob-cat to get those monsters...!
I met with the machine operator on site and something did tell me to put a strong chainsaw in the wagon, just in case and sure, the first 2 larger stumps the bob-cat (900kg lifting capacity) tried to work on, were just too heavy for the machine so, the chainsaw allow me to cut a large portion of each one, just enough for the bob-cat to lift them into the truck.
After over an hour of fighting with these large stumps, the truck was pretty much to capacity and was not possible for us to take it all, 3 other large stumps were behind a large pile of rubbish that would taken awhile to get to when, we didn't have enough room for them anyway so, packed-up and went...!
At my end (storage paddock), the job was too easy, he backed the truck to where I wanted to drop them and the tilt tray, did the rest...!
By the time we finish was getting dark and I was paying his time since 2:30 afternoon @ $120.00 per hour so, 4 hours went quick...!
I/we have not returned to the storage paddock until this afternoon, to unload the wood from the timber mill, so I had a better chance to give a good look on what we brought home, 1/3 of the weight is soil/rocks...!.
Anyway, there are at least 4 large stumps and some either broken in half or smaller ones with some other small stuff we picked up to fill in between the gaps on the truck...!
I decided to go around and cut any long pieces and any short trunks that were still attached to the stump, together with 2 large trunks I cut down there, to allow the bob-cat to lift the up. These were/are 2 nice logs full of heartwood, that I sliced/slabbed up free hand for easy handling.
Them and a few other pieces well, more than half a trailer of it, was brought home for me to process ASAP (already started this evening...!) and that is the wood that you can see on top of a palled in the backyard. There is a lot a yellow stuff (sapwood) in it, and I want to cut all the sapwood out to allow the heartwood to start drying and at the same time reduce considerably the volume require to store the processed wood, compared with the raw volume of what I brought home. The sapwood will be good firewood next year or the next...! nothing goes to waste, in here.:biggrin:
The problem with all this is that, "opportunities" are rare and far in between, you either grab or lose it, there is no other way around it but, when one with very limited finances, gets jammed with a couple of opportunities at the same time (timber mill situation, and the olive roots), it certainly "sucks" you dry but, some how, I always manage to get things done to everyone's satisfaction so, I may be doing something right...! A little trust can go a long way...!:wink::biggrin:
So, here are some pics of this venture, enjoy...!
Cheers
George
Last Wednesday 20-7-11, I organized for a local hearth moving business, to pick up and transport some large Olive root stumps that I score, after they were ripped-off the ground by a big D-9 Caterpillar bulldozer, a couple of months ago, next to a road, just outside of McLaren Vale.
These were removed to allow building of 2 driveways for a new wine making factory, that is now in its initial construction stages. I didn't know about this, until all, the "good" wood was taken away by some wood-turners in the area, but the bulk of the wood was cut and taken by an Italian fellow that I know.
He uses it for firewood and in one of my last visits to his place, I say a large pile of big Olive wood logs that he didn't have a few weeks back so, I asked him if the trees were cut at ground level or the roots have been pulled out, as I was looking for some Olive roots, thats when he said that, the full trees(10) were ripped off the ground in one piece and piled in 2 large piles about 2 months ago.
He never told me anything as we had already a few "arguments" about him burning the olive wood as firewood when I struggle to get any decent Olive wood logs for wood-turning but that to him means nothing, as he only burns that sort of timbers and keep all his finds very close to his chest because if I know about it, I will buy it for my use while he pays nothing for it, as people sometimes don't thing that the Olive wood has any value...!
So, and while he knows that I get mad when I find that he found good quality Olive wood and cut it all up for damn firewood...!
I can't do anything after he got it cut that small so, telling me about the root/stumps, didn't bother him as they have no value to him, as they are always full of soil/rocks all other sort of stuff that requires lots of time cleaning, before the chainsaws can get near the wood. It is also the fact of the shear weight of some of the roots, in excess to 1 tonne, making handling them manually, and impossible task.Anyway, I drove to the location and spoke to the person in charge, that didn't hesitate in saying, "Mate, take as much as you want, the more the better...!". Sure, for him, having someone to clean the mess up for him was a good thing as, those stumps are normally burn but, he couldn't do it where they were close to the road and under power lines so, he had either to get someone to picked them up, put them in a truck and take to the middle of a paddock somewhere where they could be burn or drive to the local bump, where it would cost him $50 per tone to dump it, plus the truck and machinery time.
Still, when I mentioned that I had to contract someone with tip trucks and a bob-cat to get as much as I could, everything if it would fit, and that I would expect him to contribute with some of the expenses, he obviously rejected any involvement in any costs so, I was left all by myself to pay the bill...!
I really wanted some of those large/old olive wood stumps so, I had no other choice than to cover the cost of sending someone from my town with a double truck and a medium size bob-cat to get those monsters...!
I met with the machine operator on site and something did tell me to put a strong chainsaw in the wagon, just in case and sure, the first 2 larger stumps the bob-cat (900kg lifting capacity) tried to work on, were just too heavy for the machine so, the chainsaw allow me to cut a large portion of each one, just enough for the bob-cat to lift them into the truck.
After over an hour of fighting with these large stumps, the truck was pretty much to capacity and was not possible for us to take it all, 3 other large stumps were behind a large pile of rubbish that would taken awhile to get to when, we didn't have enough room for them anyway so, packed-up and went...!
At my end (storage paddock), the job was too easy, he backed the truck to where I wanted to drop them and the tilt tray, did the rest...!
By the time we finish was getting dark and I was paying his time since 2:30 afternoon @ $120.00 per hour so, 4 hours went quick...!
I/we have not returned to the storage paddock until this afternoon, to unload the wood from the timber mill, so I had a better chance to give a good look on what we brought home, 1/3 of the weight is soil/rocks...!
.Anyway, there are at least 4 large stumps and some either broken in half or smaller ones with some other small stuff we picked up to fill in between the gaps on the truck...!
I decided to go around and cut any long pieces and any short trunks that were still attached to the stump, together with 2 large trunks I cut down there, to allow the bob-cat to lift the up. These were/are 2 nice logs full of heartwood, that I sliced/slabbed up free hand for easy handling.
Them and a few other pieces well, more than half a trailer of it, was brought home for me to process ASAP (already started this evening...!) and that is the wood that you can see on top of a palled in the backyard. There is a lot a yellow stuff (sapwood) in it, and I want to cut all the sapwood out to allow the heartwood to start drying and at the same time reduce considerably the volume require to store the processed wood, compared with the raw volume of what I brought home. The sapwood will be good firewood next year or the next...! nothing goes to waste, in here.:biggrin:
The problem with all this is that, "opportunities" are rare and far in between, you either grab or lose it, there is no other way around it but, when one with very limited finances, gets jammed with a couple of opportunities at the same time (timber mill situation, and the olive roots), it certainly "sucks" you dry but, some how, I always manage to get things done to everyone's satisfaction so, I may be doing something right...! A little trust can go a long way...!:wink::biggrin:
So, here are some pics of this venture, enjoy...!
Cheers
George
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