Not everyone can fall a tree themselves and some people would just rather not anyways. For some folks the most difficult part of being a Wood Whore is actually finding the wood.
They are more than willing to buck or split or stack or whatever else they have to do to stay warm in the winter. But how do you find the stuff for free to begin with?
Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to be able to take down people’s trees here and there. I started by doing it just for the wood but sometimes I’m also able to charge a small fee.
Downing my own trees takes a lot of work… i.e. cleaning-up, hiring a chipper truck or hauling the mess away when I’m done. It’s also very time consuming.
I work full-time, so falling trees took away a lot time after work or on my weekends. Along the Wood Whore path, I learned a few tricks.
The first trick I learned is that every day somewhere near my town, someone was taking down a tree or two… but who?
The first phone calls or drop-ins were to the actual tree companies. I called or dropped into every local arborist I could find. This was before the internet, its way easier to find things now.
I also found out that power companies sometimes down or at least limb trees that are getting too big or too close to their power lines. The same goes for local, City or Municipality workers. They all down or limb trees for various reasons.
Before I knew it I had a whole handful of wood sources. Some of these guys even dropped it off in my driveway – WOW!
Now, beggars can’t be choosers, so the early days were hit and miss with the quality of wood. After a short time, however, I was able to talk to each of them and plead my case for just wanting good burning wood. I can hear my wife saying “wood snob” as I write that last line.
Fast forward a couple of years and I’m up to my eyeballs in great quality, free, firewood.
The very best way to find free firewood, for me anyways, is to tell everyone you meet or know that you’re looking for firewood. Everyday, anywhere you run into someone you haven’t seen for a while, or even if you have, tell them the same thing. “Hey I’m looking for free firewood, if you know anyone who’s got any”.
You will be amazed how many people call you out of the blue to say “Are you still looking for wood, cuz I know a guy”.
Oh ya….did I mention to make sure you give everyone your phone number. And if you’re a true Wood Whore – buy one of our decals or tshirts and when your friends see these, they are sure to remember you want firewood!
Whether you’re at work, at the grocery store, the doctor’s office, it doesn’t matter. Just tell them… it will pay off.
So if you want free firewood, just use your imagination and think outside the box a bit.
Of course nowadays you can also look on Craigslist <—THIS IS NOT AN AFFILIATE LINK or similar online classified websites in your area.
