A really nice experience

Ocklawahaboy · June 08, 2015, 10:33:33 PM

So.... in the last 3 days, I've been on two more of my famous log gathering adventures. The first was so-so, and I went home with some low-grade logs for more than I should have paid.

The one today really stood out though, although the logs were not fabulous, I was excited to get them.

I have a meeting for my "day job" down in southwest FL so I found an ad for a firewood guy who sells whole logs. I contacted him and told him that I couldn't haul a lot in my pickup but that I enjoyed bringing back S. FL stuff that I couldn't get up my way. I knew he had Australian Pine and some Mahogany.

Insert disclaimer: I saw for fun not for money.

We set up a meeting time today. I got there and he was late but I was thoroughly entertained by his Puerto Rican helper that I would could have sworn had a strong cajun accent. He showed up towing his loader that I found out he had pulled from another job to load my logs. His lot was a little - or a lot - disorganized but he took me all around and showed me what he had and let me pour through the piles for what I wanted. He cut sections off of 2 logs and put the rest back in the pile, although I paid for all of one of them. When it was all said and done he had loaded 4 short sections of different kinds of wood that I had never milled into my truck. I hardly had to lift a finger. All told it was an hour and a half of his time. He was as nice as he could be and encouraged me to get exactly what I wanted out of the piles. When I asked for the damages, it came to $40. Really, $40 for hauling a loader, operating it, bucking logs etc for 90 minutes. I handed him $60 and felt like I'd cheated him.

He said he was planning to get a sawmill so I gushed about the forum and what he could learn here.

He urged me to come back the next time I'm down here and, as nice as he was, I surely will.

I now have a piece of mahogany, Norfolk pine, Australian pine and another pine (Callahan maybe) that he said you only get down here. I'll have a blast seeing what they all look like.

Here's what his yard looked like. Believe it or not, there were some really nice logs mixed in there, I just went for the sampler platter, instead of a big serving of one dish.

drobertson · June 08, 2015, 10:49:46 PM

Sounds like a good trip, and will be looking forward to see some pics of the mahogany.

Ron Wenrich · June 09, 2015, 06:33:11 AM

How big of a firewood market do they have in S Fl?

Ocklawahaboy · June 09, 2015, 07:54:04 AM

He said he had sold just about every stick of wood off the place this past winter, which was mild even by FL standards. My guess is it goes to the campgrounds, which are all completely full all winter.