Another Day...Another Free Load of Wood

Ok
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The Hardy has been burning for 5 full days and so far, so good. I have the house thermostat set at 72 degrees and my morning showers have been noticeably hotter. My Hardy has no trouble heating my house and domestic hot water. The weather in Northeast Ohio is still unseasonably mild, mid 50's during the day...low 40's at night so I have taken advantage of these temperatures to burn up a lot of my small 3 -4 inch rounders in the OWB. When I am cutting up a load of wood I can't get myself to leave all these smaller logs behind so I load them up in the truck along with the larger logs. After 10-20-30 truckloads of wood I notice that I get quite a nice pile of these small logs that I keep in a convenient pile close to the furnace. I like having these smaller rounds as my wife can easily throw them in the furnace and they burn nicely in this type of weather. I will save my big wood for colder weather. Despite how large this pile of small logs is...trust me...it goes fast! You may think you have a lot of wood in that pile but in no time at all, that pile will have disappeared. Sacrificed to the Hardy Gods.
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Today I had a small victory as I got two pickup truck loads of free, already-cut firewood. It was elm...but fear not...it didn't need split. Please see my previous posts about my experiences with elm. When you heat your house with wood...and you have your name out in the community that you are always looking for wood, its funny how many people find out and call you offering you up free stuff. Today, a friend of a friend called me...and said he cut up a tree that had broken in half during a wind storm and would be grateful if I would haul it away. I was all excited until he said that it was elm. I told him that I don't like bringing elm onto my land so that I don't infest my own 60 foot elm but he claimed it wasn't diseased and the largest logs were about 14 inches and wouldn't need split. I decided to jump on it...thinking if the wood looked sick I would give it to my other buddy who heats with a Hardy. (Us Hardy guys stick together you know...) In the back of my head I was worried about the wood as he said the Elm had broke in half...and if you know your trees like I do...you know that a healthy elm doesn't just break in half in a wind storm...they are a very tough and hardy tree. Regardless, I showed up at his house and found some very nice looking logs and tops that were neatly cut to firewood length so, I loaded it up and drove away happy...two loads and life is good.
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I think that if you get a call for free wood...even if the load is lame...you should probably jump on it because it could lead to other opportunities if you network properly. I made my own super lame business cards claiming my "woodmonger" status and I hand them out to people I deal with. It's amazing how effective they work. I get a lot of calls...more than you would think. When you heat with wood and you are committed to NEVER paying a dime for your firewood, you need all the help you can get.
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Smokin