Unexpected Firewood:

 I have not posted a blog recently due to the fact we came upon some unexpected firewood and I have been gathering it  and cutting it to length. I will make the story short if I can but it is a long story. Carol was walking the dogs down the road and she saw who she thought was the road crew cutting a tree she assumed had fallen across the road. Later I was out and heard a chainsaw and knew that it wasn't the road crew cutting trees.

I walked down the road and it was some guy cutting down trees and loading them on his truck.  A brief discussion revealed that he claimed he had permission from the association to cut trees up to 50-60' off the edge of the road but not within 200' of any house. He was cutting only the prime firewood and cutting trees that he could fall into the road. Turns out he was cutting them for a tree service who had gotten permission to cut "down" trees and not standing trees along the edge of the road. 

I discovered that there were four crews cutting in the community and I called the president of the association and he came out and ran them off. They were carrying 4 large loads of prime firewood out of the park everyday and had been doing so for the past few months. They left the pine and only cut the prime aspen. They were leaving the debris in the road and on property and only taking the best of the aspen. 

The contractor was contacted and he claimed he knew nothing about the theft of trees off peoples lots. He now has a lawyer and I don't know what the status of the issue is. Last I knew the association was going to identify the lots they had cut the prime firewood off and notify the owners. The contractor hauled off thousands of dollars of prime firewood and I hope he will have to make restitution to the land owners. This had been going on for months and no one apparently ever questioned them. 

The firewood in the photo is what was left in the ditches that they did not want. It is good firewood but not the perfect firewood that they wanted. We raked the road clean and we burn the branches so it will keep us warm. Hopefully the association will follow through with these thieves and notify landowners that were effected.  

These logs in the photo were in the ditch and when covered with snow would have been picked up by the plow possibly causing damage and being drug down the road.