Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

I have to share a story about the reusing aspect of my ideology.  A couple of weeks ago we had a really windy Saturday.  The kids and I had gone to Upward basketball/cheerleading that morning and returned to a tree down on our fence.  We live in a woodsy area and it got me thinking about the potential for other trees falling.  We had two VERY large dead trees that I knew were going to have to come down eventually but when is there ever extra money to do such preventive things?  Being the obsessive personality I am, I decided it had to be done right then.  Our neighbors had some gigantic trees cut down to make way for a pool so I asked for a reference from them.  The tree cutter came out and gave us an estimate.  He could cut them down and leave them for one price or he could haul them off for double that price.  We debated because at the price he wanted to take them down AND haul them off, we could only afford to have one taken down.  He was willing to cut them into pieces we could pick up so we decided it meant more to have the trees on the ground than potentially on our house and went with the option of leaving them for us to clean up. 

My husband dreaded the thought of hauling all that wood off and to where?  I decided I would put it in the free section on Craigslist and see if I had any takers.  The ad read…

Firewood

Does anyone have a need for trees we had cut down and now need to haul off? Two really big dead trees but I'm not sure what type. Thought I would post just to see if there is any interest. They are cut up small enough a person could pick up the sections as is.

Thanks!

And added these pictures…

Within half an hour I had to take down the ad because I had SIX people contact me wanting it.  The first person came out the next day and hauled off seven truckloads and came back the next day and hauled off four more!  They were TICKLED to get the wood, as they heat their entire house with a wood stove.

The moral of the story is no matter what you have that you think is just a nuisance to you or worthless, it could be something someone else really wants or NEEDS.   I believe we can sustain ourselves if we work together.  We saved a lot of money by not having those trees hauled off by the tree cutter and they saved a lot of money by not having to buy firewood.   What a wonderful blessing!

P.S.  If anyone needs a tree cut down at a very reasonable price, let me know and I’ll give you his number.