Care to support a good cause? Free firewood, maple lumber

This will explain it better:  GoFundMe link

Long story short, my neighbor is a super sweet, charitable, loving person who is also a quadriplegic.  When I posted her picture with the campaign she said, "let's throw in a free date with me! I like Pina Coladas and long walks on the.... oh wait," a self-deprecating jab at her wheelchair.  She really wants to work and usually has a job, but health and lack of mobility really limit her employability.  She has two monster Maple trees in her back yard that are dying and in danger of falling on her house (or mine) and I have one Spruce that is dying and could cause some damage as well.  So... full disclosure, this campaign benefits me as well, therefore I have thrown $200 in the pot to get us started.

She obviously doesn't have any money, and I work for a non-profit arts organization so I'm not rolling in dough either.  The Firewood component here is that I will be inviting all donors (and even non-donors) over to the house for cutting and splitting free firewood.  If someone has a portable mill, that would be even better.  Some of the maple might be gorgeous.  There are a couple "tumors" on the maples that might be amazing for wood turners.

Bring chainsaws, log splitters, portable mill, truck, trailer, hatchback, whatever.

Chipped in what little help I could. Good luck with the campaign for Kathi

You rock.  Thanks for the donation!

By the way (to prevent you from having to dig into my profile) this is in Harrisburg, PA.  I would hate for you all to donate your money to get free firewood and then realize, "crap, I'm 2300 miles away."

My neighbor does a fair amount of traveling for wood. He may be particularly interested in the maple. Do you have pics of the trees?

These two maples and the spruce.  The second picture shows why we're so concerned about the one maple.  The second maple is actually pretty healthy, but showing slight signs of rot, meaning that it will have to come down in a couple years anyway.

I figured not too many people will want spruce wood so I could burn it in my backyard fire pit.  Maple is fantastic for firewood recreationally, but not the highest heat density.  Around here people try to get oak, locust, and ash for things like woodstove heating.  I hoped someone would show up and cut the maple into slabs so it could be used as something neat.  My first idea was to 1/2" slab the maple, cut into 3" strips, plane it to 3/8" and use it as flooring in my house.  Then I realized... I'm not touching those trees because I'm not a licensed, insured, educated tree service.  I would likely end up dead or with a Maple in my living room.

yeah, he wouldn't fell, but may be interested in helping process slabs of maple with his alaskan mill in exchange for some of the wood himself.  I'll send him this thread, and if he's interested, he'll let me know.

Perfect!  I wouldn't mind a couple slabs myself if there is enough.  If he's near you in DC, its only about a 2 hour drive.  I could have a tractor with a bucket and chains here to load trunks on the mill.

An alaskan mill isn't something you load wood onto, it's something you put onto logs in order to slab with a chainsaw. This:

It's not something that's going to help process a whole tree. It WILL help make slabs out of sections/pieces deemed appropriate. He said he was interested, schedule dependent. Were you hoping to get this done before the holidays/winter, or trying to get the funds together for the spring?

Oh... nice mill.

The schedule is entirely dependent on many factors.  I just started the go fund me (and thank you so much to those of you who chipped in).  I've never done a crowd funding thing before so I have no idea how long it might take, or if it will ever reach its goal.  Then of course it will depend on the tree service's schedule.  Once it is down, the logs can sit for a bit.

In all honesty, I'm hoping for them to come down sometime this winter, then they can sit for a while, but I'd like them to be gone before things start growing in the spring.

That might be better for his schedule anyway.

Wow, classic v crotch, with deep rot no less. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6.........

Just thought I'd update.  The tree service came yesterday.  Trees are DOWN.  Thank you all for the support!  Anyone need some very green firewood?  It will burn great next fall.