I took a year off of sellin' cords

[Patrick62]

Greetings, and it has been awhile since I posted on arboristsite, my badd.
I will give ya a chuckle or two, it has been a fun one up here...

I am telling my customers that I am, fixing my broken equipment, broken bank acct, and broken attitude.

Next week, I am headed to Intermountain Stihl for Silver school. this could be interesting... !!! They want me to bring something for checking out, and servicing. How about one of those warmed up saws? Lol, I might drag in the old 440, for a example. Atleast it is stock...

My little shack and it's little stove is giving me a lesson on air pressure, and drafting again tonight. I noticed the place was fillin' with smoke. stove is trying to run in reverse... ok... pop open a window, vent the place, and think this thru... FIRE the mutha up, and I mean full blast. Hot stack, and try it again. All seems to be workable with 400 deg on pipe. shut it down some, and it becomes "marginal" but still drawing at 300 deg. ok. Slight breeze outside, and my shack probably developes a low pressure zone most likely the water heater (cheesy pipe job on that one, barely makes it outta the roof and on the down wind side of double slope roof. Further thought process, and that just might do it. water heater is drafting and pulling air outta the shack, and the stove can't maintain draft against this, and I get the smoke.... Now to figure out what to do. First thought is to extend the wood stove pipe another 2 ft, and another thought is to extend the water heater pipe atleast another 2 or 3 ft !!!

working on a small wood cut, and this is nice compared to some I have been in!

I have figured out that I like to drop and limb with the 440 with 20" but block them up with a 28" 064

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Not worried that they will go elsewhere and you'll lose your shirt on sales next year?

It's taken me many years to build a customer base to what I have now.

 

[Patrick62]

Choppy.... I lost my shirt on sales last year, what would be the difference?
The cutter, and the yard monkey needed work, so we got into a very difficult wood cut. wasn't smart to do.
By the time that my "competition" gets finished ripping the customers off, it will be possible to raise my price some, and maybe break even.?

 

[Sandhill Crane]

I spend $1,100. a month doing what I'm doing.
I don't make $1,100. a month selling firewood.
I don't have the volume yet to do that.
If you look at the wood lot it looks pretty straight forward, not much equipment really, and some wood.
But start to add it up, 'it' being dollars. I'm not going to list equipment, but there is 11k in logs and firewood seasoning for next year, and another load of logs coming this week.
Then there is the stuff you don't see.
Sales tax, license plate/insurance, truck/equipment maintenance (forklift was $1,800 this year, truck maintenance a few years ago was $5,700. for a transmission, $509. a month ago on brakes), and consumables (chains/bars, bar oil, recreational gas/oil mix, gloves, pallets, netting for PackFix).
I'm small, part-time...and enjoying it, but don't think it's a money maker.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I spend $1,100. a month doing what I'm doing.
I don't make $1,100. a month selling firewood.
I don't have the volume yet to do that.
If you look at the wood lot it looks pretty straight forward, not much equipment really, and some wood.
But start to add it up, 'it' being dollars. I'm not going to list equipment, but there is 11k in logs and firewood seasoning for next year, and another load of logs coming this week.
Then there is the stuff you don't see.
Sales tax, license plate/insurance, truck/equipment maintenance (forklift was $1,800 this year, truck maintenance a few years ago was $5,700. for a transmission, $509. a month ago on brakes), and consumables (chains/bars, bar oil, recreational gas/oil mix, gloves, pallets, netting for PackFix).
I'm small, part-time...and enjoying it, but don't think it's a money maker.

I did close to 60 cords last month. Things are pretty tight thought, bought about 1000 tons of logs in October. Enough to last me about a year or so.

 

[U&A]

I dont know much about making a business selling cord wood but from what im learning it seems you have to have a LARGE operation to make a good profit off of it.

And then you need the demand. From the outside looking in, it Seems like this is a hard business to do good in.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I dont know much about making a business selling cord wood but from what im learning it seems you have to have a LARGE operation to make a good profit off of it.

And then you need the demand. From the outside looking in, it Seems like this is a hard business to do good in.

A medium sized operation can do pretty well... in the 200-500 cord/year area.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[olyman]

Greetings, and it has been awhile since I posted on arboristsite, my badd.
I will give ya a chuckle or two, it has been a fun one up here...

I am telling my customers that I am, fixing my broken equipment, broken bank acct, and broken attitude.

Next week, I am headed to Intermountain Stihl for Silver school. this could be interesting... !!! They want me to bring something for checking out, and servicing. How about one of those warmed up saws? Lol, I might drag in the old 440, for a example. Atleast it is stock...

My little shack and it's little stove is giving me a lesson on air pressure, and drafting again tonight. I noticed the place was fillin' with smoke. stove is trying to run in reverse... ok... pop open a window, vent the place, and think this thru... FIRE the mutha up, and I mean full blast. Hot stack, and try it again. All seems to be workable with 400 deg on pipe. shut it down some, and it becomes "marginal" but still drawing at 300 deg. ok. Slight breeze outside, and my shack probably developes a low pressure zone most likely the water heater (cheesy pipe job on that one, barely makes it outta the roof and on the down wind side of double slope roof. Further thought process, and that just might do it. water heater is drafting and pulling air outta the shack, and the stove can't maintain draft against this, and I get the smoke.... Now to figure out what to do. First thought is to extend the wood stove pipe another 2 ft, and another thought is to extend the water heater pipe atleast another 2 or 3 ft !!!

working on a small wood cut, and this is nice compared to some I have been in!
View attachment 687638
I have figured out that I like to drop and limb with the 440 with 20" but block them up with a 28" 064

do you have a outside air intake????

 

[Ted Jenkins]

Last year I maybe cleared $8,000 in sales as it was like spring the for the entire winter. Then started thinking since was not earning a dime might as well stock up the boat and see how long it takes me to get bored. I know that six months will only get me warmed up so maybe try to go past the Skeleton Coast and see if I could find a secluded beach to hang out. Thanks

 

[jrider]

There are all sorts of ways to go right and wrong when it comes to selling firewood. For me, it's to stay small (120-130 cords a year). Do as much as I can on my own but know when to hire out some help either moving rounds, cleaning up your work area, or splitting wood. I'm a high school teacher so I have access to a lot of potential labor. Some are ok, some are worthless and only make it a day and every now and then I find a couple of really good ones and I make sure to take care of them which means giving them gravy jobs some days, letting them choose their hours within reason, and never working them to the point they are miserable. Popsicle breaks in the summer are always a cheap way to keep them happy.
I don't spend much on equipment - I have 1 20 year old dump truck I bought for $4500 10 years ago, 2 saws, and 2 splitters (up until last year I only had a $2500 splitter but got a great deal on a TW6. If I were to sell all firewood equipment, I may get $15000 if I'm lucky.
Through the years I have made enough contacts with tree companies that I don't spend much on getting logs/rounds.
This past fall after covering all of my expenses my profit margin was 61%.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

You got a smoking deal on a 10yr old dumptruck for $4500!

Around here mid 2000 1 and 1.5 ton dumps are still in the 20k area.