Sick of ash??? Gettin there :)

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Blackbruin

Blackbruin

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Crazy, here in pa lots of ash too, tops, crooks for firewood, but i was only getting $250 cord but sold like crazy. Funny thing is I use a johnny 2171 and husky 55 too, close enough. Paying slightly more per thousand here , darn EAB has been in almost everything i'm cutting. I keep on moving down the hollow onto the next neighboring property when they come out and see all the dying/dead ash. Only difference here is i have several amish kids splitting for me by hand.
 
olyman
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Wait a minute and calm down. Processing firewood is mostly labor intensive and time consuming. The big logs have to be unloaded, cut to length, split, dried, and delivered in small quantities, loaded back into pickups and transported to mostly residential buyers. There they have to be unloaded and stacked. Most loggers just plain don't want to deal with that nonsense, even at $300 a cord.

How can you blame them? Each big "money" log loaded by the picker onto a flat bed can yield a cord with practically no additional time and labor to process it.
:clap::clap: newbie,,farrrr off base,, and youve been here how long??? :D thanks,,,
 
jegushee1

jegushee1

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:clap::clap: newbie,,farrrr off base,, and youve been here how long??? :D thanks,,,

I don't know about wherever you and wood doctor are cuttin, but here in maine I don't know of one logger here who would turn down 600 bucks a day cash even if it meant splitti some wood by hand. No waitin for truckers, no waitin for mills to pay, just straight cash everyday!!!! **** I'd give up cuttin logs period if I could do that everyday!!
 
jegushee1

jegushee1

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Please explain how I am far off base. Loggers around here do not sell firewood. They haul the logs to the sawmill. The sawmill buys the logs from the loggers. The sawmill doesn't sell firewood either. I await your response.

Dude... Here in Maine small time woodcutters like myself do both ALL THE T IME!!!! Yea most of the time we would sell it tree length but not when your sittin on a couple hundred cord of adh on the middle of the worst winter in fifty years!!!!! I sold over 250,000 board ft of logs last year so I do plenty of that as well but you make money where you can!!!! Is that easy enough for you to understand???? Just cause I have a skidder doesn't mean I only cut 20 inch logs!!!!
 
Blackbruin

Blackbruin

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Dude... Here in Maine small time woodcutters like myself do both ALL THE T IME!!!! Yea most of the time we would sell it tree length but not when your sittin on a couple hundred cord of adh on the middle of the worst winter in fifty years!!!!! I sold over 250,000 board ft of logs last year so I do plenty of that as well but you make money where you can!!!! Is that easy enough for you to understand???? Just cause I have a skidder doesn't mean I only cut 20 inch logs!!!!

Small time logger here in pa, I do the same as jegushee1. Why would i leave $$$ on the ground, i have several amish that clean up as i go, they do it in trade for firewood themselves and for me to sell. One old diamond reo logtruck with loader and a 240 timbercat, an bunch of johnnys and a couple huskys. One man operation.
 
Wood Doctor
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Dude... Here in Maine small time woodcutters like myself do both ALL THE T IME!!!! Yea most of the time we would sell it tree length but not when your sittin on a couple hundred cord of adh on the middle of the worst winter in fifty years!!!!! I sold over 250,000 board ft of logs last year so I do plenty of that as well but you make money where you can!!!! Is that easy enough for you to understand???? Just cause I have a skidder doesn't mean I only cut 20 inch logs!!!!
Yes, it is easy enough to understand in Maine where thousands of residents heat with wood, but a logger processing firewood when you can haul in $1,0o0 per flat-bed load for 9'' logs seems senseless around here. There aren't that many folks in the Midlands heating their houses with wood--especially cottonwood, which is plentiful.

We also have another market for tops--chippers that shred the tops into mulch for landscaping. Looks like that market has not reached Maine. I can get almost $1,000 per flat bed for tops 9' long. None of that has to be cut to small length, split, seasoned, etc.
 
jegushee1

jegushee1

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Yes, it is easy enough to understand in Maine where thousands of residents heat with wood, but a logger processing firewood when you can haul in $1,0o0 per flat-bed load for 9'' logs seems senseless around here. There aren't that many folks in the Midlands heating their houses with wood--especially cottonwood, which is plentiful.

We also have another market for tops--chippers that shred the tops into mulch for landscaping. Looks like that market has not reached Maine. I can get almost $1,000 per flat bed for tops 9' long. None of that has to be cut to small length, split, seasoned, etc.

Must be one hell of a market for you to get 1000 bucks for a flat bed of nine foot wood? Never heard of such a thing here in Maine. 20 ton of hardwood pulp cut 24ft brings about 1000 bucks before truckin.... Done that plenty of times.... But why would I do that with ash when the same 8/9 cord is worth 3 times that much!!!!! And believe me Maine ain't behind anyone in the logging business buddy!!!! Tons of big time operations here that prob put more wood on the groud then a lot of states combined
 
1967 Tempest

1967 Tempest

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Hurricane Sandy dropped like 4 cords of Ash for me. Yeah, halfway in I was thankful for splitter. Ash when wet is tough, dry even tougher. The Didier splitter makes short work of it and once you get a rhythm going, it goes quick. Good luck!
 
alleyyooper

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Ash is all I have been burning for close to 10 years now. If there is a live ash left in the woods they are only knee high and maybe if you look real hard you could find one about 4 inches in dia. I cut the wood and haul it to the house in the fall and hand split as I need it usually a weeks worth at a time when it gets real cold, like to do it when it is zero or below as it splits even easier then.
I have a splitter but will only start it in the spring to split all the stuff I could not get with the maul. I don't care all that much for the noise and smell of exhaust which I get yelled at for not stripping out side instead of bringing that smell into the house.

I have a friend that is a logger and owns a saw mill. He hires people to stack the lumber off the mill cut the slabs he sells for fire wood to people who just want a little bit for their fire place and state forest camp ground users. All his tops come out of the woods too. Some is cut and sold in 8 foot fire wood logs to those who don't want to pay for cutting and splitting. He also has a big splitter with a 8 way wedge to split some really knotty crap along with a big chipper to cut the brush stuff up. He has about 10 people who work in the mill for him and 5 to 6 who work in the woods for him.

Their is fair money in the wood chips he sells to the power company that use it to make electricity.

:D Al
 
cantoo

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Around here most logging companies sell firewood too. It's bid into the job. Doesn't mean they will be the guys doing the firewood though sometimes they sublet it out to smaller guys. Sometimes the tops are sold to a neighbours but the loggers take the slash trees.. Most sawmills around here had a processor and hugs piles of split wood seasoning.
 
wampum

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In My youth I split and sold around 45 to 60 cords a year all split by hand.Now I sell no wood and split about 6 to 8 cords a year all with a splitter.I do not think the labor in my youth hurt me but a clogged artery 12 years ago changed my life style. After my heart attack I could not even pull my 65 pound compound bow back.With time I built my self back up.I have no doubt that I can still split wood by hand.But everyday I have normal chores to do taken care of my horses,pigs,chickens and gardens. Last year I did 40 auctions and have 8 in the books so far this year.But I have to pace myself now.Before my attack I worked 12 hours a day in the mill and still did what I do today.No way could I do that now,I will be 67 this year.

If a guy is able and can split 2 cords a day by hand my hat is off to him.I use to enjoy doing that,now I can not do that but I sure miss it.If I guy wants to use splitters and other easy means more power to them also.I actually enjoy cutting and splitting wood.It sounds like many here do also.I love folks like jegushee 1,canto,Chris in pa,alleyyooper.olyman and others like them here because we are all doing what we like,just at different levels.If you enjoy what you do that can not be beat no matter how you do it.
 
alleyyooper

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I'm 68 and feel if you don't use it you loose it. Have worked hard all my life on the farm and when that was no longer I spent many a day in the woods looking for eatables' like shroons berries and such. Was also a good time to mark the trees for the fall/winter cutting for the next seasons fire wood. Many a mile with a good dog and a nice 20ga. also.

:D Al
 
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I'm 68 and feel if you don't use it you loose it. Have worked hard all my life on the farm and when that was no longer I spent many a day in the woods looking for eatables' like shroons berries and such. Was also a good time to mark the trees for the fall/winter cutting for the next seasons fire wood. Many a mile with a good dog and a nice 20ga. also.

:D Al
Agree. Use it or lose it. My great aunt lived in her home into her early 90's and was still mowing her lawn (her son would stop by to start the mower and she would do the rest). She also walked daily and swam every week. Her mind failed before her body was even close to giving up. She made it to 98 in a nursing home.
 
Oldman47

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If you don't exercise your mind it will deteriorate just like muscles will. My MIL is basically a vegetable but she brought it on herself. She used to complain that thinking made her head hurt. Use it or lose it. Physically she is only about 85 but she is lucky to recognize her daughter on her good days. My dad is 92 and sharp as a whip.
 
chucker

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If you don't exercise your mind it will deteriorate just like muscles will. My MIL is basically a vegetable but she brought it on herself. She used to complain that thinking made her head hurt. Use it or lose it. Physically she is only about 85 but she is lucky to recognize her daughter on her good days. My dad is 92 and sharp as a whip.
kinda reminds me of the first two computers we had... always turned them off(powered down ) at the end of the day . was lucky if they lasted a year each! power surge took care of the 3rd, and still have the same 4th comp now for 5 years!! this one never gets turned off except for power outages (backed up by a power surge protector), so I will agree you stop using it you will lose it ! mind or compuminder... lol
 
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