Fair cost for firewood???

[HemiMoparGuy]

IMO it sounds like your asking people to come do your property maintenance and pay you for their service by keeping some of the wood they cut. Sorry but I laugh at those "offers". I keep what I cut and dont do clean up. Good luck.

Essentially they are keeping what they cut. I plan on them working together with me, two people working together get more done than two individuals working alone, so we both make out. And like mentioned, the work ethic of most these days, I will end up cutting 75% of the 2 cords, I keep one and they keep one,so they are better off and I am getting slightly screwed...But it is worth it to me to get the place cleaned up...it;s WELL beyond property maintenance, as you put it, at this point. If it wasn't too cold to go out and snap a pic, I would...then again, if it wasn't too cold, I'd be out there working and not responding here while watching old Knight Rider episodes.

 

[Marshy]

Essentially they are keeping what they cut. I plan on them working together with me, two people working together get more done than two individuals working alone, so we both make out. And like mentioned, the work ethic of most these days, I will end up cutting 75% of the 2 cords, I keep one and they keep one,so they are better off and I am getting slightly screwed...But it is worth it to me to get the place cleaned up...it;s WELL beyond property maintenance, as you put it, at this point. If it wasn't too cold to go out and snap a pic, I would...then again, if it wasn't too cold, I'd be out there working and not responding here while watching old Knight Rider episodes.

How much wood or property are you talkin about? Acres?

 

[HemiMoparGuy]

How much wood or property are you talkin about? Acres?

about 5 acres is wooded, not enough dead to want to doze it, but enough that it is a major eyesore

 

[7sleeper]

That's the issue, it is close to the 1000 range. I spend an entire spring and summer cleaning up and getting it looking nice from the road and in view from windows, just start working on the area behind the pole barn then the end of summer/fall/winter storms roll in and the areas I had recently finished look untouched again...it's been this way for 5 yrs.

I love working in the woods but hate doing it alone, I do if I have to, but become procrastinate lately because there is SO much and I like focusing on one task for periods. I don't care if it's hauling or running the saw, but I hate making a few cuts, then having to dig myself out, make a few more cuts, dig more out, etc. I kind of get your point about the more dirty cuts being harder on the chain, but it all needs cut and cleaned up anyway. I cut it into 6-8 ft lengths and throw it on the trailer behind the four wheeler and dump it by the pole barn. My dad and his sometimes his girlfriend would then get out electric chainsaws and log up the pieces and stack it.

Now my dad has gone to Florida for the season, so I am trying to do it alone. So I have 4 chainsaws total to cut up the wood. I usually run my Stihl til it's out of gas (and ready to be sharpened) then run dad's Husky til the same. Load up the trailer and take the saws up to the barn, dump the load, cut it up with 2 electrics, sharpen all of the chains, fill with gas and repeat. I have a sharpener, not using a file, so it's not that bad sharpening chains for me. Also, I find there is still maintenance to be done on a splitter if the trees were bigger, plus the extra handling of each log to cut it, pick it up set it on the splitter, pick up each half to put on the splitter, then finally stack...that would pretty well even out the extra sharpening of chains.

You said exploring other options if 1000...ideas?

@HemiMoparGuy ,

I believe you should rethink your cutting/ woodhandling techniques. I have the impression that you are wearing yourself out by handling the wood too often! Since your wood is quite small I would seriously think about cutting it at a certain length (f.e. very popular in europe is 1 metre ~ approx. 1 yard). That is a length that is easily manuvered and can easily be stacked in split or unsplit fashion and the risk of it falling over is about zero. With the wood stacked it can easily dry out in the time that it needs and you won't have to worry much about it. Even if leave it longer there is not much to worry about.

Further very popular here are saw horses of this form.

As you can see it is very easy to cut A LOT of wood with one cut. Many have made these saw horses in various forms and materials. I have one made out of scrap wood that was laying around.

Then again you mentionend a ATV with a trailer and carrying three saws with you and just grabing one saw after the other to continue cutting. Well here again I sense quite some stress in the job. It might be more helpful if you just refill to get some relax time.

Further the saws you are using are, the way I see it, way to big = heavy for the job they are handling! The saws you have listed (290 &450) are saws I would use for felling and bucking medium(~20 inch diameter) size trees. I would seriously think about a small light 40cc saw for the job! Something like a red max GZ4000, Tanaka ECV 3801, Stihl 211, Husqvarna 435, etc. All under 10lbs and in the 2.5hp range. Way more than enough for thinning out small trees like you have!

Good luck!

7

 

[HemiMoparGuy]

@HemiMoparGuy ,

I believe you should rethink your cutting/ woodhandling techniques. I have the impression that you are wearing yourself out by handling the wood too often! Since your wood is quite small I would seriously think about cutting it at a certain length (f.e. very popular in europe is 1 metre ~ approx. 1 yard). That is a length that is easily manuvered and can easily be stacked in split or unsplit fashion and the risk of it falling over is about zero. With the wood stacked it can easily dry out in the time that it needs and you won't have to worry much about it. Even if leave it longer there is not much to worry about.

Further very popular here are saw horses of this form.

As you can see it is very easy to cut A LOT of wood with one cut. Many have made these saw horses in various forms and materials. I have one made out of scrap wood that was laying around.

Then again you mentionend a ATV with a trailer and carrying three saws with you and just grabing one saw after the other to continue cutting. Well here again I sense quite some stress in the job. It might be more helpful if you just refill to get some relax time.

Further the saws you are using are, the way I see it, way to big = heavy for the job they are handling! The saws you have listed (290 &450) are saws I would use for felling and bucking medium(~20 inch diameter) size trees. I would seriously think about a small light 40cc saw for the job! Something like a red max GZ4000, Tanaka ECV 3801, Stihl 211, Husqvarna 435, etc. All under 10lbs and in the 2.5hp range. Way more than enough for thinning out small trees like you have!

Good luck!

7

Hmmm. I do like the saw horse idea...and I happen to have a bunch of old bed frames I've been saving for the angle iron. I might have to build one on a much larger scale, and have an excuse to buy a 660 or 880 to make one sweeping cut.

 

[flotek]

Hire some local Amish teenagers at 10 bucks an hour. . They are like beavers with a chainsaw it's all they seem to do is cut wood . .. Pay them with the profits you get by selling it for 150 a cord. Problem solved

 

[svk]

Work ethic story. I hired a kid to haul wood out of my woods last spring. It was under a cord and I figured it was probably a 3 hour job at most if the guy milked it out. I had a lot going on and it was prime scrounge season so I figured a few bucks to save me time would be worth it.

He was moving pretty slow but making process. I took off to my hunting cabin, felled, bucked, and loaded 1.25 cords of hardwood and came home. He literally had hauled less than a wheelbarrow of wood in the 4 hours I was gone but had somehow managed to fall in the lake and get wet (it was late April so not the smartest thing to do). Later that afternoon I saw him sitting up in the woods and then would show up with another round every 15 minutes or so. I finally yelled to see if he was OK and he started moving again LOL.

11 hours later over two days and he still didn't have it done and came back to finish up when I was at work during the week. I also found that he tried to hide some of the heavier rounds further back in the woods under some brush which I found and threw in a pile. I specifically said "make sure that pile gets out to the woodpile".

I paid him $60 for the job, which was too much for what he did but since his mom and grandpa are friends and I didn't want to cause hard feelings. A while later mom asked me if I had the rest of his money because he worked 13 hours. I said I am sorry I am only paying him for the time he worked and explained. She was very apologetic after I explained the 4 hour gap, hiding wood, and sitting in the woods.

Unfortunately that is the norm with the younger generation. At least half of the people my age knew how to work as kids.

 

[OnTheRoad]

Where in Michigan are you? I have a buddy who lives east of Luddington who heats with wood and coal exclusively.

 

[woodguy105]

Hell just post the ad the way you want it. If no one responds no skin off your back. I ran a wood splitting for hire ad a few years ago for the hell of it and got a ton of calls.

I like working With wood, if a reasonable deal came up and the guy (you) seemed like a straight shooter I'd spend some time moving Wood / splitting to get ahead for the next season or two. But that's me.

 

[c5rulz]

It's just about all dead ash 3-6 inches in diameter, mostly in the 4 inch range, so splitting is not necessary nor planned.

Eric

Wow, I never take anything less than 6-7". Most is in the 20-24" range.

 

[cantoo]

It's all about equipment, you need to buy what you need to do the job and sell it when you are done. Buzz or circular saw and if possible a hay elevator to keep the rounds rolling. The 4 to 12"x 48" stuff in the chainsaw pic ended up being that cut pile with about 2 hours work. For small diameter ash I cut them into approx. 12' lengths, load them onto my trailer and buzz them up into 16" pieces.

 

[cantoo]

For the size you have to cut and if firewood is that cheap there I would just drop everything on the ground and then rent a decent sized chipper and chip it up. Then maybe sell the mulch to recover some of the rent money? A chipper with a winch would make a nice job of whole trees without a lot of hand labor.

 

[flotek]

Your asking for sue happy to come out of the wood work . One slip with a running saw or even a strained back from a stranger can mean a huge expensive lawsuit

 

[7sleeper]

Hmmm. I do like the saw horse idea...and I happen to have a bunch of old bed frames I've been saving for the angle iron. I might have to build one on a much larger scale, and have an excuse to buy a 660 or 880 to make one sweeping cut.

You mean like this?



or for advanced guys like this



7

 

[cantoo]

Those are too much man handling and too expensive for the wood you are doing both size wise and volume wise. I would still consider cutting for the OWB customer, at least 36" long. Cuts way down on the man hand work.