Love those pieces of paper with the blue strips. Sixty-two Benjamins banked in the first thirteen days of the month. With the wicked cold weather starting tonight, I think this month will be a record for me. Mounted my front cold weather grill cover onto my Ram diesel this morning and added some diesel treat into the tank. If they call, I will deliver.
Have around 140-150 face cords of inventory of mostly hickory and white oak as of today. Cleared out most of my garbage firewood this month consisting of Ash, maple and red oak. 95% of my wood yard is hickory and white oak since this is what Nashvillians prefer. My customers that have purchased Ash, maple, red oak and walnut have been very pleased with the burning. Yes, white oak and hickory are at the top of the BTU charts, but easy starting and good flames are just as important for overall enjoyment.
Please tell me you don’t just deposit all of that in the bank….thats asking for trouble unless you’re claiming it all.
Believe 10K at one time is the magic number for depositing bank and staying under the radar. I am just a small time firewood dude and barely make enough to cover my monthly beer tab.
One of my deliveries today was to a dude who claimed to be the estate caretaker of Dierks Bently. Whoever he is. "What Was I thinkin'"delivering to this guy? He might have peppered my tailgate as I was leaving. Humor is lost if you don't know the song.
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All my firewood is stacked off the ground on pallets and top covered. Pests generally leave dry wood that is off the ground alone. My pallet bottom slats do get eaten up quickly though. Hickory is another story. Powder creating critters love it no matter what. I turn my firewood over pretty rapidly. 15% moisture split and checked is what I prefer to sell. Have no problem achieving that in 9-12 months. I split smaller and have great sun and wind at my woodyard. Orders came pouring in today, but probably won't be able to deliver until Wednesday and then another round of garbage moves back in Thursday. Checked a few traffic cameras in Nashville and surrounding areas a few hours ago and there were vehicles on the roads driving slowly with hardly any black top showing on the roads. With single digits this evening, it will probably all turn to ice. If I can't deliver with my 4X4, nobody else can either.
A lot of retired people in my neck of the woods sell honey, vegetables, eggs, wool, hay, lumber, firewood, livestock and all sorts of things for a little extra hobby income. Tax them from what they produce off their land and they would find some other leisurely unproductive thing to do with their spare time. Purchase a Tesla/BEV vehicle and get a $7,500 tax credit with some states adding on more. How does that make sense? Enter the country illegally and get free shelter, food, transportation to a sanctuary city, primary & secondary education and medical care. My firewood rant.
I hear ya. They’ll get up in arms over not getting “their cut” when someone has a side hustle yet throw money around (the entire world) like it’s going out of style. I say good on you for doing well with your firewood hustle. The Man doesn’t need to know about every penny you make, and I truly believe the men that drafted the articles of confederation would wholeheartedly agree.
Do you think plastic pallets would serve you well ? I asked the question in the first place because a friend of mine who does landscaping in your area once said folks don't want wood mulch because it sometimes has termites.So he uses mulch that's not wood mulch.
I can get all the free wood pallets I require from a nearby Army base. All the plastic pallets get picked back up my the delivery folks. Thinking they are a lot more valuable. I use wood mulch around my house and haven't seen a termite one. Termites like to be inside wood touching the ground from my woodyard experience. Shavings of mulch don't allow much area to get inside of. Cedar mulch would probably drive away bugs.
Second helping orders are picking up. Hopefully I can fatten the stack before the 50’s and 60’s roll in next week. Today and tomorrow after work deliveries and hoping the frigid lows tonight get the phone ringing. I want my cylinder rebuild money back.
Collect those Benjamins while the getting is good! I have been inside all day wasting time waiting for the 18 degree high that will hit in a hour. Then I will venture out to the wood yard and load for tomorrow's deliveries. Cold and snow bring in the customers, but road conditions dictate whether I can meet the demand.
My firewood sales typically start falling off sharply after mid-February. But have a feeling there will be a lot of customers wanting their racks reloaded after this round of cold weather and another on the way. A lot of my customers are just ambiance burners, but they still like to have a source of heat encase they loose power.
Loaded for a long time 3-4 face cord customer a year this afternoon who only burns white oak. He is a big tipper, so loaded a generous face cord of my oldest stuff. Another wheelbarrow load went in after closing the tailgate. About 50 cuft. Some might think I am a price gouger, but why do most of my customers thank me for the great wood and service and give very generous tips? My IPA got slushy on me after a few minutes.
I have to leave work early tomorrow to get 2 deliveries in and picked up a Thursday delivery. The guy I delivered to today is feeding a wood boiler and said he wants another order next week. It’s going to be expensive to keep feeding a wood boiler with el primo.
My parents give me and my wife both the annual gift tax exclusion amount to keep them in firewood. Elderly people who burn for heat and have the bucks will pay whatever to keep warm. I provide roughly 10 cords a year to my parents and would do it for free without thinking about it. Their massive wood stove in the garage tied into the house ducting system is burning non-stop from Oct-March and a little into April. I also clean their chimney twice a year. That is the scariest thing I do in my older age since it is about 25' above ground. My 88 year old Dad was complaining about the big Hickory splits I was stacking for him early last Spring. Now he is loving them even though they are heavy and hard to get into his big ash stove.
I have some great retired military special forces buddies and a retired law enforcement officer that border my property or not far away. All three have had their properties timbered in the last three years and have banked small fortunes. I have bagged roughly 120 cords from what the loggers have left behind. And I also purchase processed firewood from a local logger (mainly hickory). My Northern neighbor has a Lopi stove and was concerned about using it because of the age of the house/chimney. I lent him my Dad's chimney cleaning kit and brought him over a cord of my best red oak and a lot of kindling and wood chips. With this brutal cold, he finally fired up his stove and is loving the heat it produces.
No way to say this properly, but all the guys the same or even half my age are over weight and cannot perform much hard physical labor. I am up before 5 and spend a hour or so in my home gym, then prep for my day of firewood cutting or delivering. Average about 10 hours a day going hard. I throughly enjoy what I do and bank a lot of unneeded Benjamins in the process. I don't mention how much I bank from firewood to these friends, they probably would be shocked if I did.
