No one needs to know beside you and the Good Lord... Period... Enjoy Brother! Thanks for your service, enjoyed that last pic...
Folks blowing our phone up... They can get a little dry and some cut from logs if they want it. Not our problem for their bad planning.... Several loads in the past few days... Fireplace load...22" splits Old wood stove load, 18" splits 18" dry hickory picked up Saturday morning, also gave him a few Osage chunks Green oak for next year...18" splits
I have at least doubled sales this year. Thank You EODDiver for the Craigslist tips. C list paid off when Nextdoor fell off. People love seeing pictures of nice wood stacks.
I Love Cold Weather! The orders keep rolling in. Wow I might be able to buy 4 matching tires this year.
Besides pictures of my woodyard and deliveries, I post a Youtube link about every three months of my inventory and keep it short and sweet. A lot of customers tell me they contacted me because of my video. Good looking firewood moves the cords. Funny how a lot of sellers take garage pictures with the wood in an ugly heap with an old couch or dead vehicle in the background. Glad to hear you are crushing sales. I am aiming bigger, plan on purchasing four new tires next month with a 4X4 truck on top of them. Will use it when only delivering a single face cord and when traveling. My diesel beast will continue to perform the hard dirty firewood labor.
Tiny tip for today's face cord delivery. Three Benjamins nevertheless and picked my wife up at the airport afterwards. Combining the two actually saved me $25 in diesel. Not my best stacking jobs, but I was cold and so my care factor wasn't quite there.
The wood boiler customer already put in his next order. He called up and said Hi it’s Phil like I should know him It’s been a busy week and I try to write stuff down, but I struggle to remember names under normal circumstances. I said I’m sorry I don’t recognize…. He says you delivered yesterday. Oh ok sorry there’s been a lot of names this week I’m losing track. He says I’ve made more room when can you bring another load. It was a clean garage with tons of room when I delivered the first time. He should see my wife’s 2 car storage bin.
Only one delivery on Tuesday and one yesterday. Nothing this morning, then had a record 9 orders from 10-noon. Another two wanted wood today, so lost them due to the late inquiry and having to load four face cords this afternoon for tomorrow's deliveries. Don't really feel that I ever miss out on a sale because every stick will eventually move out of the woodyard. Freezing rain moves in and everybody wants firewood! Yep, I get a lot of calls saying, "this is Rick, I bought firewood from you last year." Yes, you and twelve other Ricks. I prefer orders by text, then I can read the past communications and compare them to my detailed notes: date, name, address, telephone #, type and how many ricks and what they paid me and most importantly, the tip amount. I also note whether I can get my trailer into their driveway. If not, their order goes into my truck.
A few people that know me think me crazy...which is completely understandable. I actually like making firewood (the laboring). I had a few years where I physically was just not able to put out much effort due to illness. Once I got back to it I realized how much I missed it and needed it. I found myself anxious this past fall, realizing that I didn't have too many logs lined up for work this winter. Not because I'm low on wood, but because I was low on pending work. Not a whole lot to get into in the woods this time of year outside firewood making. I like to be in the woods and I like to be active while there. Firewood. Physicality like most things comes easier with practice. I'm watching a lot of my friends/peers same age as I am who are going to be basically handicapped in another 10 years because they never work their bodies. Easy & Now is how most people want everything nowdays it seems.
I prefer text messages or communication through facebook messenger. Just as you said, the whole conversation from previous years is right there.
We had one lady call, wanted me to call her husband, told her we were out of dry wood, green was all we had... she said "I don't know what that means"...... I said to my wife, "she probably doesn't need to have a fire or which end of the lighter to hold"... I explained the trees had only been cut down recently...
My delivery today was to a gated lake community. The home builder was purchasing the wood for whom ever owns the home. In his texts he failed to mention the gate. I called while sitting at the gate, but before he picked up, a nice young lady leaving in her Tesla opened it for me. If you could have seen the look on her face as she passed the dirty gray bearded man in his dirty wood truck I told the guy to share my number with the neighbors. Long drive to get there, but I’m sure they all have fireplaces and fire pits.
Twelve hour firewood day. Loaded last night, departed at 7am, arrived back home at 12:30, reloaded and went back out, returned home at 5pm, reloaded the truck and trailer this evening and made some kindling bundles. Was a record Benjamin day, well into the four figures. On my last delivery, the guy paid me three Benjamins upon arrival, he said just dump it here. I said no, I'll wheelbarrow and stack it where ever you want it. So loaded up his rack and put a 1/4 rick on his front porch. As I was pulling away, he knocked on my window and handed me another Jackson.
Couldn't have brought home the Benjamins today without my diesel beast. 4:10 rear end, anti-spin and finely tuned and deleted. Couldn't count the number of vehicles and trucks over turned and in the ditches today. Lived in Colorado for 12 years, so experienced on how to drive on snow and ice; Tennessee folks clueless. Go slow, no hard braking and go easy on the gas pedal. And keep a large distance from the vehicle in front of you.
Went into four figures last week and will be well into four and a half figures after tomorrow's deliveries. Have deliveries scheduled all the way out to next Thursday. When a cold snap happens in January or February, you better have some seasoned firewood available to sell if you want to keep your customers. If you don't have the seasoned inventory around Nashville, I'll take your customers over as long as I am doing firewood.
My deleted and tuned 4X4 diesel with 4:10 gears and anti-spin deferential is getting the job done. Have delivered through nasty conditions the last week that other sellers could not have. Vehicles all along my delivery path are in the ditches and upside down. Being from Colorado, I know how to navigate extreme road conditions. TN folks haven't a clue.
Tips have been amazing the last two weeks; averaging about $310 a face cord/rick. Only have about 125 ricks of seasoned firewood remaining. How will I survive?
