My wife and I are closing on a new house this spring. 15 acres with about 7 or so mature wooded. While walking the property with the current owner, he made mention that he's been making secondary income from firewood as there just so much of it. He's been cleaning up EAB ash that falls but in my experience, these are all about rotted by now in our area - NE Ohio. The property has gas, so burning is not required but my wife made the point: we've got to be able to burn wood for heat [in case of emergency]! I need move in and get a grasp on the place, but there is a fireplace in the 1st floor family room that I plan to shove my Buck 74 in as an insert. Also plan to have my Fisher Momma Bear out in the detached garage. My current home has 3 wood stoves installed, although we have a heat pump as a primary heat source, there's no way we would survive a winter without some sort of wood heat! I'm disappointed though, the new place has a substantial central masonry chinney that starts the basement as a 8'×5' block structure. Problem is, there's only one stinking flu- from the 1st floor fireplace. There is a clean out downstairs but dang.... a few extra bucks to add a second flu when they built it and there could have been a perfect CENTRAL spot for a wood stove downstairs... oh well. Maybe we will make the 1st floor fireplace decoration only someday and shoot a liner up from downstairs through the clean out hole? Not ideal, but possible I believe. As far as selling wood, I doubt I'll have the time. I love the sound of extra income, but when buddies and I sold wood in years past, we were making peanuts at best for pay.. Maybe the $ per cord has gone up? Lots of work ahead. Luckily, I've got the tools, the energy (36 years young), and the know how to make it all happen.
Trying to decide what will be our best bet for secondary income from the property. A farmer plants a few acres of our ground as part of the neighboring properties 30ac field which yields $300-400 per year for a field lease payment. So that's something... My other options are, of course, sell firewood, chicken eggs (big market these days), or some sort of livestock (pigs? cows?). Buddy of mine thinks I should rent out one of the buildings to horse people. He does it with his old bank barn and makes big money! Seems like a ton of hassle, and people in/out every day would not please my wife and I. Any Livestock would require investment for fencing, as I already have a suitable barn. Plus we really don't know much about animals other than their a lot of work and feed is expensive. We'd love to sell produce from the large garden during the summer/fall - not sure what the actual market looks like for that. Might be able to supply the local markets though? Firewood, after all, is probably my best option since I know it and have the equipment. I don't have a processor, but I do have 2 manual splitters, a dump trailer, and a decent tractor. I just wonder if the time investment is worth the $ per cord in the end. My time is very valuable. If I'm only making peanuts, I'd rather spend it doing other things. All that said, what have you done to make extra income from your property?
Generally a nice addition is to raise some beef or pork for you own use but if you have no experience with animals, this can go bad for you quickly. The best bet to try something like this would be chickens or even rabbits. Gardening is good for helping your grocery bill but most don't make much off trying to sell it. Good luck.
Fairly well settled in the new place, and it is - as we imagined - a wood hoarders paradise. Endless wood..... So today, Im having the chimney inspected to ensure we are ready to burn once the cold weather comes. Lots and lots of projects and other priorities at the moment so we will most likely just be using the fireplace this season vs. installing my insert. Yes, I know the fireplace isn't going to heat much of anything - but my wife and I agree - winter would be extra depressing if we couldn't sit and enjoy a fire. The existing fireplace appears to be a decent setup - glass doors, chain curtain, damper, grate, and ash hole. Ive "used" a fireplace but never truly operated one long term. I assume it will use an ungodly amount of wood but we dont plan to burn continuously. Mostly just for lazy weeknights, holidays, and weekends. Chimney needs some repairs up top. Luckily I found the pile of original brick in the back yard. Hoping for just a new crown, tuckpoint, and missing brick replacement. Ive got some cherry and black walnut logs ready to split for the 2027-2028 season. Im confident I have dry wood for the next two seasons. Busy busy! The 3 year old loves it! No shortage of deer here. I think I might need to take up hunting....
Why not like beech? Good BTUs, minimal bark, dries fast .. better then white ash BTUs wise probably about 10% more
That's great, glad your son loves it. That is a field full of deer, a enclosed ground blind would be great for y'all to sit in together
I've been enlightened. I wasn't aware that Beech was so high up the chart! Good to know! Chimney inspection company visit today didn't go well. As expected, it needs some exterior repairs but overall structurally sound. Inside, the original flue is in great shape but the fireplace damper was recommended to be replaced. They identified that the plywood form was left in when built between the lower block foundation and the concrete supporting the Firebox. You can see it down the ash hole about 12" below the firebox. The ash pit was just about full! Approximately 3ft x 6ft x 7ft put- that's alot of ash!!!! I've got alot of buckets to fill..... This tells me that the existing setup was used and awful lot! When they gave me the price to repair, I about spit my coffee out. Looks like I've got my summer project for next year! Knowing what I know now, I'll most likely just install my Buck 74 insert myself with a liner and be done with it.
The insert will be better anyway. Not necessarily how you had it planned but long term will save wood and put more heat in the house.
