I like how they brag about heating oil to be down a dollar from last year. Everyone forgets heating oil prices from the 1990s at 59 cents a gallon. The petroleum companies have been getting rich for so long at least this lets the firewood guys make a little money. We bust our butts cutting, splitting, stacking, loading and unloading trucks while the oil guys just pump their oil into a tank. I think I burned about 1100 gallons of oil through the winter when I lived in NY in my 1200 sqft house and the house was cold. I would use use 5 or 6 cords of wood and a woodstove to heat the same home with heat to spare and a warmer home overall. If you don't like the quality or price of wood you always have the option to work up some of your own firewood. Heating oil is still high IMO.
Oh yeah, we are just getting rich cutting firewood. If your are in the firewood business you still have to cover all your expenses, equipment replacement costs & make some money too. There are still plenty of fly by night guys selling pickup loads of nice wet wood for $50, don't worry it will burn in two years.
Flintlock Forest Products is selling Oak, Hickory, and locust firewood at $50/ton off the log yard. There are Bret Buchler scales to verify weight. It is cut and split by a DYNA firewood processor. It is loaded onto that processor with a 437 self propelled John Deere log grapple. All that is setting on 62 acres. We buy the pulp wood tops for competitive pricing against industry pulpwood prices. In this area that equals about $30 ton for the wood. Total investment of equipment and land is over $500,000.00, not counting the wood price. We are making pennies on the dollar. Getting rich selling firewood we are not. Granted the equipment and land was purchased as a log handling yard. We deal with timber and timber resources. However, with the firewood part of it is just an extra way to make a dollar, it is safe to say that is all we are making at $50/ton. Heating costs with purchased firewood is CHEAP! At least at our price point. I KNOW selling a ton of firewood for less can NOT be economically justified, If we had to use different equipment, the investment in time drives the cost up by at least $15 ton. This is the facts of it. People can moan about it or cut their own. I imagine after a load that has to have a maul put to 90% of it, they'd realize just how cheap $50/ton is. If they buy a splitter, forgetaboutit. God Bless men
