Jeff, Reflecting back on my earlier posts I will say that I do miss the cash that Lefty and I made. At our peak it was about $2,000 each for the winter and allowed some nice toys. I should try to get back to selling some but hauling to and from the backyard is not that fun of an activity if you know what I mean. Who knows what the future will be and maybe I can sell a few cords here and there.
He didn't get a chance to stage more logs as his mini payloader/grapple is down so he gave me dibs on the load that came in this afternoon. Cherry and red maple. Nice looking stuff. Ill be at it tomorrow. Some dead ash mixed in that he wants me to cut for his OWB. More than happy to.
Yeah I was rather ecstatic to get them. Ill take all the red maple and cherry I can for bundle wood. Hopefully they produce some nice splits. Wont know til I crack them open.
I’m surprised to hear some of the logs go out of the country to Canada, in Connecticut they don’t want wood going across the border due to insects, disease etc.
I have a super split. I haven't used it in years. They work great, it's just that there is no log lift. If I can lift it it goes in the boiler.
I started last Summer with selling smoker wood thanks to WinonaRail. Have sold some. Nothing gangbusters but a much bigger mark up than general cordage or regular bundles.
The other thing is “pizza wood” for the back yard wood fired pizza ovens. Google wood pizza, wood fired BBQ in your area. Make contact and go from there. You have the population that will have lots of restaurants that do wood fired cooking. Plus Al the backyard chefs. You will need to do some Facebook selling as pizza wood, wood fired, smoker wood. Pizza wood 2.5 x 2.5x16 / restaurant cooking wood 3.5 x 3.5 x16 smoker wood 4.5 x 4.5 x 16. That’s what I see being sold in the 48. There also mini firewood for the table top burners. I’ve learned the smaller the wood/volume the more you make. Guy in Ohio his main business is restaurant wood. 3.5 x3.5 x 16. Cherry, hickory and oak, also will mix sell by 1/3 cord. He is pics remind me of how you care for your wood. The restaurants have the wood stacked inside, customers see it—has to look good. No mold, mushrooms dirty nasty anything. He keep just the interior wood per round for them. The outer layer with bark to his customers that have a fireplace/pit ETC.
Couple hours cutting and loading. Couple face cord of cherry brought back to storage. Split half the load. Ill split the rest off the truck tomorrow. Rinse and repeat with what's left.
Save that cherry for cooking/smoking wood. Market as such. You would be shocked at what people will pay.
That generally doesn’t apply to forestry products. It’s generally just firewood unless it’s a more specific quarantine. Generally, foresters and loggers are working to harvest live healthy trees that are not diseased and are examined/inspected prior to transport, so the threats in transport are low whereas individuals (who are not educated in the threats) cut a lot of dying, dead or down trees that may have just succumbed to an infestation. An example of a more specific quarantine is the infestation of the Asian Longhorn Beetle near Worcester, MA. NOTHING could go out of that quarantine area and anything cut needed to be chipped below a certain size to ensure a live beetle wouldn’t survive a run through the chipper.
If you go to Home Depot and look at the price of a clear red oak board, you will understand the economics. Personally, I blame the healthcare system, insurance companies and attorneys for the downfall of the niche northeast sawmills. 20 years ago, those red oak logs would have been processed locally with trucking distances under 100 miles. With so many small sawmills going out of business, I think the Canadians saw (no pun intended) an opportunity to process a high quality, high value product and started sending the trucks down from Quebec. Not sure if they are actually back hauling, or if the economics support one way transportation. I would suspect it’s more of the former as you said.
If you haven't looked into it, check out competition mini splits. Smoker wood cut to 8" lengths. I take my 16" premium splits and cut in half with a miter saw. Average 8 splits (16 after cutting in half) go in a bag for $15. Profit margin is huge and I'm half the price of what you can order online. They sell well in my roadside stand during the summer.
