"If you build it they will come" I am lucky to have a little property not far from the Charlotte suburbs. All the wood in the pictures below was free and actually I was paid to pick some of it up. When I buy wood it's already split, seasoned and I buy in quantity (80 Cords) up north where the price is low. When I pay for split firewood I pay not much more than most of the people here pay for log loads and rounds and it is delivered to my wood yard. I run ads on CL for the tree dump, talk to people, meet other wood sellers and after somebody comes through a couple times, although it's supposed to be a free service I have been known to hand out OutBack Gift cards here and there. It takes years to build up a network of suppliers, customers, tree service professionals and homeowners. The tree services around here do very well so they don't usually mess with firewood, it never really gets super cold here so there is not really a slow time for the tree services. Put an ad in your local craigslist for a free tree dump and see what happens, add a couple pictures, freshen it up weekly and it may payoff. I took the picture of the "mythical tree dump" below yesterday about 5pm and at 5:30pm two trucks came in and dumped and asked if they could come back tomorrow. They have been dumping some really nice white oak since Friday. I just cleared some of this land on the weekend to make more room and easy access for the trucks and trailers. We exchange cards so we can plug each other at our customer sites.
Your opinion as always is highly appreciated. However, although I have not figured the cost of a cord of wood that we process, I would find it very difficult to say it would cost $70 per cord! Then you add in property taxes, but why? You would have the property taxes whether you cut wood or not so they should not be into the equation. This does sort of pic my curiosity and I may attempt to calculate just how much a cord of wood costs me. The costs would amount to saw, gas and oil plus maintenance on these. Then the cost of gas for splitter and vehicle for moving the firewood but only a small fraction of the maintenance costs of these as those costs would be here if cutting wood or not. I would not add in costs for stove and maintenance on such as we are only figuring the cost of a cord of wood. If I get what I feel is a true answer, I will gladly let you know but do not expect it to be as high as what you quote.
Interesting. All I know is that I feel much better spending a few bucks on wood gathering/processing compared to the moocho pile of greenbacks the LP furnace got fed each year! That got real old... Real quick
lknchoppers, i have built it.. even the town I live in has an outdoor furnace for the Town garage. Because they're responsible for tree branches that fall in the road, the voters said if where paying you to cut it up and haul it. Then you might as well use it to heat the shop.
Backwoods Savage, it's easy for me because the way the state does property taxes. The house and 2 acres is a price of x. The 10 acres of field is a price of Y. And the 10 acres of woods is a price of Z. So I add the price of Z. Which is about $35 a cord. Total maintenance of tractor divided by hours used for firewood. Plus Gas, chains, oil, chaps etc etc. To be fair, the woods also give me other enjoyment besides firewood. Including privacy, wildlife, Recreation opportunities. And family time doing a team task to keep us warm. Because I have reasonable options to subdivide the property. Which I have chosen not to do. Its just how I justify the opportunity costs. In short, $280 plus sweat for 4 cord to heat my home to warm and comfortable for 7 months is best deal going! Oh, I do not add woodstove because I separate heater costs from the fuel costs.
I will re think it. As a landlord with extra buildings, taxes are in my financial equations. I used same spreadsheet setup for for firewood, tractor, vehicles basically everything except friends and family.
Figuring taxes in is part of the reason I have a vegetable garden instead of a front lawn. Not a big part but when you are justifying it to someone else it's a big chunk of change to be waving. What would be sweet would to be to form a LLC somehow and pay yourself to sell wood to yourself and extract an income out of it too.
I grew up on the Land I now live on. I bought the land from my Dad decades ago. We burned wood starting in the late 70's, had an old Sears and Roebuck Parlor stove. Yes, I did buy a load of logs last year to catch up on my supply and time has been very tight these past few years. But, overall this land and the trees/fire wood we have cut have heated our houses and saved us thousands on LP. Yeah I pay taxes and the tractors cost money to keep going and insurance goes up and so on. But my land provides me with firewood and I thank the good Lord I can put it to good use and that I have it and that I am healthy enough to CSS it. ...yeah my land is good to me.
Well said! I usually buy a log length load every other year and the get the rest of my wood from my property. I enjoy the solitude of being in the woods.
I would only figure taxes in if you only purchased/were keeping the acreage because you get firewood from it. If you would own that land anyway, the taxes are neither here nor there.
Unfortunately that’s all to common around us.. We where struggling with wood years ago when we still had the boxwood stove and bought a good amount of black walnut to feed it. It was a huge expense for us at the time and they swore up and down that it was bone dry. I believed them due to the price being a little higher than the wet wood. I think it was our first year burning at this house. We learned a hard lesson that year. I’ve alwaya felt scammed by them it was absolutely soaking wet firewood. The wood looked and felt dry but when it hit the stove it was like a steam train out the chimney. They are still selling wood and even called us the next year to see if we wanted more of their prime dry wood. NO was my response and I asked them how long it had really dried. The response was this... ( We cut it down and leave it in log form for 6 months then split it for about a month to get the wood dry. Our wood is the dryest you’ll find for sale) I stopped buying wood not long after and now cut almost all of it myself. The way I see it if you do buy treat it just like it’s fresh from the woods and give it time to dry properly and you’ll be fine. There isn’t anything wrong with buying wood so long as you plan for it ahead.
I dont know how people keep a cool head when dealing with these kinda people....they gotta know what they are sellin is not ready to burn.
I think if many people knew all the tricks that make burning wood easy they wouldn't find it so difficult and often give up on it.
Theres a guy about 3/8 of mile from me thats sells cords of splits for 180.00. I have been tempted to stop in n ask what for wood it is, how long has it been split, the scoop on delivery, etc. Its hard for me to do that when i have no intension to purchase any...maybe one of these days..
After I factor saws and time and fuel I have figured it MAKES me $25/hr to cut and process my wood vs buying oil. That makes it all the more enjoyable for me!
