Got to get ahead - thoughts on buying tree-length logs?

I have a pile of equipment, tractors, winches, saws, trailers, trucks etc. I bought a 20 cord load of Oak logs with my stimulus money. Not sure why, just seemed like a good idea. Turns out it was, I have about 1/2 left just waiting, when I have the time I just go putter on that pile. I've hauled probably 50 cord here since then, but much of that is for sale/sold. The Oak is my heat in case of extra sales etc. Real nice peace of mind. My vote is get it now, it won't get any cheaper. As Backwoods Savage said, get two if you can.

 

Well between last Tuesday and today I reached out to a couple of my friends who run excavating businesses, asking if they had any land clearing jobs coming up. Neither did, but one of them had cleared a neighbor's property last year and had left about 12 cords of hardwood logs on the landing for future use. I got a hold of the neighbor and asked him what he was planning to do with the log pile. Aside from a half-dozen logs he wanted to eventually mill for lumber, he said I could have any and all of it. Right next to the driveway, less than 1/4 mile round trip to cut a load and come home. Couldn't ask for a better deal. Only downside if there is one, is that half of the pile is poplar. I can deal with that. I may still buy a log truck load anyway just to get on three year plan finally.

 

Great!

 

Good plan for sure, nice and close too!

 

i have oak coming out my ears... wish i had some maple and beech to use.

 

In the mid 90’s I cut down 2 massive Beech’s. I’d guess 40-50” dbh with full mushroom cloud canopies.
At the time I didn’t know squat about wood and lived in an apt.
I remember a healthy red headed square bodied Chevy driving country girl hustling limb wood off the job site. I don’t remember what happened the trunks, but they would have supplied firewood for years. I don’t think I’ve cut down a Beech since then.

 

I would buy the log load it is sooo much easier to get it dropped at your property than having to go to the woods and deal with the brush.

 

A lot of wisdom in that statement. In my opinion of course.

 

Completely agree, if you are short on time, you can get so much more done cutting off a lot pile then in the woods.
And if it's at your house, got a free 1/2 hour? Cut a few rounds, were as if you have to drive someplace and get it in the woods you probably wouldn't as you didn't have enough time to make it worth it.

 

If you are buying a log load why not find out what the driver would charge to move those logs from your neighbors house over to yours.

 

I wanted to get ahead and that's why I took all the loads I could from my tree service buddy in one year. I must have taken in at least 20 loads of a 10 yard bucket truck. Plus I scrounged and would bring home one bed in the Tacoma at a time, sometimes a few trips a day but usually just 1 or 2 loads.

That certainly gave me a bit of a head start but basically I don't have room to store more than 2 years worth of wood at once. Right now I have 4 empty stacks (4 pallets each) that I can fill and have a half stack of a dedicated pine stack that I'm building.

I would say do whatever you have to do to try to get ahead. If you don't spend the money and get the logs, it sounds like you will be lagging behind even further.

Of course everyone's situation is different. I take care of driving the kids to school, bus pickup, dinner on the days my wife works. Otherwise I am free so that gives me a lot of options in obtaining wood.

For reference a cord of split wood delivered here is $300 at the cheapest.....so 7 cords would put you at $2100. Doesn't make economic sense for me to purchase the amount of wood I burn. I'm only able to burn the amount I burn (14 cord last year) because the wood itself was $0 to me besides fuel and my time and some bar oil.

By this fall I'll have those empty stacks all filled up and the pine stack as well. My spruce stack is still half full so I will use that all up next year for sure.