Stand was down to two bags yesterday evening. Raided the shed stock to refill as we have snow today and back to the freezer tomorrow. Skinning out early from work today to go make more stock in the relatively warm weather.
Blew through the rest of my bags Friday afternoon. Made enough to stuff the stand and have some reserve. No jumpers on this trip surprisingly. Had to put a few up front. Went to feed yesterday and they couldn't even wait until I pulled away. They know what a feed sack sounds like being rolled up empty. Rode around the hill on a track I broke right after the big snow just to be nosey. Saw another doe headed to the corn spot. The three were munching when I went back past.
RCBS do you mind mentioning what kind of sacks you use for bundles? That is interesting, is that for onions or something? I guess a benefit of a sack is you don't need a loader gizmo, you stick 'em in the sack. Do you know how much they end up costing per bag?
Mesh produce sacks from Bezos. I have another source but shipping is killer. The ones I am ordering today are .59 each. They were .10+ cheaper last year. Going with the purple as I had issues with the sun breaking the others down after sitting too long on the stand. Stand gets direct sunlight into it from the south every day until about 2pm. Had to rebag half a dozen last year. The purple ones are UV resistant. Size is 22x32 inch. The orange and greens I was buying were 22x31. Can fit about 1.5 cuft into one (depending on length). I use a cat litter bucket with the bottom cut out to hold the bag open for loading. I do not have a very efficient system so far. Hasn't been necessary so far. Can load a dozen in about 20-25 minutes or so...2-3 minutes per bag. Getting the first two pieces set in the corners is the secret sauce for my type loading. I lay them flat in buggy or truck bed to load. Can get one more split in after standing them up.
Have you seen the five gallon bucket trick? Cut the bottom off a five gallon bucket. Pack it with splits, slide the bag over it and pull the bucket out and walla, the bag is filled. I've never tried it, just seen online. Not sure what size bags are used though. Ive thought of using bags, but adds too much to my cost and wouldn't save that much time. Costs me .14c each with 12" stretch wrap.
Do you put handles on? I been trying to imagine a proper jig for what I need. Nothing really so far. The bags do fight being loaded a bit. Kity litter bucket fits in their openings with a slight bit of play left but not much. I would have to see if a 5gal would fit in there. What I need is a kitty litter bucket that is about 24" tall and I'd be set I think. Could hang it and do gravity loading. Having plastic completely insulating the wood from the bags would halve the time. Could maybe double stack but would need to rivet to keep smooth.
I don't. They do sell them and I have a Dewalt 20v 1/4" crown stapler I use for work now and then so I could easily if I wanted. In the early days my first guy asked for them but I told him the price increase and he declined. I go up a few cents in price and they think its the end of the world. A couple even dropped me as their supplier when I did. Found this doing a quick search
A couple days ago, I saw a video of that same guy and he was using a plastic garbage can like you'd use in your house. Don't know if that is what you went to or came from in using the bucket. (One might be superior over the other.)
The tapered pail might be easier IMO. It all depends on the volume of the bag. Guessing they make them in different sizes. I used to make my bundles .75 cubic feet until I saw some "factory made" ones for sale at .60 cubic feet, so I downsized mine to that size. They are 8x8x16 now tightly packed. I mean most every product at the grocery store is slowly downsized with few folks noticing. Remember half gallons of ice cream? 20 years ago I'd eat one in one sitting. A delivery to one of my locals from last week. Mix of dead ash, cherry, cottonwood, TOH, sugar & silver maple.
That looks awesome, Brad. Do you use a jig to wrap your bundles? I have seen that many/most people sell bundles for $5. I don't know if the market would support $10 bundles but that sure would be more revenue, even sticking in a better bang for the buck for the 'oversized' bundle. Of course, you are selling wholesale.
Thanks Bill. Yes a simple jig made of scrap lumber. Same one I've used for years. Biggest PITA is precutting the wrap to length and rerolling as its impossible to use a full roll to wrap. If I did bundles in quantity I'd buy a wrapping jig. I wholesale them less than $5 each. Tried retailing them once with no luck. I get $10-15 each for the same sized smoker bundles and customers pick them up. 8 flavors to choose from.
My customers are getting an absolute bargain. The skimpiest bag I put out will still have more than 1cuft in it. The fat ones are probably close to 1.5. They also get to buy direct, no middleman markup. They essentially pay .50/stick. Decided I will hold the 5 buck price for as long as sane to do so. If the dollar keeps crapping out, I may have to raise. I don't want to. Easy peasy right now for bill denominations. I don't offer e-payment that so many use now. Won't ever. The stand I made has 3 'bays' in it. Had been trying to cater to small split crowd but that has been a fail. I believe starting next fall the 3rd bay will have a $25 loose stack in it. I had tried this with chuglies already and no one bit on $15 worth of them for $10 so maybe they'll like nicer splits. Also been thinking I may put up a flier offering my entire chuglie pile which is the better part of a cord, if not a whole one for reasonable money. Unsure yet what I'll do with the other small splits I made. Have about 2/3 of a tote of them.
Check out WinonaRail's thread. He has a sweet roadside stand with some good options for buyers. WinonaRail's Wood Yard Chunks can be hard to sell. I have a couple regulars amounting to 1.5 cords every year. When this season started I had nearly five cords of the dang things including BL which I sell by itself. Luckily an old friend of the family contacted me about needing wood and it was all I could spare. He was very pleased with the way they burned. His fourth half cord going tomorrow.
Will do. I did sell a bedload of them last year to a guy who don't want to pay for propane, but don't want to cut wood either. lol He was talking about adding a contraption to burn used oil in his woodburner. So even with free fuel, he won't pony up for an actual oil burner (shade tree auto shop). I hope he don't burn the thing down or asphixiate himself trying to save a buck. It's not like he's destitute or anything.
Got the quarters split off and stacked Saturday. Sales have slowed but I made a good reserve for the shed also. Rained out yesterday.
Had some working weather Saturday. Went after the big pile of rounds at the bottom yard. Got all the big beech split off which was my goal. My buddy helped a bit and did some bucking with his first full chisel chain. lol He had no idea. I don't think he'll be buying anything else now. Bunch of chestnut waiting for the splitter. Bunch more in the woods still. My buddy's first shed find. (it was laying out in the yard but he counted it as a win none the less) I found another small one last weekend while riding the buggy. We did spend 45 minutes looking for sheds after working but got skunked. Pretty sure I know this fellow's daddy. Yuck weather yesterday. Wet snow. Went and fed the deer and that was about it. Had nine at the feed spot when I came back through. Few bags off the stand but not enough to even worry about restocking.
