WinonaRail's Wood Yard

It looks like summer has officially started in northern Indiana. I refilled the roadside stand 4 times yesterday. Unfortunately I'm nearly out of seasoned wood. It may be time to start the solar kilns again and get some wood cooking!

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Last week definitely was a busy one at the roadside stand. Total sales were $379, which is my second best week ever. I expect this week will be crazy as well. On Friday I had somebody pull up near the garage while I was home during lunch. I went out to investigate and it turned out to be a firewood customer. He was looking for a truckload. I sold him a tote full of bone dry shorts and helped him load up. Turns out he is from ARIZONA (I'm in Indiana). He happens to have a summer lake house about 10 miles away. I've dealt with a few out-of-state customers but never from the southwest. Super nice guy!

 

That's great

 

Word gets around when you have good product. Congrats on the great sales!

 

Last week got even crazier! I'll post an update once I update my spreadsheet to get an accurate count. I'm guessing I came out to near $1K for the week. And I'm not saying this to brag in any way but I've never heard of anyone selling that much in a week from a roadside stand.

So how are your sales coming into summer?

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Thats awesome. How has the finger healed? Back to 100%?

Sales slow, but expected. Helps drying wood catch up. Splits im using now are 11+/- months seasoned. Last couple years the Spring wholesale bundles have done better with covid. Sold a cord a couple weeks ago...new customer. Completely unexpected. Had a couple CL sales lined up and they cancelled as folks dont like to wait at all. Must think im doordash firewood or something. Tempted to drop what im doing and deliver as soon as they call. Did a 30 bundle drop today and have another thirty drop this week. Expecting the others to call soon. I have five. Picked up a new bulk customer through a referral for the Fall. Bit far but dont mind. I lost several customers last Winter. Death, divorce, moving etc. Got gas at a local station that ive never used. Inquired about selling them bundles as owner was there. She may call in the Fall. Bundle wood inventory looking good for the Winter too.

Current inventory has n=me looking great for next Winter bundle sales.

 

That's great

 

Inventory (quality seasoned wood) is the name of the game. That's one area I'm lacking at the moment. I just got a call this morning from a guy that had a tree taken down so I'll have to investigate and see what it is.

You might be onto something with the Doordash firewood. Get hooked up on the app and then charge accordingly.
Finger is probably 70%. I really don't know if it will ever be completely normal but I'm glad to have it. Gloves don't fit right otherwise.

 

I ran into a problem last week that had the splitter down for 4 days (seemed like an eternity). Recoil starter imploded, leaving pull starting impossible. I ordered 2 on Amazon because no part numbers matched so I wasn't sure which one to get. The first one was the wrong size. The second one was a match. It shattered on the first few pulls.

So I did what any sane person would do and went to YouTube. Figured out how to start small engines with a drill. Cordless DeWalt wouldn't do it. I broke out the big Harbor Freight special. Worked like a champ.

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That $uck$. How old was the rope? Saw that happen once on a splitter. Has happened on a couple of my saws too.

Great FHC improvision there!

 

Rope was OEM, a little over 2 years. It's completely intact. No problems with the rope. Unfortunately the housing that contains the rope is plastic. It has some recessed areas that hold 2 metal tabs that sit inside slots on the cylinder that attaches to the starter. The plastic completely blew apart so the rope pulls out with no tension, and no starting.

 

I got a call from a guy who had logs and asked if I wanted them. We played phone tag throughout the day. He said he had them loaded on a truck and would bring them over. This is what he left in my driveway. Turned out to be a local pastor I know. He has a big rolloff truck and says there's more he needs to take down. I told him to stop by anytime.

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Looks like some nice wood. Great to have some to keep you busy.

 

Absolutely! I've been nothing but busy lately, but log inventory is running low. I was glad to see this show up. And the best part is that it was delivered for free. Not everybody can bring a million cords of logs home to process like T.Jeff Veal. Someday I'd like to have just half of your inventory!

 

It's been a work in progress and a blessing from the LORD

 

You definitely get your strength from the Lord to get everything done that you do!

 

Work for this morning was to cut some small cottonwood logs that were dropped off yesterday along with starting on the big maple logs (not pictured). I'll have to split those vertically. Then I finished splitting the last of my cherry for a my cherry for smoking. I need to scrounge some more.

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My other main project today was to split some oak for the stand. It's been cut for a year and already dry.

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Nice work, brorher.

 

The last splitting project was finishing off this rack of Norway maple. I moved it to the drying yard next to some sugar maple.

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