WinonaRail's Wood Yard

It was just an idea I had. One person asked how much it comes out to which is a liberal quarter cord.

I got a text from my fifth customer. Four bundles left at his store and wants 45. Delivering those this morning. All I had on hand intended for the 100 bundle order have been almost used up. Need to get cracking on 130 more. I owe another 45 and have at least a couple weeks to do the other 100. Todays delivery puts me well over 800 for the year and I'm thinking I forgot to mark down a couple orders.

How were holiday weekend sales for you?

 

You're the real deal! I would need to split half my annual inventory for bundle wood to keep up with that kind of volume. It's also nice that you get a bit of a window for some of the deliveries so you don't have to stay up all night making them for the next day.

Sales were good but about half of what I did last year. Totals were 21 bundles, 2 bags of mini split smoking wood, 1 stack of 16" smoking wood, 6 small loose stacks of mixed hardwood, 4 large stacks of same and 10 small bags of kindling. That came out to $457. Not quite what I was hoping for but probably better than 90% of roadside stands in the US. Overall I'm fairly close to where I was at this point last year.

 

Thats not a bad amount for the weekend IMO. Id be pleased to sell that for three days.

Normally I don't have many if any bundles assembled ahead of time. I opted to take care of him right away. His last order was April 11 for 45 bundles. (Somehow my sales are in increments of 15. 30 the normal sale)

Todays sale. All red maple, CSS April last year

 

A ghostly Brad!!

 

That's some premium firewood for bundles. This time of year I use about half cottonwood (I always seem to have plenty) and mix in ash and whatever else I have that splits nice.

My bundles sold out again yesterday. I only made 4 last night after I sprayed 12 gallons of weed killer around the property. I need to make more for the weekend. My racks of bundle wood are getting pretty low. I'm up to $110 for the week so far at the roadside stand.

 

Gotta keep restocking, I know the feeling.

Ill mix in SS wood when I have too much heavier primo woods...sugar maple, black birch, and sometimes oak. By themselves the bundles get too heavy.

Red maple and cherry are perfect for bundle wood.

 

I seldom use the primo woods in bundles. But that's primarily because I sell most of them as a specific species for more money as smoking wood. It's nice having several "product Lines" to maximize profit!

 

Well if I had my choice it would be mostly red maple and SS woods, but scroungers cant be choosy. I scored a lot of sugar maple and black birch. If it makes nice splits chances are good it goes for bundle wood. I scored a lot of tulip poplar so that will get mixed in when needed, I even have some chestnut and pin oak from early last year in the bundle wood mix. Some mixed with the red maple get tossed into the restack pile for next year.

I made 15 tonight and will do another 15 tomorrow night. The 45 will get loaded then for a Saturday delivery.

 

You're a bundling machine! I need to get about 8 more in the stand. And then make a few more for inventory. I'll be splitting tonight. Hopefully some of it makes good bundle wood and is dry enough to use in the next couple of weeks.

 

I do love sitting at work and seeing a notification from Cash App that a customer just sent me $40. Most likely a loose stack of mixed hardwoods (roughly 1/10 of a cord). It's great to have a firewood stand that makes money when I'm not even around.

I got home last night to find loose stacks of cherry and oak were gone with cash in the box. I got them filled up after I did a bit of mowing.

 

I thought that was the green monster

 

I went home for lunch today and found my loose stacks wiped out. That's a good sign for another strong weekend of sales in the roadside stand. Rain is supposed to come in sometime tomorrow afternoon so hopefully sales continue tonight and into tomorrow before the weather turns bad.

 

Hi-visibility monster Jeff, hi-visibility!

 

Day Glo...

 

I owed 45 to a customer which topped off his inventory. Before and after pics. With the onslaught of orders coming all at once most should be set for at least 4-6 weeks on bundles. Now to get to work assembling 100 when that guy calls. I'll nibble away at those. Maybe some today.

 

Nice looking bundles! I need to get about 10 more in my roadside stand, along with more mini bundles (10"-13").

 

Are the mini bundles more for Solo stoves/chimeneas? I have maybe a dozen mesh bags filled with scrap framing lumber that I'm gonna try and sell on FBM. I'm thinking 20lbs in each?

I started in on the 100 bundle order for when he calls. Did 15 yesterday and will do the same later today.

 

I sell mini bundles at 3/$10. That's probably too cheap. It's how I use a lot of the shorts. I advertise for pizza ovens, bigger smokeless fire pits and such. I know some people buy them because they are cheap but others specifically buy them because of the size. I sold 3 packs (9 bundles) last weekend.

Do you have storage room for 100 bundles? With your space constraints it seems like that would be inconvenient.

 

It was another strong weekend for firewood sales at the roadside stand. $475 worth of firewood, along with 6 rounds I sold to a neighbor for seating ($60) went down the road. Loose stacks continue to be big movers, although quite a bit of smoking wood went out as well. Unfortunately there was also a theft. It's the first one I've had this year. Friday evening while I was gone someone took a $40 stack of mixed hardwoods and 3 kindling bags. I kept minimal inventory in the stand for the rest of the weekend because I was just ticked off. It won't break me but a loss of 10% of the income for the week really bothered me. I kept checking the cash box to see if they returned to pay their debt but they didn't come back.

 

Sounds to cheap to me unless they are real small vs. your standard bundles. Same amount of work to assemble them, no?

I am currently assembling bundles behind my shed at my third storage location (exclusively bundle wood for the most part) which is next door to my second. Both are friends and we barter. I do them favors as needed. I built this shed a year ago just for bundle wood. It holds eight cords. I set up an area in back to put them together and with the 2' overhang there is ample space to stack them as I go. The shed holds six rows of stacks and I'm almost done with the second row so space is opening up as I deplete splits. It was stacked from back to front so the driest wood is always getting used. I planned it well when I built it. Only downside is I have to wait for one side to empty before I can restock. The other problem is I have to wheelbarrow bundles to the driveway as its way in back. PITA but it is what it is. My work schedule changed today so didn't get a chance to assemble more. I will tomorrow night though.

Here is the thread on the shed build
Shed Build