WinonaRail's Wood Yard

That's great news on your sales, Gary and Brad. Bundles look great, Brad.
Before we got the dump trailer in '18, we hauled logs on a 16' flat trailer.
We had a cable hung about 8' up on an oak tree. We would back the trailer up, hook cable around a log, then drive forward, pulling log off. Roll log out f the way with peavy and repeat.
Maybe you can try that if gator won't pull it off.

 

So far the Gator has done the job. The challenge for me is they are short logs and haven't been "stacked" in the trailer, just dropped in. I supervised loading on the last batch. Hopefully I'll get time to unload this weekend and we'll see how it goes. I like your idea if I should get any big monsters to unload.

 

Here is last week's roadside stand sales update. To say I was busy would be an understatement. Sold items were 4 bundles, 4 2'x2' loose stacks, 7 4'x2' loose stacks and loose stacks of hickory (x2), cherry, oak and sugar maple. I think the oak stack sold yesterday because literally every other loose stack was empty. I may have managed to split 1/4 cord all week.

 

I had some apple chunks that were cut 10-14" (not by me) and was trying to figure the best way to sell them rather than just half them and sell as nuggets. My bundle splits are 16". I had accumulated 15 empty litter boxes thanks to Taters (R.I.P.) that I usually use for kindling. Used the battery DeWalt saw and bucked them to 11-12" and filled on Sunday. Ended up with a bag full of little nuggets we'll use for the smoker

 

One of my smoker customers PMed me about frr apple wood in my town. Checked it out Friday and it was mostly a bust. Big punky chunks from a limb the guy cut and skinny wood bucked to very short pieces. Normally I would've taken the limb wood but its been sitting for a few months from the looks of it. I prefer clean fresh cut for smoker wood. I did take three pieces of limb wood and bucked them yesterday. A little is better than none. Filled four 20lb bags with apple chunks too. No recent smoker sales other than a 1/4 cord of hickory delivered to a guy for his firepit on Saturday. He answered my FBM listing. Two small bundle orders for this week came in. Hopefully they follow through. Delivered a half cord of nuggets to a regular Friday. He called wanting me to look at another work for him so I killed two birds with one stone. I contacted three local customers confirming they will want wood this year and all said yes. Indoor burning season is getting close here. Checked in with my 100 bundle guy and he has maybe 30 left.

Hows you wood sales going Gary?

 

Looks like you'll be staying busy! Apple wood is really hard to come by in this neck of the woods (although I'm 2 miles from an orchard). Glad you were able to bag up some chunks!

Last week was pretty normal but good. Here's the rundown for the stand (no deliveries): 21 bundles, 1 bag of pear mini splits, 4 2'x2' loose stacks, 1 each hickory and oak loose stacks, a 2'x4' loose stack and 3 bundles of kindling. I got a text from one of last year's customers looking for 1/4 cord of mixed hardwood. I'm leaning toward buying a cord of seasoned hardwood to fill this and a few more orders I anticipate coming up.

 

That was a good week. Too bad about buying a cord but you do what you have to.

I see you sold more pear...dang. One of my order coming up wants a pear bundle. Thought I'd catch up to you. Had to pull some splits from storage today as I don't keep any here.

I have some cherry heartwood "seconds" (not straight enough for bundles) that I'll offer loose to customers. Some don't care if they're bundled or not. These had been mixed in with a pile of general cordage that I sold so I pulled them out.

 

Buying processed wood is just part of my overall strategy. It allows me to keep customers happy for bulk deliveries and also fills in for my roadside stand if my inventory gets low. It's how I have wood to sell in the winter when the competition doesn't. It's just a cost of business (thing gas to go to the cutting site, fuel and chains for for saws, fuel for the splitter plus maintenance and all the time I would have spent doing those things. If you can buy bulk wood for the right price and it meets your standards, you can still make a few Benjamins with it.

 

Guy showed for his three bundles...hickory, apple and PEAR! (I think that's three pear sales this year)
Offered him a bag of splitter shards and he bought that too.

 

That's a nice mix of smoking wood!

 

I brought another load home from my wood supplier. This is load #3 and he still has a pretty big pile left for me. I have lots of work to do!

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I had a little time this morning so I went to my neighbor's woods to bring home more downed ash. He seems to have no shortage and it's ready to burn in just a couple days.

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Nice load. What species did you get?

 

Had a third time smoker customer come by this morning for four bundles of oak and a bundle of cherry. Had a good chat with him about smoking. He hadn't tried cherry yet.

Had a guy who told me he was coming today for three cherry, but ghosted me on recent PM's so I didn't expect to hear from him. Not the first time it's happened.

My newest bundle account called for a refill less than a month after I stocked him with 60 and built a new rack. He begged me to come ASAP as he was empty so I brought another 60. I wasn't to happy to see ten left and could've waited a few days. I changed my schedule to accommodate. At least I made a few extra bucks on the out of town delivery. Wood is mostly red and silver maple with some sugar in the mix.

 

Haven't unloaded yet. I believe there's a pine log in there but everything else should be hardwood. Most likely a mix.

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Maybe you can get your new bundle guy on some kind of schedule. Since it sold quickly maybe reach out in a little less than a month and see if he's about ready.

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Finally got a start on my ever-growing log stack in my storage yard. I got a late start and only filled about a half tote.

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Here's the weekly sales report from the roadside stand: 15 bundles, 1 bag of cherry mini splits, 1 loose stack of cherry splits, 1 2'x2' stack of mixed hardwoods, 5 2'x4' stacks, 3/$10 mini bundles, 2/$5 kindling bags, 2 kindling bundles. Sales are still strong and weather has been fantastic. Looks like another good weather week ahead, with slight chances of rain for the weekend.

 

That's great

 

What would you say your average week looks like for deliveries this time of year?