Firewood season

farmerdoug · March 21, 2007, 08:30:58 AM

Furby,

So you are the ones that fill the box stores with outdoor plants while the ground is still frozen. :

I always laugh when the plants freeze at the box stores but I guess it is not really funny for the growers that supply them as they only get paid for plants sold. :(

We start our sales here the second week of May and it is really slow then. The second half of May is best plus June too. 8) 8)

Farmerdoug

OneWithWood · March 21, 2007, 12:17:59 PM

FD,

There is a reason I live in the tropical end of Indiana 8)

Linnea's sales have been going strong for better than a month now. About this time of year folks are clammoring for anything green, especially if it is blooming. If they kill it they just come back for more. Linnea does guarantee her plants but most folks know if it was their abuse that did the plant in and just buy more.

No frozen tndra here, just lots of mud.

SwampDonkey · March 21, 2007, 07:07:01 PM

Well lots of frozen tundra here, and freezing rain tonight. :

And summer arrives Saturday. ;D :D :D

Furby · March 21, 2007, 08:23:37 PM

First stuff out several weeks ago was "forced" for the home and garden type shows.
But we have landscapers in Indy running heavy right now, so I know what OWW means.

Doug, we only deal with the high end stuff. ;)

farmerdoug · March 22, 2007, 09:53:01 AM

Furby,

Just joking with you. ;) I did not think that your outfit would be dumb enough to loose money with the box stores. :

Farmerdoug

Furby · March 22, 2007, 09:33:29 PM

I figured you were. ;)

I pulled into a wally world parking lot South of Chicago last spring before they had any plants for sale.
I was dealing with an air leak on the truck and needed to check things out.
Also ran over to McD's to clean up afterwards and get a drink.
Before I left the parking lot, I had folks driving up asking if I was delivering plants to wally world as they were waiting for them to get some in.
Guess the box stores can't get them in stock as early as the customers would like after all.

Bibbyman · March 23, 2007, 05:02:44 AM

We haven't had a fire in the stove for the past two nights. 8)

farmerdoug · March 23, 2007, 09:14:08 PM

We have had people come up to the delivery trucks here and try to buy plants from the drivers delivering to us. :

They are shocked that the driver will not sell our plugs to them. :D I just tell the driver to give them one of his company's catalog so they can order a load for theirselves. I figure anyone who tries to buy the plugs and supplies out from under our noses will not buy from me anyways and good riddance.

Farmerdoug

thecfarm · March 23, 2007, 09:48:48 PM

The wife and me will go look at the stock at big box stores.I can not see why people will buy such bad looking plants from there.When the plants first come in,they look good,but in a week they look so bad.All stores hate to pay anyone that knows something about plants without jerking them around.They need to hire a plant person,ask them what they need,give it to them and walk off.But oh no,they send anyone to water.No one knows where the last one has stopped or started.We used to have a small greenhouse buisness.We had some fine looking products for only a few cents more.Our sells would take off the second week of May too.Mother's Day was always a big one for us.Some of the parent's childrens would bring the Mother's to our greenhouse and turn them loose with a 100 bill.

Furby · March 23, 2007, 10:53:14 PM

Week before Mother's Day and week before Memorial day are really busy.

If plugs in a larger pot get shipped, they get sent back almost every time.
That's what happens when you sell to folks that know their plants.
Truth is, I don't blame them.

Annuals at the box store are one thing, what bugs me are the "trees" that are sold there.
Nothing but junk. >:(

SwampDonkey · March 24, 2007, 06:17:30 AM

The trees and shrubs I think get a lot of damage from shipping. I've not been around to see how they pack things in the trailer or panel truck, but riding over these rough spring roads I bet tosses everything about 3 feet in the air and they lie on the floor where they fall. Something else falls over on them and rubs and chafes as the truck motors along. The poor plants have a rough time of it before they get planted.

Furby · March 24, 2007, 10:08:07 PM

The stuff I'm talking about were CLEARLY poorly grown and are basicly being dumped on the consumers through the box stores.

SwampDonkey · March 25, 2007, 06:05:16 AM

We sometimes get a lot of corms, tubers and bulbs that are obviously dead and dried out and concealed in dried out peat moss. I usually see how firm the plant is and if it goes to nothing or mush it gets placed politely back onto the shelf. ;)

Dahlias and roses are about the only things I bother with. I keep them potted and bring them inside after the first hard frost in the fall. Sometimes they last into October if they have some late September flower buds.

Bibbyman · February 21, 2008, 07:57:39 AM

Last summer we got in a load of junk, junk, junky hickory logs. This winter we've been busting some of them up on the Blockbuster and burning them in the stove. What heat they make! It's like in the movie "Back to the Future 3" when the Doc would pitch in a fuel stick in the steam locomotive. I try to limit the amount in each firing to one or two sticks. There is a lot of BTU's in that hickory!

WH_Conley · February 21, 2008, 08:30:17 AM

I been cutting some hickory that has been down close to a year, didn't even bother to put it on the mill. Spend about as much sharpening saw chains as I do cutting. :(

SwampDonkey · February 21, 2008, 08:38:38 AM

Quote from: Bibbyman on February 21, 2008, 07:57:39 AM
What heat they make! It's like in the movie "Back to the Future 3" when the Doc would pitch in a fuel stick in the steam locomotive. I try to limit the amount in each firing to one or two sticks. There is a lot of BTU's in that hickory!

It's like any good firewood. if it's only 24 F outside and you stuff 3 slabs of rock maple in my furnace your going to melt down. :D

ohsoloco · February 21, 2008, 07:56:28 PM

One of the last times I brought wood inside for the stove I got into a nice bunch of hickory that was in the wood pile. Lucky for me it was when we were getting a cold snap. I set it aside so I could load the stove with it on those nights with forecasted lows in the single digits or lower

Some of that stuff is pretty hard to split with a maul or wedges (I don't have a woodsplitter) but I'll take all I can get ;)

Bibbyman · February 21, 2008, 08:24:08 PM

I've got quite a bit of hickory that is too big, crooked and ugly to send through the firewood processor. I'll have to break them down on the mill.

Son Gabe was busting up a box of wood yesterday afternoon when I put a hickory log on the deck that was under 12" dia. When he came to it, he had to stop and put on a sharp chain. The chain that was on it would cut dry oak ok but is sure was not going to cut that hickory!

hydro2 · February 21, 2008, 11:30:04 PM

Quote from: woody1 on February 10, 2007, 05:09:25 PM
I have a Hardy outside boiler.. takes a pickup load a week. I burn mostly oak and maple, but if it has bark on it..in it goes. I love ole smokey.

Thats about what I burn in my Hardy. I am heating two houses. If the weather is warmer (30 degrees plus) a pick-up load will last around a week and a half or more. Does anybody know now much wood fits in a pick-up load? I load the truck up and it is heaping.

ohsoloco · February 22, 2008, 05:18:32 AM

What size truck ??? My F-150 w/an 8ft. bed holds 1/2 cord.

SwampDonkey · February 22, 2008, 06:32:52 AM

In 30 degree weather, I only burn about 6 slabbed pieces a day from but cuts, cold weather (sub zero) and it would be 9 or 12. In cold months I burn a cord of wood per month, in fall and spring months 1/2- 3/4 cord. 20" wood on average.

Warbird · October 07, 2008, 11:26:27 PM

Welp, I hit a physical exhaustion wall a couple of weeks ago, what with my back and all. My pastor and a few other guys from church came over last weekend and helped me finish splitting and stacking. I'll post some pics soon.

Just did some measurements. We have ~1.25 cord on the front porch and conservatively, ~4.1 cord under the canopy. So I estimate we have between 5.3 and 5.5 cord of wood split and stacked. That should get us through this winter and at least 1/4 of next winter. We'll see, though... this is an early winter and it might be a cold one (though I am hoping we get tons and tons of snow, instead!).

I've got prolly another 3 to 4 cord of various logs laying around and another cord of split stuff in a pile. Looking good for next year!