The Daily Firewood Picture Thread

cutterboy · January 10, 2025, 08:43:06 PM

Finally I was able to cut in the woods! It has been so cold and so windy the last several days that I've stayed home. But today the wind died down and the temps rose to the low 30s. I went up to the woods this morning and cut down and chunked up a dead ash.

This afternoon I went back up and finished cutting up the ash and also cut down and cut up a smallish red oak that had lost it's top.

Then back in the barn with the wood.

They are predicting light snow for tomorrow morning so if I don't want to go up to the woods in the snow I can split and stack wood under cover in the barn.

Keep on cutting.....Cutter

barbender · January 10, 2025, 08:50:19 PM

I finished a mobile firewood processing job the other night. I kinda got stuck on it, I shut down for a few days because of frigid weather. 32 cords for a neighbor.

barbender · January 10, 2025, 09:00:29 PM

That's only part of it, there's about 18 cords i what's in the picture.

Honestly, I don't see how a person could make it mobile firewood processing. Not around here at least. I got my machine for "a song", but if I bought it factory new it would be around $55K. If I average a cord an hour with it, I'm doing pretty good. $50 a cord is the going rate around here. So $50 an hour, I can go do skid steer work for $100/hr with a machine that costs way less than that.

I still do a few jobs to keep some income when things are slow, a little diversity. But it's kind of telling that I don't advertise because I don't make enough money at it😬

I make more cut, split, and delivered. I'm going to have to look at how I price stuff, I should be getting $75/hr at a minimum. Probably $100/hr.

Wlmedley · January 10, 2025, 10:12:43 PM

That's a lot of wood. Should last him awhile.

SwampDonkey · January 11, 2025, 01:39:42 AM

He run'n a green house?

Big_eddy · January 11, 2025, 10:03:37 AM

Quote from: barbender on January 10, 2025, 09:00:29 PMThat's only part of it, there's about 18 cords i what's in the picture.

Honestly, I don't see how a person could make it mobile firewood processing. Not around here at least. I got my machine for "a song", but if I bought it factory new it would be around $55K. If I average a cord an hour with it, I'm doing pretty good. $50 a cord is the going rate around here. So $50 an hour, I can go do skid steer work for $100/hr with a machine that costs way less than that.

I still do a few jobs to keep some income when things are slow, a little diversity. But it's kind of telling that I don't advertise because I don't make enough money at it😬

I make more cut, split, and delivered. I'm going to have to look at how I price stuff, I should be getting $75/hr at a minimum. Probably $100/hr.

interesting discussion. A son of my friend bought a processor and he told me the opposite. He says he is much better off processing other peoples logs than buying, processing, loading and delivering. He splits the same amount per hour, but he has no money tied up in logs and inventory, and he makes more per hour for the processing time than he makes on the loading and delivering time.

He still does both, as he wants to keep his processor busy, but his profitability is higher for the mobile work. He used to be at $85 CDN for mobile work, but I think he's raised his rates since he traded in his original bar style processor for a circular one. With good wood and a competent operator keeping the deck loaded, he can now do ~3 cords an hour.

GRANITEstateMP · January 12, 2025, 12:21:35 PM

I had a customer call this week. He miss judged what he had for this winter and knows he will be dipping into next winters wood. He wants an additional 2 cord, we ran 1 out this am, I didn't even charge him extra for the white stuff on the wood!

SwampDonkey · January 12, 2025, 12:25:03 PM

You get a mild winter now and again and it throws some people off. I wonder sometimes how many years they've been burning wood in the north. But then same things happen to people who see a mild May, put out their tomatoes to have them burned by frost the first week of June.

thecfarm · January 12, 2025, 02:06:08 PM

Gotta watch the temps if you are early.

Andries · January 12, 2025, 02:28:27 PM

It's that time of the year where the days are getting longer but the temps are staying cold. I shovelled the walk and dusted a few inches of the car and truck. -30°C cause of a strong North wind.

Once we get some decent temps, this whack of Bur Oak will meet the sawmill. It's safe until March.

We have three rows like this, of split oak in IBC totes. Two summers of drying time for a good, non-creosote making load of wood. (It's a short summer up here remember)
Three totes equals one cord of firewood by our estimation.

g_man · January 12, 2025, 06:20:44 PM

^^^ That row of totes makes a pretty picture Andries !!

gg

GRANITEstateMP · January 12, 2025, 06:25:33 PM

Andries, winter wood...PREPARED through 2026-27!

Magicman · January 12, 2025, 07:05:15 PM

My 2026 firewood is bucked but still unsplit. Right now I am trying to clear out all of the old firewood so this will be on the bottom of the stack. I will be busy when I get a roundtoit.