Firewood.

[Ed_K]

Around here they start $180-$200 a cord in oct and raise the price $5.00 every 2 weeks till the supply is gone.State say it much be sold by cubic ft (128).
I gave up selling to the public 4yrs ago,seems the public prides themselves in shorting you on pay.

[GDinMaine]

 I believe around here firewood goes for between $180-200/cord (4x4x8) mixed hardwood.  I don't really know as for many years now, I have cut and split my own and sometime my neighbors'.  I need about 5 cords a year and I'm proud that for the very first time I have two years supply all done.  As a general rule I don't work on firewood between April and September.  Way too hot and the bugs eat me up in the Spring.

[redprospector]

Around here they start $180-$200 a cord in oct and raise the price $5.00 every 2 weeks till the supply is gone.State say it much be sold by cubic ft (128).
I gave up selling to the public 4yrs ago,seems the public prides themselves in shorting you on pay.

It's been several years ago, but I delivered a cord one time and the guy told me that it wasn't a cord. It was still on the truck and I started to just take it home, but I decided to make him a bet. I told him that I would bet him double or nothing that it would stack out to be a full cord. If it did he owed me double my regular price for wood, delivery, and stacking. If not he owed me nothing.
After we had stacked a full cord, and there was still 15 or 20 pieces left in the truck he said; "You don't really expect me to pay you double, do you?" I said yes, you would have made me drive off with nothing.
That was the best $180 I ever got for delivering & stacking a cord of wood.

Andy

[Phorester]

Andy, you made me think of these firewood tales:
Interesting how people view a cord of wood. Most people, including some firewood sellers around here,  think a pickup load is a cord. For starters, how could you physically fit a 4x4x8 foot stack of wood in a pickup bed?  Next, a 4x4x8 ft. cord of green hardwood weighs a little over 4,000 pounds. Dry is still about 2,000 or more.  I really doubt that a 1/2 or 3/4 ton pickup would carry that much weight.

Years ago a friend of mine told the story of how he had cut a pickup load of firewood on the National Forest, then stopped off at a local beer joint for lunch.  A drunk customer came up and said "I'LL BET YOU THINK THAT'S A FULL CORD OF WOOD ON YOUR TRUCK DON'T 'CHA?" My friend said, "all I know is that the USFS says a full cord measures  4x4x8 foot, and that's good enough for me".  The drunk got that hit-in-the-face-with-a-wet-dishrag-look, then staggered back to his table with the rest of his drunk buddies, who were laughing at him.

Once had a local logger tell me he had left 3 16 ft. red oak logs laying on his deck one Friday afternoon.  Came back Monday morning and all that was there were little piles of sawdust spaced about 18 inches apart. Hmmmmmm........

I think I've told this one before, but one night a few years ago a lady heard a commotion in her driveway.  Called 911. A sherriff's  deputy came out and arrested 3 drunks who were trying to steal a load of firewood her neighbor had dumped at the end of her driveway for her.  The commotion came from the fact that one of the firewood thiefs just had the tip of his thumb cut off when one of his buddies slammed the tailgate on his thumb.  All 3 were fighting each other, blood flying. The deputy called the rescue squad to cart off the wounded thief, then made the other two carry and stack the wood on the ladies carport for her.  Then confiscated the pickup.

[Ken]

Although I've had mine cut and split since early spring it was just delivered to the basement on Sunday.  Had a couple of students help me put in 6 cord.  Nice feeling to have it done.  Had the forced air furnace going since.  Love the heat, hate the effort required.

Cheers
Ken

[gunman63]

Me thinky your weights are a off a tad  there Phorester. I really dont think u could dry it down to a ton for a cord of wood, but thats  just me

[WH_Conley]

I think Oak, the standard around here is a little over 6000 lbs green. I don't know what that would be dry, guessing around 4000 lbs, maybe a little more.

I was at a "training" session a few years ago about selling firewood through the local government sponsored voucher program. One guy was bragging he could haul a cord and a half of oak on his F150, the lady doing the training was confused and trying to explain that she didn't think so, didn't know why, just didn't think so. They got to arguing about how much it took to make a cord of 24" vs 16" wood. An older lady that was a manager came in and shook her head. I left.

[SwampDonkey]

Red oak, rock maple and beech would all be around 4300 lbs @ 25%, assuming 100 ft3 of solid wood out of 128 ft3 of space. Oak is the heavier of the average until you get down to 12% or so. The oak is way heavier when green though, a half ton heavier than beech.

But as Gerald said, I've never seen a cord on a pickup yet even if stacked careful. You'll need some stakes and side boards. Mine comes delivered (cut to length and split) on a 1 ton truck  with dump and it can only hold 1.5 cords. A cord is a lot of wood.

Some people grew up on a face cord standard. When trying to explain a cord it can often be as tough as pounding rocks.

Now we always assumed 100 ft3 solid wood (cunit) per cord. Some go with as low as 85, I don't happen to agree. ;D But kitchen cooking stove wood is split a lot finer than furnace wood, so.... ;D

[WH_Conley]

That is what I haul on my one ton. My pickup will not do it. 1/2 cord is slightly rounded above the bed. That other half a cord takes up a lot of room.

[SwampDonkey]

I'm like Ken, been burning wood pretty steady since a day or two. A little warm right now though. Calls for an open window. :D

[Draco]

I put air shocks on my last 3/4 ton to haul full loads of whatever I get.  I cut when I can get a load and I'd rather spread the work out through the season.  There are too many raining, high wind, bitter cold days when I can't get a load.  I got an OWB to keep me in shape and not spend the money on a gym that I won't go to.  I built rails for my newer 3/4 ton and have to get air shocks, or haul smaller loads with some cured.  Green wood puts it on the springs at about a full truck, without the rails on.

[Woodhauler]

Mine is done! 6-7 cords in the cellar!  Bring on the cold and deer season!!!

[clww]

I sell full, measured cords and haul it to the customer in my Dodge. $200 all seasoned oak delivered free within 25 miles of the house in VB.

[Phorester]

So......, you boys think you can stack a bunch of firewood, eh?   ;D

http://gowood.blogspot.com/2012/12/real-firewood-stacking.html

[lumberjack48]

I like that, if i was on my feet i would be making something out of a wood pile for everybody to look at.

I hauled a cord on my 1 ton F350 pickup once in a while just to prove at point, that i could haul a full cord on it. It would be easy, if i put it on in 8' length. When its cut 16"s long, you have to have a good rack on the pickup.
This F350 had heavy leaf springs, and a set of over loads twice as heavy.           

[NWP]

Pretty cool. They obviously have nothing better to do with their time though.

[g_man]

Pretty cool. They obviously have nothing better to do with their time though.

That's for sure. I never knew Stacking wood could be an art form. Most people I know use the "Get-Er-Done" method.

[Krieger91]

I tell ya, I love that the farmer I work for has a hydraulic splitter. Makes life alot easier for firewood. We've got probably 30 chord stacked up that we have to move to make room so we can get another 30-40 chord in the barn from clearing a hedgerow. It's crazy.

Just be careful if your's is a pull start. The farmer I work for: his is an older one formerly owned by U-Haul, and it's maybe 12HP. I went to start it this last Saturday and dislocated my right SI joint (one of 2 joints where the spine meets the pelvis) O.O That really hurts for anyone who was wondering.

[Rick Alger]

Way back in the day when I was working on a decent hardwood lot, I used to sell half-cord loads of ends and pieces from my pickup on the way home at night. Most of my customers were either young families at the trailer park or older widows hanging on to the old homestead.  If they didn't buy from me, they were buying diesel,  five gallons at a time to keep the furnace going for another couple days.
Looking back I thank God nobody I sold to had a chimney fire and burned out. The wood was totally green. It makes me realize that even pedaling firewood involves a moral responsibility.

[lumberjack48]

I burned firewood 30 yrs, from the stump to the stove. I never had a creosote problem, or ever cleaned the chimney. A friend of mine had to clean his every two weeks. He told me that mine had to be full of creosote, he had to come over and check it out himself. I had a Ashly in the living room with a 12" stainless steel pipe, basically the same as his. He came over, climbed on the roof, pulled the stack cover off and shined a light down it. The pipe was perfectly clean, he couldn't understand why. So i told him, Denny we burn all our paper in the stove. Then he says, no, no you can't do that, it says in the instructions that its not a trash burner. I had to laugh, of course its not a trash burner, but you can burn all the paper you want to. I had this Ashly in my new home i'd build 6 yrs prier, it had oil backup.

My father burned wood up to about 15 yrs ago, hes 86. From my childhood up we never had a chimney fire, or do i remember him ever cleaning it. Dad was a full time logger, we never put wood up. He'd take us kids out on the weekends and haul 2, 3 pickup loads, other wise he brought it home every night. I know this was a bad habit, but it was the way we did it. Up though high school we had the Ole barrel stove.

[Phorester]

Me thinky your weights are a off a tad  there Phorester. I really dont think u could dry it down to a ton for a cord of wood, but thats  just me

You are most correct.  Don't know where I came up with the 4,000lb figure.  I'm thinking I was remembering the local conversion for a cord of pine pulpwood, which in this area is estimated by the pulp mill as 4000lb/standard cord.  For hardwood pulp, they use 5,200lb / cord.  And air drying would not cut it in half.

[Corley5]

A cord of fresh cut Northern Lower Michigan sugar maple weighs in at 5,700lbs.  That's from a guy that hauls across the Mighty Mac both ways on a regular basis 

[SwampDonkey]

We are in between here because they averaged in the lighter birch for the average and only kept aspen separate at 5000 lbs. Yet, at the mill the birch had to be separated. I suppose it worked out in the end because we have a lot birch in our hardwood. I've also seen a lot of scale bills from various mills working at a marketing board. But these were averages we worked out for our area as the marketing boards here have a little clout in the best interest of the producer. ;) New owners of the mill take a whole mix, no more separation except aspen vs hardwoods.

[Ken]

I was always told to pile my wood with the bark side up whenever possible.  Supposed to help the water run off I guess.  My grandfathers wood pile could easily be neatly covered with wallpaper.  Very few people put the effort into a wood pile like he does.

[Ed_K]

 Bark side up yes  ;) bark side down will hold the water just like a bowl.