Anybody sold Mushroom Logs?

[Nebraska]

I just imagined a picture of your mule pulling a little logging trailer with a padded grapple on a light knuckle boom, the  manual handling would wear on a fellow, but life wears on us too. Sounds like you might be able to make some beer and tool money at this. 

[Old Greenhorn]

I just imagined a picture of your mule pulling a little logging trailer with a padded grapple on a light knuckle boom, the  manual handling would wear on a fellow, but life wears on us too. Sounds like you might be able to make some beer and tool money at this.

Actually, that's not a bad idea. The forwarder trailer would cost a bunch, but if the money is there, it is something to shoot for. I would need a pretty good relationship with whoever's woodlot I was working on, but it could be done. Right now I am hoping to get a trailer close, then use the pickup to shuttle to the trailer. I gotta start somewhere and establish the market first before I look at buying any gear, and for a seasonal thing, one has to watch the costs pretty closely. I have made contact with some folks in the loop and gotten good references for connections. Tomorrow I make more calls.

[thecfarm]

I sold some logs for mushrooms. They wanted oak, but those are my money trees. Don't want to cut one down for $50. But I cut down a white maple for that.  ;) I only cut one tree. They came with a pick up, I had the tree down and they told me what they wanted.

[Old Greenhorn]

I just imagined a picture of your mule pulling a little logging trailer with a padded grapple on a light knuckle boom, the  manual handling would wear on a fellow, but life wears on us too. Sounds like you might be able to make some beer and tool money at this.

Yeah so after I posted my last reply to this I started thinking about exactly how I am going to get this stuff out of the woods. Regular logging sites around here can be in pretty rough country and getting a pickup in is a long shot. Heck some is a challenge for a skidder. SO I spent last evening looking at ATV forwarding trailers, but a decent one runs about 8 grand or more. I can find none that are used for sale. There is no way I would use the lighter duty ones. I watch the videos and hear the engine nearly hit stall speed when the operator opens an empty grapple. That ain't gonna fly.
 I just have to focus on the supply stream. I did get one response with good references and I have called or followed up on all of them, but being the holiday week, it seems nobody is doing much.
 I just got a call form another logger friend who will stop by in a few minutes and maybe drop me off some wood. I am going to hit him up about poaching off a few of his jobs.  ;D

[WDH]

I just cut down 24 white oak trees.  Did some google searches but could find no local demand for mushroom bolts.

[mike_belben]

You dont need a grapple for little bolts.  My lawnmower has pulled out plenty of them on a homemade baby bunk trailer i built for free. 

[Ed_K]

 Don't spend 8k on a grapple & trailer only to find out that in a yr the bolt buyers are are all loaded up and don't call anymore. BTDT.

[stavebuyer]

I used to log a lot of cedar. Cedar in KY often grew in pure stands or "thickets" as it reclaimed the old hill farms that were abandoned in the 30's and 40s. Our winters here often have rainy spells for a weeks at time where the temps hang around freezing but never freezes all that hard making it difficult to skid and almost impossible to haul logs. Rather than sit around the store and whine about how the weather wouldn't let me work I would grab a small saw and cut cedar fence posts (4"-5" diameter 7'long ) and stack them in piles where I could slip the forks of my tractor under the pile when the weather improved. The posts would bring $3-$4 each and I had no trouble putting a hundred or more a day in banded piles. 

It was a lot like work but I would venture after all the long term equipment costs were figured in I probably made more clear money on the days "it was too wet to work" than when I was running wide open. Seems like every time you had a string of $1000 days $5k in parts and week or more of downtime was always right around the corner.

What does any of this have to do with mushroom bolts? Forget buying equipment. Use your firewood saw and keep them small enough to handle by hand. I haven't sold any but I cut and plugged several for myself last spring. I have a 4wd tractor and winch but you could do 3 times as many by hand. I needed the exercise anyway ;}

[Old Greenhorn]

I think you are on the right track there @stavebuyer , It was the picture I had in my mind when I started looking into it. But if it takes off down the road (accidents happen), then maybe. My only issue is working on somebody else's cut to remove the slash could mean a very long and steep walk in...and out. I will have to figure that out site by site I guess.
 The little forwarder trailer appeals to me for other uses though. I have NOTHING to lift logs with now and I make my stacks by parbuckling each log up, which is laborious and time consuming. a small forwarder would allow me to make those stacks and grab logs and put them on the mill bed. Considering the added benefits I keep my eyes open in case a used one pops up somewhere that I can re-furb.
 I have always preferred to make the money first, the hard way, put it away, and when the work justifies the equipment, make the purchase 'with a brown bag of cash' as Barge like to say. Developing the product stream will be the challenge here and I am trying to take a good business approach to it, spending little money, just sweat until more is justified. the actual work is secondary. I have to create my own market.
 I am finding, just as WDH did, in his above post that there is not much information on either buyers or sellers for this material out there. But I changed my search pattern and looked for mycology clubs and growers and began to find some contacts. I also reached out the some folks I know in the local and regional forestry circles and one gal passed along a little treasure trove of contacts. She even gave me a link to a locater map of people who can supply these logs in our state. Turns out there are NO suppliers near me, the closest being 30 or more miles away.
 So you have to dig a bit and think around the box. I made another contact for sourcing last night and he even dropped me off some stuff in Maple I could process right now.
 I will have to wait until the holiday is over to really hit the phones and see what I can shake out of this. In the meantime, I will work something up for my webpage to test the waters.
 Thanks for all the thoughts and advice so far. I will keep y'all informed as things progress, or not.

[stavebuyer]

I also would forget wading through tops. You need to cut your bolts out of pre-merchantable stems ahead of a clear-cut or land clearing operation.

[brianJ]

I think it would be easy to oversupply the local market.   Then what does that do to your sale price and the impact on machinery investment?   

In my case I will take a tractor with a loader to clear up tops or blowdowns.   What makes a mushroom log I cut and throw in the bucket.   Depending on the situation I throw some firewood in as well and often still have a log or major limb to drag along on my out.  

Works well for me as I only cut for orders I have in hand and it pays better than firewood.      

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, that isn't too likely to be workable (taking the small trees ahead of the cutters). These logs are best when they have as much sapwood as possible. SO straight'ish stems are OK IF they are growing around edges where they grow fast in unencumbered. Small trees inside an active woodlot tend to grow slower. Also working ahead of the crew is problematic for me. Most of the work is TSI and foresters tend to leave straight healthy trees to grow and thin the sick, weak, and old. Certainly, if I wound up connected to a cut like that, it would be my preference, but it is not likely. My business is based largely on salvaging things that would go to waste otherwise. Trees that are cut for safety or health of a wood lot, or to save a structure or whatever. I have to be satisficed with what comes my way and make the best of that. For now anyway.

[doc henderson]

put it on your web page, and you may be shipping all over.  who knows.  
I also agree that you watch for deals on equipment that will augment your entire operation, not just the niche market.

[Old Greenhorn]

I think it would be easy to oversupply the local market.   Then what does that do to your sale price and the impact on machinery investment?  
  

Certainly this has yet to be learned. I am not sure the commercial growers around here use logs. Many have large indoor bed cultivation. Each will have to be explored separately. Likely they already have established good suppliers, but I won't know until I ask. Start slow and manageable and learn as I go, that's the plan.

[mike_belben]

I think younshould be connecting with forestors and land managers to do PCT/TSI work by the hour and from that paid labor, round up what you want for mushroom bolts.  In the 3rd world theyd do it on rickshaws, old motorcycles, mopeds etc.  Look up moped logging if you want to see what an asian skidder looks like.  LoL




I know one thing for sure..  Buying equipment before you got the customer is like jumping out a plane before you check your parachute. 

[mudfarmer]

For the far back and the steep, do you have a snowmobile? Can you find one cheap? We have pulled out more wood than we should have with a 78 arctic cat and a home made sled on XC ski runners. Perfect for bolt sized wood but that poor thing pulled 10-18" 8 and 10ft cherry logs down out of the ridges to salvage some blow down for a whole hard winter. It was not that easy and often completely unsafe. A modern sled would make it a walk in the park. Then you get to ride it for fun if you aren't too tired.

[Jdock]

I still have the remains of some mushroom logs I made close to 10 years ago. Still getting mushrooms twice a year, one flush in the spring and another in the fall. Used to get a steady trickle year round but the logs are mostly gone now. I used red oaks, maybe 10 6" trees made about 40 3' ish sticks. One or 2 good soakings after inoculation, set up in a shady, preferably damp area and ignore until mushrooms appear. After the first year they all flush at the same time, so you have to keep making more every year to have a rotation. Good eating and decent side money a couple times a year but a lot of work to make a business venture.

[Nebraska]

I wasn't thinking one of those 8000.00 fancy small tractor atv trailers, I envisioned you Belbening up a project with and old boom off of an engine hoist, hydraulic parts from an old log splitter, a small cut down running gear, more like an $800.00 project you could move a couple 16" saw logs at a time or a load of Mushroom bolts/firewood. Just what I saw in my head.

[mike_belben]

A junkyard spindle and hub torched off a big truck makes a fine 360 slew bearing if you are doing just a winch boom.  Bolt on a rim and weld the boom tabs to that.

[WDH]

Belbening :D :D. 

[mike_belben]

Im some circles that means to bash yourself in the face/head with a tire iron or jack handle but you guys dont know me that well. 

:D

[Rhodemont]

I use "Fungi Perfecti" from Oregon for information and supplies.  Each year I cut a couple real nice 6 inch x 4 foot oak logs in late winter, seal the ends with anchor seal and let them set. I purchase plug spawn to arrive early spring then drill and set the plugs.  Stack the plugged logs criss cross in a shaded damp area in the woods.  If it gets dry during the summer , like this past, I fill the bucket on the FEL with water and take it down to soak the logs over night to keep them from drying out.  When temps are around 50 deg in spring and fall I soak them and stand on end to produce.  

Last couple years I have also left a couple good size oak stumps that will stay shaded about belt high and plugged the cambium.  Never have to soak as they
continue to draw up moisture. Had first crop from those last year.

[Old Greenhorn]

I don't know which is worse (or better?), the propensity for the members here to help others spend their money, OR the propensity of members here to talk others into projects above their heads or beyond their design range? ;D :D :D  ;D ;D
 Although I have to admit doing a build myself is probably the best approach, I lack the junk pile I would need to pull resources from. I also need to get the lathe and Bridgeport up and operational again before I could even start. The first thing on my build list is a track section on my mill built just for edging, to hold the wood square. Building a proper trailer isn't a bad idea and I already have 4 brand new hub/earing sets that I could make a walking beam suspension out of, but that will have to sit on the longer term list.
 Thanks for all the concept ideas, now lets just see if I can 'shake the trees' and get some orders.
 @Rhodemont , nice 'shrooms! Any reason you only use your logs for one season? From what I read, you should get up to 3 years out of a log.

[WDH]

I might be better off just using some of my white oak logs to grow mushrooms on for family consumption and forget about make a killing selling bolts . 

[mike_belben]

Thats my thoughts on it.  Youll make more selling mushrooms than logs.