Well, now I'm really all in on the firewood thing... lol

[woodrat]

Earlier this summer I bought a small 37 ton splitter and a 78 Chevy dump truck, with the idea that I would slowly get into selling a few cords of firewood as a side income.

I split up three cords to sell, three cords for myself and then got about a cord into next year's inventory, too. All out of alder and fir off my own land.

All three cords I had set aside to sell sold pretty much instantly as soon as I mentioned to a couple of friends that I had some. One texted me after I delivered her wood and said, oh, I guess I've never actually seen what a whole cord looked like... lol

The other person texted me after I delivered her wood, and said it was the cleanest and driest firewood she'd ever purchased.

So, that's nice feedback.

Then I was at a neighbor's place back in August to pick up a couple of big maple logs for the sawmill, and she mentioned that the local firewood guy is selling his business... hm... I should look into that.

Anyway, fast forward a couple of months of negotiation and research and details, and I dropped off the check to him today, and I'm now the owner of a ~300 cord/year business.

What I got:
-Eastonmade 22-28 with 24' conveyor. Splitter has less than 200 hours on it, conveyor way less than that. Six way and box wedges, and some spare parts.
-MF 253 tractor with loader
-1980 Ford F350 wood truck, 4x4, 390 4 speed, not a square inch of straight sheet metal anywhere on it...lol.. new-ish tires, runs like a top.
-Whole bunch of pallets and heavy duty truck tarps.
-Connection to a steady supply of clean, dry, debarked fir logs that are cutoff ends from a pole manufacturer, $55/ton plus delivery. Some of these logs are nice sawlogs, honestly.
-Customers all over the place, about a 40 mile radius or so, including two places that buy several cords of bundled wood every year, campground and local store.

Scrambling around this weekend to clear my sawlogs off the log landing here at home so I can get 180 yards of rock spread on Wednesday and then I'll be able to receive the log deliveries here at home. Meantime I bought the couple dozen cords worth of logs that are already on the ground at his place and will process them there and then deliver or haul it home to stack.

Even conservatively approaching the math, this should fill in the gaps between my other income streams and allow me to actually steadily pay the bills while working from home.

Wasn't expecting to get into the firewood deep end quite so quickly as this, but... if it brings in an income and I can work from home, I'm there... 

[barbender]

Oh my, you jumped right in! That's great you got everything you need, I hope the transition goes smoothly👍

I hauled my first firewood in a 390, 4 speed powered ol Ford an old boss had. The shocks were so shot I'd pull in the yard and I don't think the stupid thing quit bouncing until about 10 minutes after I got out of it😂

Best of luck to you, it sounds like a well established business!

[Spike60]

Wow, you're not kidding with "all in". Congrats, good luck, and keep us posted on how things progress.

[cutterboy]

Best of luck to you. No more free time.

[Gere Flewelling]

woodrat- Looks like you have most everything you need.  Only thing I can think of that will speed up your operation is a Super Split kinetic wood splitter.  Being a one man operation with the other support equipment you have, this unit will make splitting the smaller wood and even the bigger stuff that you can safely lift much more efficient and productive.  They are designed to be used by one person only as they are too fast to to have a second set of hands working around them.  When my son and I were running a firewood business, we wanted a big box type splitter with multi wedge system but just couldn't justify the $10,000 + expense.  Went with a Super Split SE at about half the cost.  Best investment we ever made for that business.  Splitter paid for itself the first year.  Set it up feeding a conveyor and you can easily do a cord an hour and use about a gallon of gas a day.  A little bit of a learning curve but once figured out, your production will go way up.  We have since dissolved the business, but I kept the splitter and sold off the hydraulic ones.  Works great for making campfire wood as well.  Also produces much less waste than a box type splitter as it only has a single wedge.  Good Luck with your new operation ! 

[BML1221]

You can't beat having the right tools for the job  ;D

[hedgerow]

Woodrat  It does sound like your all in. Hope the new business works the way you what it to. Take care, be safe and have a great fall season. 

[jimbarry]

Congrats.  I have the Eastonmade 12-22 and the box wedge produces too much trash, so it sits collecting rust. Would make a decent dock anchor I suppose.  300 cord is going to keep you steady working... when you're not working.  Make sure you track your expenses and labour to get your pricing right. 

All the best.

[Andries]

Sounds like a jump into the deep end of the pool - good for you and well done!
A next step a bit tricky: find a youngster or an oldster that you can trust to work with you. They get some cash, and you get to work on two income sources at the same time.

[woodrat]

Congrats.  I have the Eastonmade 12-22 and the box wedge produces too much trash, so it sits collecting rust. Would make a decent dock anchor I suppose.  

He bought the box wedge for making small pieces for the bundled campfire wood customers. Seems to work great for that. Yeah, lots of "kindling", too... lol 

[barbender]

I think once you start making bundles, you'll be thankful for the box wedge option.

[melezefarmer]

Congrats. Living the dream working from home doing what you enjoy doing.

cheers

[woodrat]

I think once you start making bundles, you'll be thankful for the box wedge option.

Yep. it's perfect for that. 

[B.C.C. Lapp]

What an opportunity. And you grabbed it man. That's awesome.  Good luck with it all Woodrat.  Keep us in the loop how it progresses.   I'm certainly interested.

[dad]

Congrats.  I have the Eastonmade 12-22 and the box wedge produces too much trash, so it sits collecting rust. Would make a decent dock anchor I suppose.  300 cord is going to keep you steady working... when you're not working.  Make sure you track your expenses and labour to get your pricing right.

All the best.

Maybe someone would buy the splitter off you? I know I would talk to you about it if I didn't live in the US and you in Nova Scotia. Maybe someone would want a box wedge for theirs and either trade you or buy it outright so you could order a 4 or 6 way wedge for yours? Anyway, sorry to hear your disappointment with it.
Best of luck to the original poster for finding another revenue stream. 300 cords..... ooooh baby! That is getting it done for sure. You don't scare easy do ya ;D. Zero to 100 ( so to speak ) in the blink of an eye. 

[woodrat]

You don't scare easy do ya ;D. 

lol ... Apparently not. 

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Well, you know what they say, "He who dares wins."

Of course he who dares often gets his butt handed to him as well. :D

But to my way of thinking, if the numbers seem to work, and you want to do it, then the investment risk is worth it.   Worst thing that can happen is you end up selling out and maybe lose a few bucks.   So you try something else and make it back.    But it certainly cant work if you never jump in and try.

[jimbarry]

Congrats.  I have the Eastonmade 12-22 and the box wedge produces too much trash, so it sits collecting rust. Would make a decent dock anchor I suppose.  300 cord is going to keep you steady working... when you're not working.  Make sure you track your expenses and labour to get your pricing right.

All the best.

Maybe someone would buy the splitter off you? I know I would talk to you about it if I didn't live in the US and you in Nova Scotia. Maybe someone would want a box wedge for theirs and either trade you or buy it outright so you could order a 4 or 6 way wedge for yours? Anyway, sorry to hear your disappointment with it....

I have the 6 way and the 4 way. The 6 way I have never used but once when we first got it. We only use the 4 way. We do a lot of resplitting to remove rot and punk. Actually thinking of selling it all and getting a vertical splitter.

[stavebuyer]

I found the multi-wedge was really helpful for outside boiler customers who wanted "chunks". Saved the big uglies for those customers and all was fine. 

Anything over 4-way produces too much trash and very inconsistent sizing.

I often ran my processor with just a single wedge and parked my Supersplit Kinetic between it and the elevator with a surge table in between for stove wood. I haven't used a Timber Devil type vertical but seems like one equipped with a log lift and elevator would check all the boxes. If I was starting over that is where I would roll the dice.

[SwampDonkey]

Depending on the local market of course, but some of us want bigger pieces than kitchen stove wood, but mixed in with smaller splits. I prefer half slabs from 8"-18" rounds. We call it furnace wood in these parts. Of course 20"+ stuff you gotta do whatever it takes to bust them efficiently. ;D

I burn mostly aspen and fir here, cutting trees  6-18", the odd 20" fir, just one split per round. The smaller wood is mostly the suppressed trees that aren't going to do anything from a release cut other than snap off in the wind. Or red maples that the moose scrape up.

[woodrat]

So, figured an update was due.

Been working on the pile of logs over at the place where I bought this stuff from, and then working also on getting my log landing cleaned up and rock put down.

I had to move a few thousand feet of sawlogs first, and the mill, and then clean up and scrape this thing to bare dirt, which took some doing with the Yanmar, but I got it done.



Then had ten loads of three inch minus rock hauled in and spread, and then rented a skid steer to smooth it out a bit. Ready to receive the next delivery there. A logging road passes through my property and this landing is connected to it. The timber company has agreed to a gate so I should have a pretty secure situation once that's in.



Doggo is a keen supervisor of work like this. lol



Meanwhile, I've been over at the guy's place bucking logs and splitting and delivering a little wood.





These are nice clean dry "summer" logs so I've been able to just run them off the conveyor right into the truck and outta here.



Have it all under tarps to keep it as dry as possible as I work to clear what's here so I can move everything home in a few weeks.

So far, so good.

[woodrat]

Had enough rock budget leftover that I was able to put some down next to the barn, so now I have more equipment parking and a mud free path to the new almost finished chicken coop, too. 

[Walnut Beast]

Looks great and great looking supervisor 👍

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Looking good woodrat.  Whats your delivery truck size?   Do you sell by the cord, face cord, truck load or what?

Modified to say never mind, I remembered you mentioned your F350 and went back to confirm.  

[woodrat]

Face cords aren't really a thing here. It's all by the cord, and I'm using a 78 Chevy C30 dump truck to deliver. The business also came with a 80 F350 pickup, too.

When I split directly into the dump truck I fill it to 180 cu ft plus a bit which makes a good cord. And is nicer for me than having to dump it at home and stack it and then reload it again when it sells... lol