November cordwood prices Green $275.00 Dry $ 375.00..... Delivered in town only
( We are going with the locally grown firewood movement) !!!
Thanks to The Asian Longhorned a new marketing campaign begins...
Gee's we have Naked, Organically grown, Kiln dried, Locally grown, beetle free, whats next.......
Washed & ploished
Can't believe people are still calling for their winter wood supply... 2 cords of dry out this morning last of the octobers order @ $ 350.00
Will start with November orders tommorrow, Need 3 cord as of this afternoon..
With a bbl/oil half what it was in July, hard to imagine those prices lasting for long. I'm at 200.00 for a full cord of hardwood, picked up here. Delivery 20.00 and up depending where. Thats wood that was split, stacked & covered all summer.
Mike, seasoned/dry wood supply in this area is about out.
I will be cleaning up deadwood this week to come up with about 5 cord for mid winter sales.
I have cleaned up every old hardwood log in my mill yard and am down to about 5 cord of hardwood slab for bagged firewood sales.... won't sell anymore if price falls under $350.00 it will be money in the bank or my own firewood supply for next season......
I sell very little green wood, 1 cord so far this year and don't care too,seasoned is a great savings account and earns better interest !!!
I haven't sold a cord for under $200.00 in a few years.... I have also had many of the same customers for as many as 20 years !!
Firewood is a ton of work plus the equipment investment. So if people won't pay the price for my efforts they can pay the oil man. My mechanics shop rate is $77.00 an hour why shouldn't we get the same or more & we don't have a heated shop to work in.......Cheyenne
on a locol bulletin board someone advertised that they had some tree tops 2 years old that they were willing to give away free for firewood if you would stack and burn the brush. some people can dream.
Later today, a guy that is a fuel oil distributor is coming to get a trailer load of my $300 per cord, but very high quality red oak firewood. What does that tell you? 8)
?...that maybe you are not charging enough.. 8) 8)
;D ;D ;D
I saw an ad for a cord for $125. or 2 for $200. in our local paper . They must be hungry .
Firewood sales going strong still in N.H. Sold all my seasoned firewood so I am building a kiln to dry my wood. Using my outdoor boiler to heat the the kiln. Firewood at $350 a cord make it worth while!!!! 8) :o
highwayherbie
Would you share some pics of the process? Sounds interesting.
Any ideas how long it might take to get below 30% moisture content with your dryer?
As a firewood consumer and not a seller, all of these points remind me of why I do all of the firewood work myself. I get access to enough deadfall at my place or neighbor's places to keep me stocked - and I actually enjoy doing the work (up to a point). I'm sure if I were trying to make money at it that I would feel like the others here about the prices - and would probably enjoy the actual work a lot less.
Besides, I am picky about the dimensions of my firewood sticks. The only way I can get them like I want is to do it myself.
Lurker, finally someone to justify my customer policy !!!
The customer is always wrong, if they were right they would be doing it themselves and having as much fun as I am !!!! 8)
I encourage all of my customers to buy their wood in the spring and summer and finish the seasoning process themselves. Trying to get perfectly seasoned firewood at this time of the year is all but impossible. Buyers then blame the dealers for a sutuation that should have been avoided. The wood I'm selling right at this monent is less than perfectly seasoned and I tell my customers that up front before I even take them any wood. Most are just happy to get wood that isn't green. What I'm selling was cut last winter into ten foot lengths and we are processing it into cord wood as requests come in.
The mill/processor I bought from was *very* happy I purchased in late May, early June. I told him I wanted to stack it and get it 5 - 6 months of seasoning. He actually said, "I wish all my customers were like you." :)
He is still delivering winter firewood even now but he told me that most of his firewood is green and hasn't been down very long. Those folks won't be very happy. :-\
I stay at least one season ahead with my firewood. I'm still burning some white oak from 3 years ago, northern red oak from 2 years ago, and yellow poplar from 2 years and 1 year ago.
Unseasoned firewood is very annoying.
I also have some scarlet oak from last year that is still in rounds. I will probably start busting it up in a few weeks so that it will be good and ready next year.
And a couple of dozen nice 12"-16" hickory rounds were dropped off by a friend the other day.
I am also blessed with enough Georgia fatwood to last me 15 years (given how stingy and efficient I am with it).
I like to have my wood for the furnace seasoned at least a year before it goes into the house . I am working on next winters wood now . I dont pile it outside , I have a fairly large barn here that I can stack the wood in and have lots of air flow around it .
I don't sell much firewood, most of what I get ends up in my woodstove. Had 4-1/2 cords set aside to sell this year, and only sold 1-1/2....two were repeat customers that get 1/2 cord every year. Put out several ads for $175/cord, and haven't had a single call. I'll keep it and burn it myself before I sell it cheaper. At this point I'm probably splitting wood for the 2010-2011 heating season 8)
Most people never plan ahead, I was never able to get customers to store wood for 1/2 the price green. I gave up.
What I have learned is this. I can actually sell green pine, cut and split (advertised as such) in Oct/Nov for $60 a cord then sell green oak in April for the same price to be seasoned by the customer.
So, for one customer that had a few pine trees to take down, we keep cutting them down in the fall so we can easily give away or sell the pine. It has worked very well :D
Though I do have one very good customer, a school teacher with common sense. I was able to stock her wood shed and fence line with about ten cords of wood, Pine, oak, and cedar and it has seasoned for a good year now.
I was able to get a guy I cut a huge 4 foot DBH oak up (he paid me to cut it) to do two very full dump trucks of wood (about 216+ CF each load packed tight with a Bobcat and Mexicans) at her house for me to split for $60 to cover gas ... for next year. I cut the rounds down to fit her electric log splitter I encouraged her to buy and she does most of the small work herself. So, for about $60 for delivery and about $100 additional for my labor to split the big rounds smaller, she got at least 400+ CF of wood for $150 before splitting.
It pays to be the grasshopper ;)
Interesting note, she took my advice and let me build her wood racks out of pallets in her metal roof wood shed (she paid me $15 an hour for that) so it could dry faster being off the ground. Wood under metal roofs dry quick in GA ;)
So, when I got some free blue tarps from a customer that moved, I gave them to her free for her uncovered fence line pile. I like when things work out 8)
I wanna see that dump truck full of bobcats and mexicans
Beenthere
I am building one out of a insulated truck box. I hope to get the temperature as high as possible. The water temp in the boiler is 185F. If I can get to 150 I will be happy. It may take a week and half to dry down to 25%. I read a study that said if you got to 180F the wood will dry to 25% in 5 days. It has been raining a lot the last few days but tomorrow will be a nice day so I will take some photos and try to post.Just have to hook water lines up tomorrow and I can fire it up. I plumbed a 100,000 btu hydronic modine heater inside for the heat. This is a big science project for me. You can buy a kiln made out of insulated shipping container for $50,000 :o :o so far I have about $3,000 invested ;D Hopefully it works like planned.
rebocardo, I run into the same thing. Someone from work had asked me about wood, and in the spring I offered her a great price if I could split it, load it up, and deliver it so it would be out of my hair. She didn't want to store it all summer (outside) ::) and by the time fall rolled around, she must not have liked my seasoned price, b/c she didn't answer my email ::)
Lately I've been seeing advertisements for pole length firewood for $100 a cord. DanG-ed it I'd pay that much for wood I still had to cut and split. I'd buy a $10 fuelwood permit from the state before I'd pay that much for pole length ;)
what is a fuelwood permit and how do you get one just asking??
Thanks Alot Mr Mom
Quote from: ohsoloco on November 10, 2008, 11:23:03 AM
Lately I've been seeing advertisements for pole length firewood for $100 a cord. DanG-ed it I'd pay that much for wood I still had to cut and split. I'd buy a $10 fuelwood permit from the state before I'd pay that much for pole length ;)
Around me, log length firewood logs have usually run about half the price of split delivered [dry] wood. With 200/cord about the average here now, 100/logs is ballpark. In Ct., getting your own from the state runs 20.00/cord now, I heard next year it's going to 30.00
One of the hardware store chains is selling half cords of hardwood firewood, dried and shrink wrapped on pallets for $189. If they deliver it, tack on $40, then taxes of course. $518 a cord. :o
I've wondered if people actually buy that shrunk-wrapped firewood from stores. Do they? I figure maybe campers would buy small amounts but I just can't see someone heating a home with it...
I sure don't, that would buy 2.5 cord of my wood. I think maybe in suburbs and not knowing the market, a few would buy. It's hard to imagine though in NB, most folks own or have family with access to firewood. Those that get taken in might be European immigrants who are used to low supply and high prices.
> I've wondered if people actually buy that shrunk-wrapped firewood from stores.
Yep, they do. The worse though is when it is not kiln dried. I can see getting kiln dried for that price, but, air dried, no. I would think most people that do the shrink wrapped pallets are kiln dried, otherwise it would be a bug festival inside.
I have seen people buy those little plastic wrapped carry bags from corner stores, open it up, it was a green and not burnable.
> for pole length firewood for $100 a cord.
Wow, that is a lot of $ for green poles, that might make it worthwhile to actually ship poles somewhere. I guess cut and split seasoned must be $250+ a cord where you live to justify that price.
Tree length hardwood green firewood is at least $100 a cord. It has to be, or might as well collect it at the pulp mill. The buyer seasons it himself.
Actually, there is a valid market for 5 sticks of firewood. People in Cities, most in apartments, will buy a free standing fireplace to have a fire that will last for only a few hours to add atmosphere to an "occassion" that they are celebrating. It might be Thanksgiving dinner, it might be just having the family over for supper, it might be to entertain their immediate family and let the kids see what warm living room really looks like, or it might be that they have a "hot" date. The plastic wrapped sticks of firewood are easily handled, available at the grocery store or on the street corner, clean and fill the bill when there is no storage space but for a fire or two. They gladly pay the money for the convenience. :)
warbird
Many people just burn wood in their fireplaces, for effect, but not heat. They are non-rural people, most likely.
They may buy a pallet and set it in their garage, for use on winter nights...3-4 times a week.
I expect they like it on a pallet, where it comes quick and easy, without much regard for the cost. Probably they don't look at the cost per cord as the rest of us seem to. :)
People with day jobs that leave from home at 5 am and return at 6 pm, but want a relaxing fire to sit by in the evening, don't have the spare time to collect firewood, process it, store it, dry it, and mess with it.
Now some of us, don't have that job to get in our way... :) :) so we get to enjoy the whole tamale...from beginning to end. ;D ;D
And Tom said it so well.. but I'll post this anyway... :)
Good point, guys. What it amounts to is that I'm surprised folks pay so much for packaging. With a little bit of research, they'd get better product and better prices... simply for cutting out the middle man and by taking 30 minutes to stack it on a pallet themselves. Don't mean to sound judgmental of these folks. It simply boggles my mind.
The price of a box of breakfast cereal boggles my mind too, but I will pay it...... sometimes. ??? :-\
Almost wish you could digest sawdust eh? Although, some of that cereal is about as tasteless as sawdust without some cranberries and honey smothered over it. ;D :D :D
SD - I had some of that this morning - :D A little sugar didn't help, a little maple syrup made it swallow-able - Left me wishing I'd jsut had a piece of toast :D
There are a great many people that just pick up those small bundles of firewood for $4-5 just for the ambiance. It strikes me funny sometimes seeing it being. In this area there are a lot of people selling wood and free wood almost everywhere you go. Still at the local grocery store the other day I saw a guy with two boxes of Montana firewood and a gallon of drinking water in his cart. My neighbor orders a box of "fat" wood from LL Bean to start her fires. I could split enough pitch from one old stump to make more than a few of those boxes. To each their own I guess.
I am afraid to mention my firewood prices. I can't keep up with orders as it is. My overhead is low so I can keep prices down. Only three employees...Me, Myself and I.
We sell 5 or more cords a year of packaged fire wood, retailed @ $6.50 for a 1 cu/ft bag, we went to onion bags to avoid "MOLD" which has become a big issue with the stretch wrap packaging of wood!! even if wood is seasoned it still will pick up moisture from the air and grow mold....
We have alot of condo dwellers who are not allowed to store firewood in their units, even though every unit was built with a hearth and flue for a wood stove.
great way to make some winter money, On cold wet days we move a bin of wood into the nice warm wood heated shop and bag away....
Quote from: Mr Mom on November 10, 2008, 03:09:55 PM
what is a fuelwood permit and how do you get one just asking??
You can purchase fuelwood permits from the forestry office for various state forests in PA. It costs $10 per cord, and it allows you to cut dead trees for firewood for home use (you can't sell it).
Quote from: ohsoloco on November 11, 2008, 07:41:25 PM
You can purchase fuelwood permits from the forestry office for various state forests in PA. It costs $10 per cord, and it allows you to cut dead trees for firewood for home use (you can't sell it).
Huh?
How does that work?
Dead trees where?
Who measures the amount(s) you cut? Or is it estimated somehow before cutting it?
Here in Ct., a state forester marks trees, & estimates the total cord count.
Lanier-lurker, I've never actually purchased one myself, but know several friends that have. You contact the forestry office for the state forest (Rothrock, Moshannon, or Sproul for a few examples in PA) you want to cut in, pay the fee ($10 per cord), get your permit, and cut dead trees in that state forest. If there happens to be logging going on in a certain area of the forest, the state will put up signs that says "no fuelwood cutting"
It's not a very enforced system (as far as quantity anyway). Unless you were seen taking a bunch of truckloads out of the forest on a 1 cord permit, there's not much of a problem with actually measuring how much you cut.
Interesting....
I wonder if we have such a thing down here in Georgia. There are many thousands of acres of National Forests here, no doubt with plenty of deadfall.
Perhaps someone else in the Georgia contingent can tell us.
Incidentally, my homestead property backs right up to to Federally owned (Corps of Engineers) land that surrounds Lake Lanier in Georgia. When we get deadfall on the Corps property, they generally direct us to "cut and scatter" the wood. I scatter the limbs and tops, but not the majority of the main trunk if it is a good fuelwood species. I refuse to watch a 30 inch diameter white or red oak sit there and rot while sitting 60 or 70 yards from my woodpile.
But, for $10 a cord to be legit, I would gladly pay it.
You allready have paid for it with your tax dollors. Next thing is they will want a certificate of insurance. Where does it all end ??????....Cheyenne
Just a quick google search came up with this
http://www.fs.fed.us/conf/seasonal/winter/fuelwood.htm