The Daily Firewood Picture Thread

[barbender]

We have two small herds in Minnesota as well. They are kept intentionally small through hunts, because they are in agricultural areas and elk are tough on crops. I sure wish we had more, one of the Ojibwe tribes has an elk reintroduction plan in place for east central MN, west of Duluth. I for one can't wait👍

[Magicman]

And Elk in Pennsylvania.  :P

[stavebuyer]

They restored them in Eastern KY and have been hunting for some time now.

[beenthere]

Our Wisconsin elk are all brought in from KY, 'cept for the newborns. Feeds the wolf packs. 
Hunting season is for a half dozen permits for citizens, and the tribes also get to shoot some. 

[Al_Smith]

It's most certainly not  like the mountains of firewood many have  but it's enough .It's all tarped down including good ole "Ollie " my Oliver dozer almost 70 years old and still kicking .I've got a few more years on me than Ollie and I'm still hitting on all cylinders .

  

[cutterboy]

Well, I did it again. :-[ Cutting firewood from a hickory tree top.


 
 

 
It's only stuck on the very tip but I could not wiggle it free. I had to use my other saw to cut it free.

[Corley5]

These came off a neighbor's property a few years ago.  I hauled them out with the Iron Mule I had at the time.  They are hard on agriculture.  I don't appreciate them at all.  I counted 14 bulls in my corn field once upon a time.  Haven't noticed evidence of them in the neighborhood in a while now.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Corley5]

About Elk in Michigan

[beenthere]

Nice volume of firewood there, but don't think you will get much more drying of the wood with the tarps down the sides that way. Needs air. just sayin...

Might cover the top but not the sides. 

[barbender]

Nice bulls, and the Iron Mule looks like a very handy rig for hunting camp😁

[jimbarry]

Sometimes you just gotta stop and admire the struggle it takes to make it.

[Wlmedley]

 

A fellow could get rich if he could sell much of this. 

[barbender]

I sell a pile of it, and rich I ain't. Although, retail price for bundles here is around $6.50 each. Lots of labor and handling in those little buggers!

[jb616]

@Corley5 I just spent the last weekend camping and a little bird hunting in your beautiful part of our state. I have been applying for over 15 years to get an elk permit and have not been successful yet.  My brother did get a bull permit a couple years ago and I was able to go with him to get a 5x5. What a fun time. 

[jimbarry]

A fellow could get rich if he could sell much of this.

Considering most retailers want half the SRP, $5 to produce one of those and ship it to the retailer, I just don't see it being worthwhile. 128 cu ft kiln dried might get you 100 - 110 bags. That's $500 to $550 a cord (more or less). When a loose cord of kiln dried can sell for $395, that leaves $100-$150 for bundling with a shrink wrap machine, piling them onto pallets, wrapping the pallets for transport, and then delivery. Lucky if the retailer will offload with forklift.
A while back we thought sawing 1x1 pine for kindling with a bandsaw mill and chop saw would be profitable and bagging into 1 cu ft netted sacks. It's not. It's definitely not. Depends on scale I guess. If you can set it up and do 1-2,000 bundles a month. Maybe. It's A LOT of physical work though.

[cutterboy]

Working on some hickory now.


 

 

[barbender]

My bundling set up is not the most efficient so labor is a killer. I also got used bundlers for a fraction of new. It's something where it's good to have the money coming in when there's a lull in other business, and a real nuisance when I have other more profitable things going on. I am going to try to make use of my slow time this winter (if I can stay out of a forwarder😁) by bundling myself instead of paying others to do it. I don't care to do more than 2 hours of it at a time, it is kind of mind numbing.

[SwampDonkey]

Well, I've hauled in 7 Tacoma truck loads recently. All split and ready to dry. 23 more to go. ;D Got rained out this afternoon, but hauled 3 loads anyway.

[Wlmedley]

Looks like the bundles are a loose,loose situation.Don't make much producing it and I know you wouldn't save money burning it.I guess the retail store would make pretty good money.

[beenthere]

Looks like the bundles are a loose,loose situation.

Is that loose, loose ?  Or is it lose, lose ?  There is a difference.  

[Wlmedley]

Tight bundles.Lose money burning them :laugh:

[jimbarry]

Looks like the bundles are a loose,loose situation.

Is that loose, loose ?  Or is it lose, lose ?  There is a difference.  

But they are related   Those loose with their time, lose most of the time.

[Corley5]

A couple weeks ago I picked up a bundle account after taking them a sample load of 150.  They're happy.  It's a campground 7 miles from the yard.  They go through about 300 bundles a month from May through September.  I wasn't looking to do more bundles.  They contacted me.  The fella who had always supplied them was a long-time firewood guy in the Petoskey Area.  He went from semi to fully retired at the end of the summer. There's $$$ in them for me but I really prefer dumping five face cord loads of loose green hardwood in client's yards  ;) ;D  

[bigblockyeti]

Looks like the bundles are a loose,loose situation.Don't make much producing it and I know you wouldn't save money burning it.I guess the retail store would make pretty good money.

I would think the best money would be selling them roadside (very close to where the wood is being processed) near a campground or two for 30-40% less than the campground charges.

[upnut]

The problem I ran into with roadside sales was theft. My wagon was cleaned off the 4'th of July weekend, only half was paid for. Too much labor in bundles and crates of kindling to just give it away. I only sell by the rack or half rack now, still pays for my fall bird hunting trips... 8)



 

Scott B.