Keeping the cash flowing

[Bruno of NH]

It's been a old time cold winter here. I haven't milled since the week before Christmas. I do have some small orders and folks looking for stuff which I'm out of. I find sawing when it's really cold just cost me money for things that break. I have gotten tree service firewood logs right along , they are mostly ash and some other stuff. I let them sit 2 years and have been doing firewood this winter. I only do small delivery's 1/3 , I get more money and have pick up as well. I'm going to build a nice road side stand 

[Magicman]

It's good to see you keeping on keeping on Jim.  I don't envy your cold but you will make up for it in July/August. 

[Bruno of NH]

I can't believe I'm saying this 
I have actually enjoyed doing the firewood in the cold this year. I must of hit my head while sleeping 
I have burned alot of wood my self already this winter.
As much as I did the whole winter the last 2 years.

[GRANITEstateMP]

If the cold keeps up, I plan on taking the pieces for my wifes shed to my buddys house and doing as much prep work and pre-assembly there, inside his building, as possible.  That's not a money maker, but a time saver when the weather breaks!  Well, it could be a money maker if I pre-cut, assembled, and then sold the shed...but its for my wife and I'm almost old enough to know better. Almost

[jpassardi]

I've been putting a good amount more wood through the boiler as well this year.

[Brad_bb]

I know one guy who makes slab tables or tops and finishes them very well.  I think more than half the time he already has a customer.

[Peter Drouin]

There are a lot of things one can do.

[longtime lurker]

Rain, heat, floods...anything up to a named cyclonic event.. we saw. Any lull I just cut stock and leave it air drying. I get a lot of production from my equipment for the simple reason I don't turn it off.

I just shouldn't have tempted fate so...

When I wrote that just a few short weeks back it was raining. Then it rained some more. Then it flooded and cut us off for a couple days. Highway opened up for 36 hours and then it rained some more.
Then it really rained... a tropical depression embedded in the monsoon trough stalled above us. Automatic weather station about 6 miles from where my logging plant is parked recorded over 7 feet of rain in the first 10 days of February. They're calling it a one in 2000 years rainfall event.

Im a bit north of there and we dodged the worst of it but bridges blown, roads cut everywhere, the entire top end of the state isolated. Everything comes by truck in this part of the world and somewhere in a couple of those trucks are my saws coming back from the sawdoctor. And beer.. ain't no food or beer been arriving either. It's grim.

They patched a bridge and opened the highway for 18 hours earlier this week, got about 300 trucks in under police escort and then the rain came back and cut the roads again. The sun came back yesterday, water is dropping away... tomorrow maybe some freight might start moving.

The forecast has it raining again by Sunday *eyeroll*
My sheds are the cleanest and most organised they've been in years.

So ummm yeah, I'll eat some humble pie... rain, heat, normal floods,  anything up to a named cyclonic event ...

[thecfarm]

7 feet in 10 days!!!!!!! 

[customsawyer]

You better get to growing some skin between your toes.

[Nebraska]

Yikes

[SawyerTed]

What kind of ark are you building?   Just 30 days left! 

[Stephen1]

We are up to 18 feet of snow this year and no melting. The logs are buried, so no running the sawmill, I have the kiln running. so that's good. I only have 2 more loads of customer paying wood to go in the kiln and then hopefully I have made it to portable sawing season. I have a few loads of my own wood to go in the kiln also so I should make it to April and then possible the kiln will have to be turned off. The 1st bunny day here yesterday in a few weeks and I had 3 customers come to buy wood, so that was a plus. I can go to Costa Rica with money in the bank! Which always makes me sleep better at night.

[barbender]

Dang Lurker, that rain is of Biblical proportions!

[Nebraska]

We could use some rain, except it would probably come as snow if you sent it here. 

[longtime lurker]

What kind of ark are you building?  Just 30 days left! 

Yanno funny thing is I originally bought a mill to saw myself out a big timber boat. Still haven't got there.

I think a lot of good will come of these floods. We're used to big rain... flooding is seasonally normal for us... no record flood heights have been set, although there's been a few 24 hr rainfall records toppled.  But it's been a long time since every highway in or out was closed for this long simultaneously and the population has grown much in that 30 or so years. More people = more food = more dependence on the freight network. There are a lot of bare stores right now and it's not really practical to supply a city as big as Cairns by air, much less all the little towns without big runways. And we've a federal election in a couple months so maybe we just might get some infrastructure money from it all.

The highway opened to heavy vehicles a couple hours ago so knock on wood we might get some resupply before the next lot of rain. I've already unloaded feedstock coming in, I've got a load of lumber going out early early tomorrow morning, I'm sure the saws I've been waiting on will get to Cairns today and come back down on a courier Monday, diesel will get here over the weekend, and off we go again.

Dunno about the logging plant though... its 80 mile south on top of the range at Paluma. They bore the brunt of it... the 7 foot in 10 days is more like 8 foot in a fortnight now and they recorded 28 inches in 24 hours which is ridiculous even for here. The bitumen range road is going to be impassable for months due to landslides and the network of local and forestry roads coming in from the back side with gravel surfaces and low causeways will be a total mess. It's highly unlikely I'm going to get a truck in there for months. Might have to walk the skidder and loader out and bring them home for a maintenance cycle... they won't be working for a long while.

Meh, we'll be up and sawing next week, I've got a couple months worth of logs in hand and plenty work ahead. This too shall pass.

[teakwood]

recorded 28 inches in 24 hours which is ridiculous even for here

Wow man, that's nuts. we had an all record November last year, 12" in 24hours one day, that was a lot of water, had a 1500m3 landslide in my quarry. 

[busenitzcww]

I have a bunch of logs that need milling but it's not happening until we get out of these single digits! I'm fortunate enough to have projects to keep me busy in the shop during the cold spells. Just finished a sliding barn door, 300' of rustic hickory shiplap and have two slab tables going at the moment. We also retail lumber/slabs but it's been a slow start to the year with this nasty weather. I think it's going to get hectic once things warm up a bit. 

[Brad_bb]

It's a good time for some early spring cleaning.  Look for stuff you can sell.  I just found someone to buy a timber cart I don't use.  I'm going to sell a set of brand new Bosch 17" ships auger bits, my chainsaw mill with 090 Stil head(need to dump the fuel and start it up and make sure all is good first), and I'm going to sell my 2 log arches that are like new but haven't used in 2 years.  I  found a few other things to sell too.  The real bonus is that you also get space freed up when you do this!   I'm also trying to organize and store stuff vertically.  Going to put up somemore pallet racking, and I just built some 18"x4' caster shelf carts.  What a differene it makes to get stuff off the floor and be organized!

[barbender]

Two words- Sugah mama😁 That's my cash flow safety net, anyways 😊

[KWood255]

What kind of ark are you building?  Just 30 days left! 

Yanno funny thing is I originally bought a mill to saw myself out a big timber boat. Still haven't got there.

I think a lot of good will come of these floods. We're used to big rain... flooding is seasonally normal for us... no record flood heights have been set, although there's been a few 24 hr rainfall records toppled.  But it's been a long time since every highway in or out was closed for this long simultaneously and the population has grown much in that 30 or so years. More people = more food = more dependence on the freight network. There are a lot of bare stores right now and it's not really practical to supply a city as big as Cairns by air, much less all the little towns without big runways. And we've a federal election in a couple months so maybe we just might get some infrastructure money from it all.

The highway opened to heavy vehicles a couple hours ago so knock on wood we might get some resupply before the next lot of rain. I've already unloaded feedstock coming in, I've got a load of lumber going out early early tomorrow morning, I'm sure the saws I've been waiting on will get to Cairns today and come back down on a courier Monday, diesel will get here over the weekend, and off we go again.

Dunno about the logging plant though... its 80 mile south on top of the range at Paluma. They bore the brunt of it... the 7 foot in 10 days is more like 8 foot in a fortnight now and they recorded 28 inches in 24 hours which is ridiculous even for here. The bitumen range road is going to be impassable for months due to landslides and the network of local and forestry roads coming in from the back side with gravel surfaces and low causeways will be a total mess. It's highly unlikely I'm going to get a truck in there for months. Might have to walk the skidder and loader out and bring them home for a maintenance cycle... they won't be working for a long while.

Meh, we'll be up and sawing next week, I've got a couple months worth of logs in hand and plenty work ahead. This too shall pass.

What about the beer? Mercy sakes alive I hope you ain't thirsty still.