The Daily Firewood Picture Thread

[goose63]

Should be enough for the winter




6 bundels of Oak slabs $ 25 a bundel need to get the buzzzzz saw going

[jimbarry]

Yesterday we processed and stacked. Today is a delivery day.



 

 

[B.C.C. Lapp]

I have plenty to keep me busy for a while.    A mornings splitting and stacking and some pole piles yet to get to. .

[cutterboy]

Nice looking stack of wood.

[B.C.C. Lapp]

It sells CutterB.     Nine deliveries out of ten I get the  "That's nice wood." comment from the customer.

But I tell you guys, having said that I still occasionally lose contact with a steady customer for a while and then all of a sudden they call again.   And it always turns out they bought from someone else for a while but came back to me.   I don't take it personal. Its just business and everybody wants a bargain.

Had a very good customer that ordered two cords last week.   She always gets her firewood way earlier than that. Usually in Aug.   Then she buys a third cord or a pickup load in Feb.    This year she didnt call till last week and when I delivered I saw she had some still very green and very thin, all bark, slab wood stacked up where we normally put her wood.   She knew I saw it an she was embarrassed.  She explained she thought she was getting a real deal and she didn't.  No hard feelings form me, she learned her lesson and called me.   Every bodies happy now.  Good "DRY" firewood sells itself to folks with enough experience burning to know value when they see it.

[jimbarry]

It sells CutterB.     Nine deliveries out of ten I get the  "That's nice wood." comment from the customer.

But I tell you guys, having said that I still occasionally lose contact with a steady customer for a while and then all of a sudden they call again.   And it always turns out they bought from someone else for a while but came back to me.   I don't take it personal. Its just business and everybody wants a bargain.

Had a very good customer that ordered two cords last week.   She always gets her firewood way earlier than that. Usually in Aug.   Then she buys a third cord or a pickup load in Feb.    This year she didnt call till last week and when I delivered I saw she had some still very green and very thin, all bark, slab wood stacked up where we normally put her wood.   She knew I saw it an she was embarrassed.  She explained she thought she was getting a real deal and she didn't.  No hard feelings form me, she learned her lesson and called me.   Every bodies happy now.  Good "DRY" firewood sells itself to folks with enough experience burning to know value when they see it.

All very true. Happens here too.

[jimbarry]

On the right, cut mid September 2022, moisture content (MC) 45-55%.
On the left, cut and split mid March 2022, MC average 45-50% and left to air dry all summer outdoors.
Its what they called "seasoned firewood" around here. The wood still has 25-35% MC.



 

We kiln dry the firewood to bring the MC to 20% or less.



 

Volume shrinkage after kiln drying.



 

[SwampDonkey]

Hi Jim, stacked under cover makes a world of difference. Here I get it down to 16 or 18% air dried before the cold, tested on side grain, not ends. Dries even more with heat and low humidity in the winter where it's stored. Big checks on the ends. But I understand the conveniences (or non) with moving firewood around. I get that kind of shrinkage easily. I can see it when piled up flush with duct work or a 2 x 4 brace and weeks latter several inches lower. ;)

No smoky smouldery fires here. ;)

[B.C.C. Lapp]

JimBarry I'm glad your not selling wood near me.   You'd be real hard to beat.
  
I'm lucky that there are only two serious firewood guys operating in my area and there is enough business for us all.   Most guys that try selling firewood dont last long and cant keep their customers so they arnt real competition.   Or at least not for long.

[jimbarry]

5 years ago others were $225 delivered. Now they are at $275. We've always been $20 or so more for seasoned wood, plus delivery. Pricing still isn't where it needs to be to show even a smidgeon of profit to build up in case of serious equipment failure.

[jimbarry]

20221017 Hot from the kiln, firewood at 19% MC - YouTube

[Corley5]

Some pics of loads coming in.  Been busy.  Still close to three hundred face cords on the list.  Wood is in short supply in N. Michigan.  I should be able to stay in reasonably seasoned wood for much of the winter.  There's a bunch of it on the job I'm running the forwarder.  It was cut and bunched in May and June and left until he got back to it in September.  It's dry enough that the bark is sloughing off much it but there's still some moisture in it.  When that's all that's available it's good enough  ;D



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[newoodguy78]

Corley you have an elk herd up in your neck of the woods or are you working on a game farm?

[cutterboy]

Man, that's a lot of wood Corley! Is it a mix of hardwoods? Hard to tell by the pictures.

[cutterboy]

Down in the woods yesterday to get some ash tops from a tree I logged a couple of weeks ago.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy cutting.....Cutter

[jimbarry]

 

 










 
Splitting away the punky stuff is part of our quality control. The home heating firewood we sell is the best parts of the tree. What you see on the ground is what was sorted from 1/2 a cord of firewood. The 32 cu ft crate (1/4 cord) beside the boss is more of that lower quality wood, we call it campfire grade (C-grade). When dry, it starts quick and throws a decent flame. Good for the workshop, campfire, or use it for starting your home fire. We currently sell them for $59 a crate.

[GRANITEstateMP]

Jim, do you do any soft wood cords, or do you produce enough c-grade wood through sorting to fulfill those types of orders?

[jimbarry]

Jim, do you do any soft wood cords, or do you produce enough c-grade wood through sorting to fulfill those types of orders?

I don't produce softwood on purpose. Sometimes there's a couple logs in a truck load, so they get split and stacked. I might of sold 1/2 cord all last year to a lady for her cottage. There is zero demand for it, although I do see other sellers moving the product. The C-grade hardwood, we generally end up burning it ourselves. Usually around 20 or so crates a year. Sometimes we can go a year and sell one or two, some year's none. This year I had 14 crates and figured it was our house supply for the winter. It's all been sold.

[Corley5]

The elk is a member of the MDNR's Pigeon River State Forest herd.  Unfortunately he's a victim of brain worm.  He's been hanging around the same spot since I've been working out there.  I've about hit him with my pickup and so has the guy I'm working with.  It needs to be put down.  I was going to call the DNR yesterday and didn't get to it and I didn't see it yesterday or today.  This pic was from Wednesday when it was raining and snowing.  The poor thing doesn't know it's miserable  :(

 

 

[Corley5]

That pile is all mixed hardwood.  It runs very heavy to sugar maple with bug killed ash, beech, ironwood and a bit of soft maple.  The door post gets in the way of this pic of the pile.  I've got it replenished.  He hauled quite a bit away the week I was processing firewood. 60 cords go to my yard  8) 8)

[barbender]

Do the elk get brain worm from proximity to whitetails, like moose do?

[Corley5]

Yup, but they're not as sensitive to it as moose.  That's why there's never been an attempt to reintroduce moose into the Northern Lower.   

[newoodguy78]

Interesting, never know what you're going to learn on here. I had no idea there were elk in Michigan. 

[barbender]

Corley is quite a big fan of the Muchigan elk, if I remember correctly😁

[beenthere]

Interesting, never know what you're going to learn on here. I had no idea there were elk in Michigan.

And also elk back in Wisconsin
Elk in Wisconsin | | Wisconsin DNR