The Daily Firewood Picture Thread

[barbender]

People complain about the cost of bundles. People that cut their own wood can't see paying that much for a little bundle of wood. Has it occurred to you that you may not be the intended market?
 
 Most people that come up camping don't even own a chainsaw, and want the convenience of grabbing a bundle or two to have a campfire and roasting some marshmallows. 

 I know people make comments to me about how ridiculous the price of the bundles are. I welcome them to show me how to do it for less. For my time, I make better money with regular firewood and my sawmill. The retailers aren't getting rich off it either, by the time you figure in a few stolen or broken bundles they are just making regular retail mark up on it. 

 If you can go cut your own wood for "nuthin' ", then by all means do so. I would too. But don't forget the cost of your $20,000 pickup and $900 chainsaw, and whatever other tools you're using to do it. If you want to make money with a business, you can't just throw those things in for "nuthin' ". 

[bigblockyeti]

I could see theft being an issue around the right crowd if it weren't closely watched.  Maybe a firewood vending machine would be the solution $0.50/lb or $1.50 per stick.

[PoginyHill]

Most people not in business for themselves think that those who are sit on an easy, comfortable goldmine.

[beenthere]

I could see theft being an issue around the right crowd if it weren't closely watched.  Maybe a firewood vending machine would be the solution $0.50/lb or $1.50 per stick.

Couple years back, we had a member that had a vending machine for firewood. Offhand, don't recall the member name. Think he may have been peddling his machine. 

[barbender]

The stores that track their inventory closely tell me theft actually isn't too much of an issue for them. I suppose with cameras and bundles being bulky it deters most. Depends on the situation I'm sure.

[barbender]

Woodshax I think is his name, BT. They would be a great solution for some situations.

[jimbarry]

...I know people make comments to me about how ridiculous the price of the bundles are. I welcome them to show me how to do it for less. ...

Same here, only its kiln dried firewood instead of bundles. Especially since we have to purchase our logs and have them delivered here to our wood lot. 

[barbender]

Yes, even though I don't do kiln dried my prices are way higher than a lot of what you see advertised. I can't compete, nor do I care to try, with a couple of kids with an 266 Husky and a pickup making spending money. Nor do I begrudge them! They might do 4 pickup loads in a fall, but my customers need me to be able to deliver a load of cut and split year round, within a reasonable time frame. So I need all of the equipment in place, and logs bought, to be able to supply that. I can't do it with the 266 and 78 Ford F150😊 I'm not bothered if a customer scores a cheap load, either. Who are they going to call in January when the snow is 3' deep and the boys can't get out into the woods?

 Honestly, the people that buy wood from me never complain about the price. They want to know when they call me, they can get a load of wood with a minimum of fuss. As it has been said, the wood is a bit of a byproduct, what you are really selling is a service.

[twar]

...a couple of kids with an 266 Husky and a pickup making spending money.

Those were the days...no school due to an ice storm, out in the neighborhood with Dad's '67 Ford shortbed and a monster of a Mcculloch making BIG money (for a 17-year-old). Sorry, off topic...just thinkin' back.

[jimbarry]

 

 

 
Should be able to haul out a few sticks with this.

[barbender]

New toy, Jim?

[jimbarry]

New toy, Jim?

Hell no. The guy harvesting our next year's supply of firewood.

[SwampDonkey]

Is that an old Koering Jim? I remember the old feller forwarders cutting whole tree hardwood on Freehold and Crown land. Let the hardwood slaughter begin. :D

[jimbarry]

Is that an old Koering Jim? I remember the old feller forwarders cutting whole tree hardwood on Freehold and Crown land. Let the hardwood slaughter begin. :D

TimberKing I believe.

[jimbarry]

 

 

[SwampDonkey]

13 pickup loads (Tacoma) of firewood hauled in this week. Two more loads makes 5 cords. Five cords more to go. ;D

[Don P]

New toy  ;D


 

I don't know if you can see my hitch tube and 2" ball stuck in the new splitter's hitch latch, they didn't want someone to lose it  :D. The witch hazel is in full bloom up on the hill right there

[Old Greenhorn]

Looks like and exact copy of my Swisher! Enjoy! Now if I could only get mine back. >:(

[Al_Smith]

That part beam design is used on a lot of splitters many from the Pacific  rim countries .It appears to me it's just like the one I replaced the control valve on a couple of weeks ago .That one used a "Dirty Hand "style  pump and valve .Surplus Center BTW must have bought a couple of box cars full of them selling them cheap .

[Don P]

I looked at an oregon and a County Line that I think rolled off the same line as this one

[SwampDonkey]

Only splitters we have owned here were local fabs. One was a tractor mount vertical, would split anything. That went with the farm sale. The other horizontal pull behind with a Kabota engine we still have. They do make vertical ones that pull behind. I think they work both ways. For my firewood there I only use a Collins maul, easy to bust up aspen and fir with one wallop. By the time you load a chunk of aspen on the splitter and pull the arm, I've already split two or three rounds. :D I split where she falls when the log is bucked, toss to the side of the trails. Got no logging equipment to pull treelength so you do what ya gotta do. No roads either, and that keeps the curious off the ground. Them types don't walk much. :D A SxS buggy, a chainsaw and a maul is all I need. ;D

[Don P]

I got a doctor's note  :D. I think it included swinging framing hammers too but my eyesight isn't that good. It didn't help at checkout though  :'( :D

[Al_Smith]

I swung a 5 pound axe for years but I'm not 25 years old anymore .A maul never seemed to work for me except for the hammer head portion .Since I've built several hydraulic splitters. My present probably weights 1500 pounds and is bullet proof .Took me about 20 years to amass all the steel, engine , pump ,cylinder.etc   and 4 days to fabricate it .However I still have the axe which is likely over 100 years old, hand forged .I call that my arm strong splitter .Problem is the arms part are nearly 75 years old .The hydraulic splitter doesn't get tired like the arm strong version .

[SwampDonkey]

 :D ;D As mother always put it, you found muscles you didn't know you had. I can remember mom's uncle in his 80's still hand splitting firewood to fill the wood shed. Never owned a splitter. Money was no object, but too mean and stubborn to spend it. :D  My uncle (his nephew) bought one, took it over to the old fella's and showed him how nice it worked. He liked that, someone else bought one and he never even had to load it or split wood. :D :D :D

I do hand split the hardwood. One yard tree 40-30" across for a few feet at the bottom had to be all hand split, no way I'm lifting that kind of wood onto a splitter. :D But where I'm cutting the firewood the hardwood isn't big, young growth. The hardest to split is actually black spruce and tamarack. I cut a few spruce out of trails, and some crooked stuff. Tamarack is all crooked in my book, even if it looks straight, it spirals as it grows. :D

About 75 years will be my limit on the wood gathering and will be pushing the electric furnace button from then on. :D My grandfather cut firewood until he was around 80, lived to 87. But when you are retired from full time work, you have a lot more time available to spread the labour over several months instead of 6 weeks. :D I cut and split firewood in the mornings, I'm not 25 either. ;D I rest up the rest of the day. I'm not out to make records, just firewood. I also don't go out in rain and snow. ;D This fall has been wonderful, almost 65F today.

I like the Collins, any splitting axe I've used just gets stuck in the wood. A PITA moment. :D

I see Bernstein (Youtuber in ND) got himself a new wagon (Polar) and he restored an old Grizzly ATV to get his firewood. But he's working on land that used to be pasture, although a lot of it is slopped and wet bottom land. But seems to like his new toys. He's always gone wood cutting with the tractor or the M37. :D I think he's about 68 by now. And he has lived off the grid for many years on the back of the farm.

Polar 1500 Heavy Duty ATV trailer - YouTube

[Al_Smith]

I don't even try to lift those big rounds just use a cant hook that is older than me and tip the splitter upright  .That I did with a cable via a pulley and use the hydraulics  do the deed  .Lay it back down with a boat winch .Every so often I do break out the steel wedges and 8 pound hammer or rip it with a chainsaw .A big round or a stump doesn't  come around that often .