Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[dodge man]

Shooterdon, that’s a pretty good description of the “free” wood I got last time. There was a tree down in the farm field across the road. The farmer said I could go get it. It was maybe a 1/4 mile from where I cut and split my wood. It was an oak tree but very twisted and knotty. By the time I cleaned up the small branches and got the wood to my place it was a lot of work.

 

[wolc123]

Great points

Neither is the entertainment factor. I enjoy working up wood; whether it's firewood, cutting an 8 cord load of tree length to sell to a mill, or producing a load of nice logs to sell. I haven't used it much yet but bought a sawmill a couple of years ago so that I can also produce logs for that.

I hear the same "cost" logic for hunting, fishing, raising livestock or a vegetable garden. If all that I was concerned with was money I would rent a room in town where I can walk everywhere, eat at McD's or from the deli at the grocery store.
For entertainment go to the library, or sit in my room counting my money.
I'd be bored witless, and likely weigh 350 lbs.

Great points, and my feelings exactly. In addition to all that, there is just something about wood heat that can not be replicated by any other energy source. I could never winter up here where we do, way up north on the Canadian border, if we did not heat with “free” firewood.

I love processing firewood. A few items take most of the drudgery, pain, and suffering out of that. A tractor with a loader with forks for dragging and lifting logs onto a trailer helps a lot. Cutting them up with a chainsaw is much easier on my old back, when they are up on a trailer.


A horizontal/vertical hydraulic splitter takes most of the hard work and heavy lifting out of the splitting process. I split the smaller stuff standing up with it in the horizontal position. I use it in the vertical position on the larger rounds, so there is no need to lift the heavier weights of those.

I place the split pieces on a carryall on the back or loader bucket on front of my tractors, for transport to the storage side of my woodshed.

Having a covered woodshed is another critical part of the process. The storage side of mine holds 12 face cords, and we use about 6 on an average winter. I use the other side for splitting the larger rounds on rainy days. I split the smaller stuff outside by the trailer on non rainy days.

 

[shooterdon]

Neither is the entertainment factor. I enjoy working up wood; whether it's firewood, cutting an 8 cord load of tree length to sell to a mill, or producing a load of nice logs to sell. I haven't used it much yet but bought a sawmill a couple of years ago so that I can also produce logs for that.

I hear the same "cost" logic for hunting, fishing, raising livestock or a vegetable garden. If all that I was concerned with was money I would rent a room in town where I can walk everywhere, eat at McD's or from the deli at the grocery store.
For entertainment go to the library, or sit in my room counting my money.
I'd be bored witless, and likely weigh 350 lbs.

One reason I bought the processor was that I like working outdoors. It lets me produce firewood for the home and I can make a bit of money selling firewood to others. I used to go find "free" wood, cut it up, load it in the SxS or truck and haul it home, dump it, pick it up to split it, pick it back up and stack it, then pick it off the stack and move it to the garage in the back of the SxS, I touched that wood five times before carrying into the house. With the processor, and using bulk bags, I do not touch wood until I carry it into the house. Have gone from spending about 300 hours a year to get 6 cords of wood and saving $1200 to producing 100 cords and a $6500 profit. $4/hr vs $22/hr. I have more fun running the tractor and processor and seeing a cord of firewood every three hours than doing things the "old way".

You may find more "entertainment" in doing something that provides little or no return on your effort and that is OK.

Neither of is "wrong"...just different.

Yes, I view hunting, fishing, raising livestock and gardening as a waste of MY time. I have done them all and the rewards were not worth it. Food is food and I don't get all pumped up on using "quality" as the big justification. I live in the middle of nowhere surrounded by thousands of acres of state land. I do not need to hunt or fish to get back to nature..I live it!!!

 

[shooterdon]

Good analysis shooter. I like your ambition ! Hope it works out the way you predict !! That will be good and you have the numbers to compare what really happens over the long range and will know where to make adjustments.

Why do you use the bags - it looks like more time and more cost or did I miss something ?

gg

GG, it is a good question.

WRT to the business side, using bags offers many advantages.

Bags allow me to run inventory whenever I want to "go out and play". People tend to delay orders until the fall and I want to produce firewood when it suits me. I will start bagging this spring when the weather is cool. If I "run to order" using the truck I will limit how much I can produce during August to November and I do not want to work 40 hours a week or during bad weather to fill orders.

Bags provide a known quantity. Every bag is one face cord. There are plenty of videos that "prove" this. My buddy works for another firewood company and they stack their wood to ensure the customer gets the correct quantity. That costs time and money. The bags are a lot less than paying someone to stack wood. When they get busy and cannot pre-stack, they often "short ship" (low paid employees are lazy) and then they have to go back and deliver more wood...more costs wasted plus a ticked off customer.

Bags allow me to provide a better product. The bags are vented and stored on pallets. The splits are loose stacked. This allows improved drying as there is good air flow not just around the bags and splits, but upwards through the bag/splits.

Bags give me instant inventory control. I know how much I have in stock.

Bags allow "special orders" to be run ahead. I can easily segregate different types of wood as well as "special requests" I have one customer who has asked for larger diameter splits and longer splits (20"). If someone has a small stove and wants 12" lengths, I can inventory ahead for them.

Bags allow quick loading of the pickup for deliveries.

If I did not use bags, I would need to either move the processor or move the pile of wood under the conveyor. That is unproductive time. I have the processor located where I have shade most of the day so moving it is not ideal. Moving a 7ft pile of loose splits is not something I can do efficiently.

For my personal use, I really prefer using IBC totes like this:

But they require having a helper to stack the totes while I operate the processor Using bags allows me to produce faster when working alone. Also, I use a pallet jack to move totes and/or bags on pallets in the garage, The totes hold almost 1.5 face cords and are tougher to move than the bags on pallets.

 

[Gordon Gould]

So really you are saying bags save you time and money because of the inventory logistics and the lack of needing to hire cheap help..........?

gg

 

[dodge man]

Shooterdon, your description of how many times you used to handle firewood pretty much matches how I do mine. It means handling it a lot but I’m not that serious about it. The way you do it sounds a lot more efficient. There are some things I could do to improve how I do it but that would mean a mess where oi don’t want it.

 

[shooterdon]

So really you are saying bags save you time and money because of the inventory logistics and the lack of needing to hire cheap help..........?

gg

You got it.

As a side business, the last thing I want is a "helper". People who want to work want to make a constant paycheck and earn certain amount of money a week. People who do not want to work are not dependable. "Cheap" help...you get what you pay for...LOL

I do not want the problems that come with employees. My goal is to produce extra income working part time and write off some assets. I should have processor paid off in two years and then, if I am still "gung-ho", pay off the tractor and truck.

The dump bed pickup truck I purchased has a Western MVP Plow if it works well enough, I can sell the inverted blower on the tractor. All my tractor projects are done, so the tractor has been used for firewood and snow removal. If the truck plow does the job, the tractor can be 100% a business expense and can be completely written off.

 

[Loaderman22]

You guys like the photos, so this is how I spent my day in storm prep. I have 5 totes full of ash leftover from last year, but I feel better knowing I have a crate prepped for next year. This red oak came down in a crazy summer storm in 2021. This is the 3rd log from the stump, took everything the loader had to get it up through the mud and soft ground. It gets into the 20's here at night, but 40's during the day, so ground is super soft. We had rain everyday last week, so my clay based soil holds it well.

Then I started cutting with the ol' MS 290, but that was going slow, so I broke out the MS 361 which ate the red oak up with the 25" chain.

Even thought it has been down and elevated up on a stone wall, this was still ridiculously heavy, so I was splitting the pieces smaller to get them drying faster. My better half ran to the store to get the usual pre storm items, and returned just in time to help load the last piece worth of splits.

I do like the totes as they have lids to keep the wood dry, my loader just picks up a full one without lifting the rear wheels up, (alright at least not much!) And 2 fit nicely in the garage out of the way. When in the 40s I can make 1 last a week, in February, 2 a week. Yes that varies depending on species.
I try to bring logs up to my splitting area, then chunk em up, split onto an off-feed table, then right into crates. I then run crates into garage then into house via wheelbarrow. Still move each piece a few times, but the totes help me move a bunch over to the house quickly. Especially helpful after work in the dark.

 

[Jstpssng]

Most of my firewood comes from harvest blocks I look after. When they slash hardwood logs it leaves a lot of ends. I only burn about 2 cords per year so it doesn't take many pickup loads to get my year's supply. When I get home at night I back up to the pile and throw enough in the truck to get me through the night.

Last Wednesday I backed up to a pile of ends which were cut in summer 2022, and brought a small load home. I've been splitting that and burning it as needed, saving my stacked wood for later. Tomorrow I will probably grab another load, and keep doing that until we get too much snow to get to the pile. All that I bring home is rock maple, yellow birch, beech and an occasional ash.
This saves the wood on my own land for when I retire, although this winter I plan to put up a load of hardwood logs which will also generate a lot of firewood. I've been cutting around the rock maple for 20 years, now I want to take out the log trees and leave the rest for making syrup.

 

[dodge man]

I think I posted this before but I put dates on my firewood. I’m stacking wood on an old dog kennel so it sits on concrete. I stack it and tell myself I’ll remember when I put it there. I write the month and year I split it on a nearby post or the end of the 2x4 on the rack. At any given time I have about 8 different racks and stacks of firewood, none being over a face chord.