My neighbor has a few firewood customers. He scrounges up downed, half rotted, punky logs out of his woods, cuts, splits, and delivers it.
He comments on how "pretty" my wood is and that his customers would prefer better quality wood.
I, on the other hand, have access to almost unlimited, high quality standing dead and recently downed oak. I am currently almost three years ahead on our personal wood needs. I enjoy working on firewood. I've got a good saw and a fantastic splitter. And I have the time to work on it. Mid October to late winter is my down time when I am home virtually 100% of the time. I can process a lot of wood this winter. I just don't need to have ten years worth of wood stacked outside.
My proposal would be to provide my neighbor/buddy as much wood as he can sell. I cut, split and stack. He provides the customers. He delivers and stacks. We split the take. This provides his customers with a much better quality of wood which should help build the business. He could probably sell at least twice as much each year if he doesn't have to process the wood. (He splits by hand.)
This fills my 'hobby' need of working on firewood and allows me to keep harvesting standing dead trees that will otherwise rot in place.
He's been getting $125 for his poor quality (but dry!) wood. I think we can get at least $150 a cord for good solid, "pretty" wood. I can put away several cords this fall that should be ready to burn next year. The two year oak rule doesn't seem to apply in Texas this year with our extreme drought and well above average temperatures.
What do you think?
He comments on how "pretty" my wood is and that his customers would prefer better quality wood.
I, on the other hand, have access to almost unlimited, high quality standing dead and recently downed oak. I am currently almost three years ahead on our personal wood needs. I enjoy working on firewood. I've got a good saw and a fantastic splitter. And I have the time to work on it. Mid October to late winter is my down time when I am home virtually 100% of the time. I can process a lot of wood this winter. I just don't need to have ten years worth of wood stacked outside.
My proposal would be to provide my neighbor/buddy as much wood as he can sell. I cut, split and stack. He provides the customers. He delivers and stacks. We split the take. This provides his customers with a much better quality of wood which should help build the business. He could probably sell at least twice as much each year if he doesn't have to process the wood. (He splits by hand.)
This fills my 'hobby' need of working on firewood and allows me to keep harvesting standing dead trees that will otherwise rot in place.
He's been getting $125 for his poor quality (but dry!) wood. I think we can get at least $150 a cord for good solid, "pretty" wood. I can put away several cords this fall that should be ready to burn next year. The two year oak rule doesn't seem to apply in Texas this year with our extreme drought and well above average temperatures.
What do you think?