We set up a self-service roadside firewood stand. In this video we show how we source and process the wood, bundle it for sale, and tour the roadside wood wagon we use to offer it to passing customers.
Making firewood is physical work. People need to get paid to do that, as well as finding the good trees. I’ve done plenty of firewood making over the years. I appreciate the fact that there is no plastic used too. Way to go!
Most commercial produced you'd see at gas stations is way more automated than this. Its more about the place, the limited market at small quantitities etc. That all combine to a pricepoint it can be a living. Of course you can't really do trade just based on how much trouble it was for you to do/get something. Sure you can try but consumer will decide if its worth it ultimately.
I really liked your "Saw Horse." The many spaces, all at the proper length, was very smart, and the wood then fell away from the saw with little or no binding. I had done this years ago, but for strictly my own family use, so made my "Saw Horse" much shorter. I took a photograph of yours for my 54 year old son, and he will get a big smile on his face as he remembers cutting wood on our smaller version "Saw Horse." Thanks for a very nice, and informative video. Doctor George Whitehead
I have a LOT of firewood that could be made on my farm. I wanted to do a firewood 'stand' like you have, but my longtime back injury came back to haunt me. I'm hoping I can get one of the local farm kids to give it a try. The sisal bailing twine is something that gets used for nearly everything on my farm. First, it wraps the bales of hay and straw, then, when they're used, we cut it right next to the knot so that we have a 6-foot length or so. From there, the 'bailer twine' gets used for quick ties of anything that needs to be tied up. For heaver duty stronger stuff, we either double, triple or more the number of strands. Sometimes, I even 'quick braid' a number of strands when I need to tie up a broken stall or fence gate, and sometimes I'll even braid it a bit more nicely to make a hanging planter or a lead line for the horses. It's not ready to 'die' until it becomes so torn or rotted that hit no longer has any strength. That's when I throw it on the compost pile and it goes back to being part of the Earth again. I do the same with bits of metal, broken springs, etc. They go to my blacksmith shop until some job comes along that gets them heated up and reforged into something else needed here on the farm or made into some wrought iron object I sell. Not much gets wasted around here!
Seriously, try cannabis oil... Changed my life. This body is so seriously damaged I can't tell you.. But 40 years of horses, cattle, fencing ? Not to mention thinking I'm immortal and bullet proof.. Try it....talk to a doctor or tele-health....find it..
Tell the kid that if he does the work, you'll sell him the bundles at deep wholesale and give him so many bundles for free after he loads up your reserve of firewood. That way, the kid can sell firewood for whatever price he'd like and you don't have to worry about paying him a wage. He might learn something and learn something about business too.
I don't think most people realize how much is involved in getting your product out to the consumer. Sure the wood is free but there is money in equipment and all your labor. Looks like your well organized, and present a good product at a reasonable price.
Yeah like my neighbors... They claimed we spend more money on wood then electric.. his bill is $500 on a good day $700 in winter ... My bill for electric is only at Max I've seen maybe 122 and that's with Christmas lights going 24/7 .... Our wood is "free" but gas and labor is mother things I guess ... Still couldn't handle a $700 electric bill I didn't have that heart to tell him ...
I really enjoyed the perspective of small business idea! Super cute wood wagon and not using plastic but the biodegradable rope. Wish more people thought like this!
In rural Canada, you see a lot of these unattended retail sites. I often wonder how many people don't pay. Alternately, how many people leave a $10 bill because they don't have $8.
Great video. As someone that loves a fire when camping I really appreciate this. That's a nice bundle of wood too. Way better than anything you'd find outside at a gas station our at a box store.
I have the same style saw buck. We sold fire wood for a few years in the past and never got ripped off on a busy mountain road. Maybe we’ll get back after it next season, maybe more professional like your setup!
Just spent a week, cutting logs, splitting rounds and stacking four cord of firewood for winter 2023. Thankfully I have a BX25 with forks and a backhoe with thumb. Used a Husqvarna 445 chainsaw. Splitting done with a generator and a cheap (Harbour Freight) 110 volt splitter. Alder, maple, cherry, fir and pine. Heat pumps are on order.
This only works in high-trust environments like where you live in maine. I live in the LA area and in a day all your wood would be stolen, the money box stolen, your trailer stolen, then the thieves would walk into your property and steal your tools. anyways thanks for sharing.
Very nice. If you haven't already, it might be worth trying to reconfigure the bundling jig to sit at a 45 degree angle to make it easier to pile the wood in there. Of course a banding machine would be even more ideal if you have the budget.
I was a little bit surprised that it wasn't a bit cheaper. I live in Tampa and the two grocery store chains we have sell a bundle for $8 and $9 currently. Of course they are bundled in plastic....
Growing up I helped several relatives cut firewood for their wood stoves and it is very physically demanding. Just hauling the stuff in from the storage shed to the house was plenty bad enough.
Dude around were I live was selling these bundles of perfectly milled small planks of lumber for just $5 each. We thought it was crazy and for a couple years we bought some. Then this year came by, and to our disappointment they didn’t do anything firewood related at all. I’m hoping he comes back to out, I’d pay $10 a bundle easily if he still sold them that way
Advantage of not fully stocking the firewood trailer is it looks like people have stopped to buy some. People passing by are more inclined to stop since other people have. I do the same with my brochure holders. I only put out a 3rd of what the holders can handle leaving the impression a lot has been taken so people feel more comfortable and like they need to take one. You just have to watch your product to make sure you don't run out.
I’d like to know where this. This is an honor system, it seems, and I’m stunned they they haven’t had issues with people just taking/stealing bundles of wood without paying. Or trying to steal the cash box itself. 😳
I really like this video and I know what you mean when you say the wood would just go to waste but I take a bit of umbrage with that wording. No tree that falls in the woods is wasted. It will be food and a home for hundreds if not thousands of animals and fungi. And all the energy will eventually return to the forest and be taken up by the trees neighbors.
Curious about a rough estimate on your profits, if you're willing to share! The breakdown of prep time/labor to how much you brought in this season would be really interesting!
Thanks for the video. Though, I'm curious. Was the venture cash positive? I know it's not my business (literally). I was always just curious about the actual demand of ventures.
I wonder if it would save money using electric tools near the house. I know there's a 220v splitter you can hook up to a dryer outlet, and corded chainsaws can be pretty powerful.
I love it that you practice good forestry. A suggestion: Set up more of an assembly line process. An electric motor buzz saw is much faster and cheaper than using a chainsaw to cut to final length. When I lived in West-Michigan, several of us helped each other with our seasonal stock up of wood for our stoves and furnaces. This was back in the 80-90's. One of the guys designed an assembly line. The eight foot long stick come in at one end, and out the other was the split wood. He designed it so that each step of the process was done at about waist high. That really sped it up. We didn't bundle like you, and the cut pieces were tossed into one of our pickups - we all had one. We all did our own unloading and stacking where we stored our supply. We cut standing timber on state land that the state had designated for personal use. It was green, and mainly red oak. We all stored enough wood that it dried 2 years before burning. It was actually a fun thing to do. We were all pretty good friends and sometimes we'd have our families with us and everybody lent a hand.
So much manual work, of course that makes it expensive, but you trust people not to steal the money, obviously this works in Maine. Here the local lumberers come with a harvester and the whole tree is chopped up right into a trailer, then the whole trailer is sold and delivered right at their home for about 1/10 the price of yours. No log has ever been touched by hand. I don't how you call the machine that choppes a whole tree, but it comes as a trailer with chainsaw, hydraulics and a conveyer belt to put the logs into another trailer.
@@royramey5659A marketer I follow said, "10% of the population is honest to a fault, they would starve before taking something without asking. 10% are so crooked that when they die, they'll have to screw them into the ground. Then there's the vast majority that normally won't steal, but might under the right circumstances." If most people are like me, they had a problem, but lived to grow out of it. Karma is a bit..
I've long heard that one should NEVER burn pine in an indoor wood burning stove, and so over the decades have avoided it. It is supposed to have such a high level of pine tar that it creates a large amount of creosote, or that is how I understood it. Yet I see you sell pine for burning... have I been wrong all these years? I've avoided soooo much fallen pine over the years, it would be such a waste if I've been wrong. I'm scared to look it up now.
You are correct, I would not recommend it for indoor burning. We sell a mix of pine and ash for outdoor campfires since the pine ignites easily and the ash is long burning. For indoors we burn almost exclusively hardwood save for a little kindling.
@@proto57: Actually cedar is considered the worst offender for creosote and undoubtedly caused most of the world’s chimney fires in the 1900s. You can actually watch it ooze and drip out of the end of a log, all black and tarry and smelling like Christmas, lol.
Nice work! So much did you make over the course of a season, accounting for labor costs? Either way you are providing a valuable service that I’m sure customers appreciate.
Wish I lived in an area that could have an honor system. Not only would all that wood get stolen but they would burn the cart down while filming and twerking.
Do you allow for people to make change? What if they want a bundle but only have a 5's and 10s? Are they forced to buy two? Or what if they want two but only have a 20? Are they forced to just pay $20? Seems like it would be fairer to size the bundles where its $5 each bundle. Obviously people can take more than one. Maybe offer 5 for $20.
To nitpick, the wood is waste to your business, but animals, insects, and flora of the area would find it useful ;) I'd place a few whole logs out, too.
No argument there at all-but the bugs don’t have to pay taxes on their land and we do-so in order to keep the little critters fat and happy we have to harvest efficiently and conscientiously. Otherwise, the land gets sold to developers who don’t care about the ecosystem at all. Many people have objected to the word “waste,” and while I cede the point, I’m not an insect, I’m a businessman. You’d never let carrots grow in your garden patch at will, and if some rotted, most any grander would consider it a waste. That’s all I meant. ☺️ Thanks for mentioning this fact so tactfully; it’s certainly true!
Interested in your "leakage". Have you considered a hidden "Licence plate capture camera" so you can mail a bill to delinquints? I hope your losses don't warrant one, but...Those doorbell cam deals are relatively cheap. What's your honest/crook ratio?
@@VitaKet...And (optionally) a real camera (like a game camera) hidden on the opposite side/angle, so that people who try to avoid the fake obvious camera get filmed by the real one.
You might add a contact # to your signage in case anyone wants to buy by the cord. I lived in Maine, among the Maineiacs, for a year or so. I saw lots of stands like yours while I was there, with eggs, wood, etc. I know it is common in that area, but I'm wondering how does the honor system for payments really work out for you?
It doesnt matter if this is physical work or not. It's your wood, you have something I need. So I pay you. Pretty sure thats how the system has worked with various subtle changes (like trading chickens for vegetables instead of selling for cash) since the Bible was young.
But then again it wouldn’t be waste, when it fell it would decompose feeding all types old species and eventually feeding the surrounding earth but your idea is ideal, if people in your area are honest don’t think it would work in the CA.
Exactly. I clicked to see how much the dude made. I grew up cutting, hauling, splitting, stacking, heating with firewood. Already KNOW all that. Give me some bottom line numbers! lol
Yep, you can’t move firewood into Maine from other states. Many other states have this too, to slow the infestation of insects and diseases that live in wood.
