When living in the country trees are in abundance and everywhere. If you own any land at all chances are you have the ability to earn extra money through out the winter. This is not easy money but can be well worth your effort. Many homes no longer use wood as there sole purpose for heat. However most new homes have a fireplace and once most people have burned wood in a fireplace they like it so much they want to continue. It can help them lower there heating costs, it’s romantic and there is a certain feeling you get from the ambiance of a burning fire.
Firewood can be bought in quantities at many stores in the winter but the prices make it an outrageous commodity. Many people will start looking at ads in the paper or classified ads on the Internet. They may even see a flyer at a market or on a bulletin board. Some people have already found out that selling firewood in the winter can make good extra money. It may be extra Christmas money, a nest egg or just to simply help with bills. In this day and age people will pay good money for wood that is delivered to their home. You may need to stack it although many home-owners prefer to stack themselves.
A cord of seasoned firewood can sell for nearly $160 dollars. Now a cord of firewood is a stack of wood that is 8 feet long, 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide. This a large amount of wood. A cord is roughly equivalent to 2 full size pickup truck loads or 4 small pickup truck loads. The best part of this is you can be competitive and set your own prices. Only you know how much work you have put into your venture. So once you are ready you can look around and find out what other people charge. Then you set your prices to be either competitive or comparable to what others are selling wood for. Most people will buy by the truckload or ½ cord. A cord is a much larger amount of wood then most homes have space for outside or in.
Only the seasoned firewood is worth this much money. Most people who own wood stoves, furnaces or fireplaces cannot burn anything but seasoned wood. This is because of the smell and also how well it burns. Seasoned firewood has been sitting cut down for at least six months. This gives it drying and cure time. The best idea is to dedicate a portion of your summer either all at once or broken up to cut down and cut up this firewood. Then stack it in cord portions or half cord portions to be ready for winter. If you have the room in a barn or outbuilding you can keep this seasoned wood out of the weather and dry. You also could put a tarp over it to keep moisture out. The key is wood will burn best the dryer it is and you will gain a good reputation by selling wood that is ready to burn.
Right before winter hits is the best time to start advertising. Honestly the best time to stop advertising is right before winter is over. This keeps your name out there and believe me people will continue to call. If you have reasonable prices and a good reputation people will call you more. Place s to advertise will be local stores, the paper, the Internet and any local bulletin boards. Once you have calls in deliver on time and there will be no worries. You can make a return on your investment of work and a decent amount of money in the lean months.
