off season business

[defensiblespace]

I know many of you are lucky enough to not have an off season due to snow. But here in the Sierras we get hammered with snow and it pretty much shuts down the majority of tree work except for storm cleanup. Besides doing snow removal, I was wondering what keeps the money coming in and your employees busy during the off season.

 

[mattfr12]

Firewood i tell my guys if they wanna split it and sell it have at it. keeps their pockets full and my lot cleaned up so i don't have giant piles of logs laying everywhere. i even went as far as to buy them a splitter their doing pretty good so far this year they sold around 10-15 cords so far and its their first year at it. i was even thinking about going in on half of a cord king with my fore man told him he could use it to sell firewood as long as i can split as much as i want for my house. them things just spit out wood.

 

[superjunior]

un-employment, snowplowing, and a good few weeks of leave me the f##k alone. ..
I save up and look forward to this time of year

 

[sgreanbeans]

We stay out all year, snow or not. I fill up with oak skips every year. On days I cant go out, my wife pimps me out. Plus alot of firewood goes out the door.

 

[imagineero]

We dont get snow in most parts of Aus, but business tends to slow down a bit. Lots of guys do firewood, rubbish removal (big business in aus!) and a bit of demolition work. Chip trucks make great demolition trucks.

Shaun

 

[treeman82]

I've been trying to get a lot of crane work set off for the winter if it's not extremely important. Makes it easier to close roads, drive on the lawns, kill power, and also I figure so long as the crane can get set up, we're all good.

 

[imagineero]

I've been trying to get a lot of crane work set off for the winter if it's not extremely important. Makes it easier to close roads, drive on the lawns, kill power, and also I figure so long as the crane can get set up, we're all good.

Sounds like a good recipe for losing customers. If I win a job I try to complete it in a timely fashion. Leave it to next winter and the hungry wolves might start barking at the door. Having said that, when I bid on a job and my bid is way too high and the customer doesnt have the money, I let them know that if they can wait until winter they can very likely get a better price from me. I make a note on my quote sheet to call them back, and I go through all those jobs and give them a call come winter. I win quite a bit of work that way, which I wouldnt be interested in doing peak season.

Shaun

 

[Toddppm]

un-employment, snowplowing, and a good few weeks of leave me the f##k alone. ..
I save up and look forward to this time of year

That's what I'm talking about! If it aint snowing leave me alone while I veg out for a while.

 

[BlackOakTreeServ]

I know many of you are lucky enough to not have an off season due to snow. But here in the Sierras we get hammered with snow and it pretty much shuts down the majority of tree work except for storm cleanup. Besides doing snow removal, I was wondering what keeps the money coming in and your employees busy during the off season.

Hi DS, I've been selling firewood here in placer county when Im not doing removals, good bonus money.

You being in truckee (your about an hour drive from me) I hear oak is selling for $400+ a cord, and a bit more in Tahoe, since it has to be trucked in, Tamarack and cedar good to, but going for less $$$......

other than that, Im still working a bit, and enjoying some time off as well like the others here.

 

[BCbound]

Hey DS,

You might try christmas lights. I have one fulltime employee and I do what I can to keep him happy so he can survive the slow winter. I hate hanging lights and want nothing to do with it. I save $$ for the winter to chill out a bit. I came up with a# for my guy to pay me to use all my climbing gear, truck, ladders, insurance ect. It's a tiny amount of money. Last winer he made a killing. On average he sells it a 1.00/foot.

 

[defensiblespace]

Some good ideas here. Mattfr12 mentioned giving his employees a splitter to sell firewood. I have done the same thing. I bought a nice commercial splitter a couple of years ago thinking I was going to break into firewood. That was when I had more time to do it myself. The problem now is that I have no space to store the wood. This summer I let my main guy use my splitter all summer long. He would return to the jobsites on his own time and collect the wood we cut. He would then split it and sell it on his own. This was a win/win situation for me because I was able to get a lot of bids by not having to charge my clients for disposal of the wood. I wish I could just pay my guys to split the wood and I would sell it, but I pay them pretty well and it would be a break even venture if I did that. As for the Christmas lights, I will be doing my first job like that tomorrow. I don't have a bucket truck, so I will have to see what I can do with a 25' fir tree using a ladder. I love the idea of sitting back and relaxing or trying to ski 100 days this winter, but all of the money I made this summer is in savings for a down payment on a house. I started doing snow removal this year, but the snow hasn't started flying yet. Anyway, I really appreciate the ideas. If anybody has any more, keep em coming. Cheers

 

[sgreanbeans]

Be careful with the Christmas lights, read about a guy who was doing it, had a short or something and burnt down a Xerox office, he went up in flames shortly after. Seemed like a decent outfit too. Was a sub for Christmas Decor and they left him high and dry. It might have been on here that I read it.

 

[the Aerialist]

Firewood i tell my guys if they wanna split it and sell it have at it. keeps their pockets full and my lot cleaned up so i don't have giant piles of logs laying everywhere. i even went as far as to buy them a splitter their doing pretty good so far this year they sold around 10-15 cords so far and its their first year at it. i was even thinking about going in on half of a cord king with my fore man told him he could use it to sell firewood as long as i can split as much as i want for my house. them things just spit out wood.

This is the first year I've stockpiled wood for splitting. I've got a good bit of Locust, Cherry, and Oak piled up to be split. I don't have a splitter but if this works out OK this Winter I'll probably invest in one. You mentioned "Cord King" what are some other splitters that you can reccomend?

Like others have mentioned I start booking work for the Winter at reduced rates in some cases, and I shift any major tree reductions to this time of year when the trees go dormant. As it stands now I've got a backlog of this work that will take me into next year. Then in February I'm on an "honor roll" which is a full page ad in the Angie's List Magazine that will hopefully bring in next Season's work early. We'll see how that works, but right now I'm in much better shape for getting through the Winter months than I have ever been.

 

[brookpederson]

Firewood- Splitting, stacking and delivering

Sawmill- milling for customers and milling all the " highly valuable blackwalnut logs" from removals.

Woodworking and signs- all made out of trees from the sawmill.

Making a cabins out of spruce and pine logs cut during the summer.

Taxidermy- european type skull taxidermy.


Our winters are a little longer up here, in the beginning I was trying to find things to fill up the winter months and keep food on the table. Now I have too many irons in the fire:msp_thumbup:

 

[treeman75]

This is the first year I've stockpiled wood for splitting. I've got a good bit of Locust, Cherry, and Oak piled up to be split. I don't have a splitter but if this works out OK this Winter I'll probably invest in one. You mentioned "Cord King" what are some other splitters that you can reccomend?

Like others have mentioned I start booking work for the Winter at reduced rates in some cases, and I shift any major tree reductions to this time of year when the trees go dormant. As it stands now I've got a backlog of this work that will take me into next year. Then in February I'm on an "honor roll" which is a full page ad in the Angie's List Magazine that will hopefully bring in next Season's work early. We'll see how that works, but right now I'm in much better shape for getting through the Winter months than I have ever been.

Heres one
Worlds coolest logsplitter - YouTube

 

[Blakesmaster]

Heres one
Worlds coolest logsplitter - YouTube

Betcha that'll hook right up to the Steiner.

 

[defensiblespace]

This is the first year I've stockpiled wood for splitting. I've got a good bit of Locust, Cherry, and Oak piled up to be split. I don't have a splitter but if this works out OK this Winter I'll probably invest in one. You mentioned "Cord King" what are some other splitters that you can reccomend?

When I bought my splitter, I had some criteria that were important before I made my purchase.
1. Must have a Honda engine. They are worth the extra coin. Much quieter and longer lasting than their competition. Start on the first pull every time.
2. A high hydraulic fluid capacity. Hydraulic fluid costs a lot of money, but a higher tank capacity will keep the fluid from overheating if you are splitting for long periods of time.
3. A fast cycle time. Higher production in a shorter amount of time.
4. An optional four way wedge. Higher production in a shorter amount of time once again.
5. Price. I want it all and I don't want to pay a lot for it.
With all of this in mind, I went with an Iron & Oak. Here is a link to the splitter.
Iron & Oak Commercial Log Splitters - PRODUCTS
I've been really happy with it so far. I've only had to replace the the master hydraulic cylinder at a cost of around $124 and that's after close to 50 cords of splitting. I bought it from a website called toolfetch.com and they even shipped it for free. I would definitely purchase it again. Great splitter for light commercial use.

 

[mattfr12]

This is the first year I've stockpiled wood for splitting. I've got a good bit of Locust, Cherry, and Oak piled up to be split. I don't have a splitter but if this works out OK this Winter I'll probably invest in one. You mentioned "Cord King" what are some other splitters that you can reccomend?

Splitters like timber wolf are gonna be top of the line but for starting out a lowes or hope depot special might do the trick with a much smaller investment. A cord king can hit the wallet pretty hard I'm not 100% sure what their going for but i think you can invest 15-20 thousand in one in a hurry.

 

[superjunior]

Huskee® 35 Ton Log Splitter - 1083946 | Tractor Supply Company

here's the one I bought about 8 years ago and still running strong. We only do about 40-50 ricks a season and this splitter is bullet proof. Not one breakdown or problem to date and it will split anything. I didn't want to invest a lot at first as I wasn't sure how the firewood end of things would go and I'm glad I picked this up. A great machine for the tree guy just getting into firewood at a low price point

 

[the Aerialist]

Take the splitter to the job site?

Matt, my budget is about 10% of that. The Lowe's idea is probably where I'll go unless I can find a used one locally. I like the Husky superjunior, and I think vertical is the way to go.

I'm thinking of taking it to the job when doing bigger tree removals just to make handling the wood easier from forwarding to loading. If the wood is ultimately going to be split anyways, why not start the process right on the job site? Is anybody doing this already? Seems like it would streamline the process. I'm not talking about splitting it right down to firewood size, but just into chunks one man can throw in the truck.