How does my firewood business work?

As of today, the firewood production is the largest part of our business but it wasn't always that way. 9 years ago when I first came home, Dad dropped me off 6 cords of wood that I made up by cutting with a chain saw and split by hand with an axe. I forget what it was like to have so much time on my hands :)

Since then I spent the majority of the time just making up my own wood for the house because my equipment was pretty limited at the time. I had a chainsaw with a tractor and winch so I was limited to cutting wood that was easy to get around the fields. 

Eventually, I started splitting the wood with the old splitter my grandfather had bought years ago. This was still fairly small scale and only for the house. It was a lot of work though, even for that small scale amount. 

At some point, and I forget really when, I decided to try selling wood to make some additional income. Since we aren't classified as a hobby farm (hobby farms are small acreages with no intention to make income) I tried to make this an additional income stream. It was also at that point when I decided to sell the Ford Mustang we owned to purchase a truck for the farm. I started selling 1/4 of a cord orders that same year (2015).

After doing this for 3 years I decided one day to borrow a neighbors dump trailer to see how that would work to get a cord to delivery instead of 4 trips. That was a huge moment where I saw how quick it would be and home many fewer trips it would take. It was shortly after that I bought a second-hand trailer from another firewood producer to start making up wood and delivering it, a cord at a time

 

After one year of making about 30 cords by hand, I was exhausted. This is a lot of work to make firewood this way and it took me about 3 hours to make a cord by hand and get it into the trailer. It was around this time I started looking at firewood processors and after a demo of one at Hant Equipment, I realized it would "cut" (pun intended) my time down by 1/3 to make a load and be easier on my body. If you haven't seen one of these work, here is a link to the one I bought: https://youtu.be/30zLWx4tQdY

This was a game-changer and I saw right away why so many people in my area bought one. This allowed me to make up wood faster with less effort and even though the unit cost $25,000, it pays for it self with 2 loads a month, which is super easy! With my current set up, I'm able to do that and more without issue

 

I'm now doing 40-50 cords per year for sale and our own use without as much effort and much quicker. It's also been a new income stream to replace softwood (more on that in a future blog). Before buying this, it was a gamble but it paid off. 

Like so many things on the farm, this was a business investment that produces income but the unknowns at the beginning of all these firewood sales made for second-guessing. I'm so glad I didn't back down because as of this blog, I'm sold out of wood and can't keep up to demand. 

Farm Implement

Today I took a vacation day to do a bunch of things which included a firewood delivery, food stock up at Costco, parts pick up and also picking up a new farm implement. 

Last year, when making hay, my old hay tedder had it's gear box blow up right as I started haying which put me in a bind. I had to find a tedder, QUICKLY, since I had hay cut and needed it to fluff it up and dry out what I had laying. I found one but it was a stressful time. 

At the end of the season, I realized our old hay rake that my granddad bought, needed a lot of work and I started to get worried about using it this year for haying in case I have a repeat of the tedder situation. Our old rake looks something like this one below, which isn't an exact picture but very similar 

I decided to upgrade the rake this year to something I've been looking at for awhile, which is a wheel rake and it looks like this:

This is totally different than my old side delivery rake but should make it easier to rake up hay in tight fields and it requires little to no maintenance. These are the types of purchases I regularly make on the farm since most of the old gear is wearing out from when my grandfather bought it and now we need new gear. Over the last few years I got a new hay mower, tedder and now rake. A baler will be the next purchase in the next few years but the old one we have should be good for awhile yet. 

This is the first time I am getting a piece of gear in pieces and will have to put it together which should be an fun Saturday activity in the next few weeks. I showed you what it should look like, but right now it looks like the picture below.

Social Distancing/COVID - How it impacts the Farm

Since COVID - 19 impacted us, there have been some big and small changes in how it's impacted the farm and forest operation. March 17th is when I started working from home for my job at NSCC and now we're in week 11 since I have been in the office and primarily on the homestead. This has impacted my lifestyle in what I'm categorizing into two buckets; Thankful for and Wish it wasn't

I'm thankful for many things out what is a terrible situation globally:

• Aside from my office work, my farm time has hardly changed. If you are sitting home on weekends now and wondering what to do, my weekends and evening are identical to before the pandemic. I still have a ton of farm work to do and I hardly ever see anyone. I can go the whole day without even seeing Christina because I am working around the farm somewhere or in the woods for 12+ hours. 
• I've had more time to actually spend around the farm even in the evenings. With no commute to the city, I save 3 hours a day. This means lots of time for chores and plenty of time from 4pm till dark to work on lots of tasks around here. Although I miss my friends (that's in wish it wasn't), I have never felt healthier (I know the irony) and have actually lost weight from less take out food and more exercise. 
• More clarity of thought. This blog is an example of that. I now can work 7.5 (or often longer) days at my HR job plus do more work on the farm but without some of the other impacts that drain your brain, I've been able to take on projects and hobbies I haven't done in years or ever:
• I spent all spring planning out a new fencing plan and building it. 
• I was able to build a new farm website with e-commerce ability. 
• I was able to pick up reading books again in either audio or hard copy format. 
• I started this blog which has been years in the works. 
• I spend tons more time with the cattle which means they are even tamer with me. 
• I have been able to cut more firewood for market and for both our house and for my parents. 
• This is less farm related but more general to life, but having time to enjoy my coffee and breakfast while the sun rises is something I have really enjoyed. It's been a better start to every day that usually follows an even better sleep that I've been able to get since being around home more. I haven't had to set my alarm once since all this went down but have been able to naturally get up around 5 or 5:30AM with tons of energy.

The other category would be "wish it wasn't" and that goes like this:

• I wish it wasn't impossible to see my friends. Although we do virtual happy hours and coffee time, I miss seeing some of the people that are important in my life. Social time is super important to me with those people (you know who you are) and I've really missed that. 
• Not being able to spend a little time in the office has been hard but lately I've really been settled into the routine around home with work and farm life and I've felt a lot more settled. 
• I wish it wasn't so crappy to go out for groceries. I've spend quite a bit of time travelling to the city for firewood but I don't see anyone and I rarely stop for anything else because it's so stressful. I used to enjoy shopping for groceries or even at Princess Auto and now that's a thing of the past, for now anyway.

The realization that has been most profound it how living on the farm and building this life for the last 9 years has been inadvertently preparing for this event. From having our own meat, produce and heat source right down to being able to cut my own hair, I've been building to this event by accident for years. I've actually had little change to my weekend routine and gained more on my weekday routine. I've got more energy for my office job and more time for my farm work. 

As glad as I will be when COVID is all over, I do hope some of this lifestyle is a permanent thing.

Farm Tractor

When first moving to the farm, it was overwhelming for all the things I could purchase for any number of things. Anything for the buildings would have been a help, or fencing supplies, haying equipment, forestry gear, etc etc and etc. After an evaluation of all the work needed to be done on the farm I opted for a robust and new tractor from Hants Equipment. I did a ton of research and although it didn't have all the features of a John Deere, this Branson was rugged with a great motor and our family had a history of purchasing from this dealership.

Why have a blog entry on a tractor? Little did I realize at the time how important it is as a farm tool. My grandfather had a few tractors for various jobs because they were different sizes. I could only afford one at the time so it had to do everything from load manure, run all the hay equipment, run the logging winch, run the large tiller, clear and snowblow snow to name just a few things. With all those job so important, I see now why a farm tractor is the most used piece of gear on any homestead or farm. 

I've even enjoyed having this tractor out for "Touch a Truck" on Open Farm Days to let kids experience this important farm implement. As a kid I always remember the tractors working around the farm and being able to sit in them. Giving that experience to the kids that visit the farm is the best. 

The standard farm tractor does also provide an insight into the costs that also are part of the farm. Built into the costs of our products is the costs for running, maintaining and paying for equipment that is needed to keep things flowing. Although this tractor is now paid off, it used to cost anywhere from $600 to $800 a month in payments, gas and maintenance. When you buy local, it directly impacts farm's finances for making purchases like this to improve their production or even just maintain the goings on of the farm. 

Kick off!

Well, here it is. I've talked about doing a blog for years but now I've finally had the time and headspace to finally take it on. I've wanted to document what I do on the farm and in the forests here on my 200-year-old family farm for so many reasons. Mainly, I've wanted to help anyone else thinking of moving to a homesteading/farming lifestyle, and with COVID, it seems more people are interested in it than ever. 

I wasn't sure how to start off my first blog post but I'm going to kick this one off by a bit about me and the farm. The farm is a 200 year old, 6th generation beef, produce and forestry operation in New Ross. Orginally the land was given to the original Meister who settled here and grew it, along with the 5 generation after him. The farm is 600 acres, with most being woodlot and 50 acres being pasture and hay fields. There is a large barn that houses the Angus cattle, a few other outbuildings and a new event building that was built last year. 

I moved back to the farm after 6 years in Alberta which was an amazing time (I think I was an Albertan in another life). The main reason was getting connected back to something other than a downtown and chasing the career ladder. The farm also provided food security and an active lifestyle which, during COVID, has really made me feel I've been preparing for a pandemic just by living here. 

Maintaining the property is a full time job which is added workload since I work in HR at NSCC as a full time job. I'll make a future post about how I've been able to find a balance between those two roles. 

The farm gives lots of products like produce, beef, wood (lumber and firewood) as well as eggs and chicken and in future maple syrup. These all offer food security and a connection to where our food comes from. 

I'll add more blog posts on the adventure of living on a farm as well as things I've learned for anyone who might be interested!

Cattle out to pasture!

Today was a big day on the farm. The cattle went out to pasture and it's such a great sign of spring. All winter I do chores twice a day and that's extra tough when I have to do chores before driving to work (pre-COVID) when I would do them around 5:15AM so I could be on the road by 6AM. 

Getting the cattle our is great and I'm sure you've seen videos online of cattle going out to pasture after being in the barn all winter. Fun fact, it's similar to how I will be when social distancing/isolation is over :)

But what is often missed is how much work it takes to get everything ready for them to go out. 

Once they get outside it's great but getting pastures and fence lines ready takes a lot of work. This year in particular I took on the task of rebuilding a lot of the fence lines because of problems with low readings on our electric fence. Low charge on the fences means cattle will most likely get out when the feed gets low. This winter I took lots of time to research how to build a good fence and then invested in everything from new types of insulators, posts and grounding systems to put in a fence that had maximum readings on the charger. This means I'll be less likely to be chasing cattle back into the pasture.

The next thing is pastures and hay fields. This year I decided to try spreading wood ash on the fields to help raise the PH and give a better hay crop and pasture grass. With chemical fertilizers costing roughly $600 a ton, wood ash from a local biomass plant is significantly cheaper and should hopefully yield the same result. I was also able to spread manure on many of the fields which significantly increases the hay yield every year. 

Both these things aren't cheap, with the fencing supplies costing about $1500 and getting all the ash and manure spread was a few hundred dollars in gas. The impact from both these investments is significant to the state of the cattle through the summer and winter. 

From a time commitment, I had started working on both these things in April and literally wrapped up the last fence repair 1 hour before I let the cattle out. It's a huge time commitment if done right, but it pays off all year. 

Here is to hoping for good weather to keep the grass growing for hay and pasture grass.