Firewood Pictures & Text

THIS MUST BE READ CLOSLEY    Directly to the reader. I get this all the time. I mean all my life there has been serious discussion on measurement of firewood.
here goes.
first and foremost. a cord is a stack of wood in 8ft lengths. repeat. eight foot lengths. these logs will be in a rack if you will. four 4 ft high and 4 four feet wide. this equates to approx 4,500 lbs of wood.
and this is the only cord there is.
I am going to compare it to a loaf of bread.. once you slice it and toast it. you dont order a loaf of toast. its by the slice then there after.
thats a cord. thats what I call it. if you talke to me. that is what I am referring to.
NOW TO how much wood is in a cord.. average guy will cut and split it into loaf of bread size pieces and stack it up. there are approx 2 .25 stacks of cut and split wood if it is stacked 4 ft high and 8 ft long, in other words a ten cord is going to cut up to 22.5 stacks of cut and split wood.
this is where the argument starts. and everyone cuts and splits it different. the farmers alminack said it the best. cut and split wood should be stacked loose enough that a mouse can crawl through it but tight enough so a cat cant get him. does this help.( THIS IS HOW I DO IT, YOU MUST ASK THE NEXT SELLER HOW HE DOES IT.)
sooooooooooooooooo every one stacks wood different. some like air to blow through. some want a solid wall of wood and take great pains to stack it that way.
my grandmother used to bake bread. home made bread that was absolutely awesome with tunafish. she could make a dozen sandwiches with a loaf of her bread. my cousin wood come in and take that exact same loaf of bread the make 4 sandwiches. thats right. 4 and two cans of tuna. wellllllllllllll think about it. same same. how ya slice and dice it. whooze rite.
people make this serious mistake taking the 4x4x8 ft formula and calculating 128 cubic feet out of it and then extrapulating that into three stacks of wood 4 ft high and 8 ft long,
well i am here to tell you this. we use this exact same trailer to deliver cut and split wood and we stack it on there in rows. same trailer. same height. guess what approx 24 rows. weighs the same. NOT 30
every time I talk to a guy who is looking for a new wood supplier i ask where was he buying from. why not continue with that guy ect ect. when I pick up on the fact that the guy is under the total believe that every wood guy is only delivering 8 cord loads and he is expecting 30 stacks out of a load. i immediately know he is using the three stack equasion for a cord. when I tell him that the last 4 wood guys that have ripped him off were ok and it was his mistaken measurment conversion. and that I am going to do the exact same thing. only difference is that I am telling him up front that there is no way in hell he is going to get 30 piles that size from a load from me either.

I GET THIS MANY TIMES. I ASK THE GUY TO DO HIS HOME WORK AND GET BACK TO ME, THEY HARDLEY EVER DO. THEY HAVE A MIND SET THAT  ITS 3 AND THE DEVIL BE DAMMNED IF HE IS CHANGING HIS MIND.       

 if you want 30 stacks that size. I must bring you at least 12 and to be on the safe side 13 cord wood be better. this is a fact. been to court a few times. make it a point now to make shure you as a customer knows this. that there is approx 85 cubic feet of wood in a cord. thats right. not 128 but (85 )and if you are buying 8 ft wood from a supplier and are processing this and re selling. major problem. by the time you discover that you are selling wood with the 3 number and buying it using the 2.25 number better wake up. if you are reading this and know of a guy dointit. print this out and give this to him. hundreds and hundreds of guys have made this serious mistake. a financial disaster awaits those guys.   ( and when the economy goes south here they come asking all the questions, this webb page has thinned that crowd down a lot..)   not stupid;  just didn’t know.  this is the facts here.  i am not trying to see you anything but give you the information you really need to  make a good judge ment call.  this is the spriit of this webb page
did this help? How I do this. like the blog says. communication communication. communication. told the guy in howell. big truck. might crak cement. did. him not happy. I do not do driveways well. but i communicated that. he took the chance. this is your choice. you are the customer. you gotta get informed and remember what you read. all of it. not just the part you want to hear.( many people read what they want to read) trust me on this one.
I get this a lot. guy talkes to me. I am telling him all about this wood stuff. ok. actually do the order thing. he has read and liked the wood I am doing but somehow gets the price from the cheaper guy. I show up. oh oh.. whats up. he was liking the cheap price but was talking to the wood guy. I am NOT the cheap guy. he makes his money twisting the numbers and blowing smoke up your skirt. there are so many of these jerks that tell people stuff just to jack them up. and you as a customer have no way to tell the difference. I use pictures. that does it. ya like what ya see sailor its 2 bksif not. there is another girl next door. some of these guys that go for the cheap price actually need each other. I totally love it. ( i know this sounds a little off the wall but you gotta know i am 65, on my last legs. aint long for me and i dont have time for bull shit.     its the facts son. straight on facts. if you are a lady reading this  i hope you can get through it ok.
I delivered a load to frankfort. early. was dark. the guy was a meat cutter in a grocery store. I pulled up. he came out and looked at the load. said. well you are way early. go take the other guy his half and come back and i will be ready for mine. I looked at him and said. what other guy. you want me to give half of your wood to someone else. he said what do you mean. I said thats ten cord. thats all your wood. he stated swearing really bad words. i was kinda taken back thinking I had some something seriously wrong. he said nope. I have been buying half of that for ten cord.. had been for years.. how do you know what the hell ten cords is unless you see a real ten cord load. 34 ft long 5 ft high at least if you measure the length. like 40 ft it must be 4 ft high. 4×4 is 16 so for ten cord you need at least 160 square feet on aside. does this help
now here is what I do to really screw up the competition. and you are going to love this.
I try to get 11 on if at all possible. the producers i get wood from want you for a customer as I do. finding you and keeping you in todays economy is the hardest part. finding a good customer. trust me. there are a lot of them that I want to go to the cheap guy. anyway. the cheap guys put on 9 if you are luky. have seen lots of 8 cord loads that are called ten. well when 11 shows up at the neighbors and they walk by each others delivery and it is way obvious one is way bigger than the other guys. trust me. bigger is at this point in time better. oh yeah. now its a three cord difference.
soooooooooooo I inadvertently perpetuate and misconception of what 10 cord is by the way of diabolical because its a business decision to make sure you get for sure 10, every once in a while it gets to 12 and i tell you. dont expect this big a load next year because i dontwant your little lip hanging out because the load is littler. this can backfire on me also. spoiled customers can sometimes not know it. 9 i do have a few customers that pay attention and expect 11 every year and if its 10 it shows up big time. they just dont know.
I love it when they get the bit in their teeth and go find another wood guy. I drive by and see that pile of —- and chuckle to my self.. ya got what ya really want>>>or did someone else get what THEY really wanted. who had whooooo I just love it.
i call a rick a stack of wood 4 ft high and 8 ft long in 16 in pieces. a rick has three dimensions.
a face cord is simply the same size stack but no lengths. just the face of it. the wood could be 5 in long or two feet long. dont matter. its a face of the pile. 28 sq ft. not cubic. square.
we sell processed wood also. here are a couple pics of our pallets
231-846-0346 www.coxx.com in case you are printing this for dad

I thank all of you for your attention, your business and it is a awesome day when i meet a new customer that has read all this drivvel.  they totally understand what is going on and communication is just great.     it makes my life so much sweeter.. i delivered a load to a guy that had a nursery and i was talking to the son. the grampa was sitting there when the internet got brought up. he started in saying it was full of porn. child molesters. ect ect ect.  even mentioned whores.     i said.  oh dad. i gotta stop you at whores.  you do know i met your son on  the internet. thats how he ordered this wood here in the middle of the winter when you couldn’t get any absolutely any where else.. then i said. you mentioned some very undesirable people that we could be but i assure you i am not a child molester. crack head. ect ect. when you threw in whore.  well i know what i am. i am like everyone else.  i am just debating the price.  eee eee eee  the kids and even his wife was laughing their asses off.   isnt that funny. the old man shook my hand and said.     you are right. i apologize. shouldnt have called you a whore.  eeee eeee eeeeee   oh my god.     its been 20 years and it is still funny as hell.

you know i started this webb site in about 80.  we are number one on google search for firewood. ???   al

30 years ago I started delivering 8 ft firewood. unloading it by hand with some serious helpers. it wood take us a hour to unload 45-50 thousand lbs of wood by rolling it off the back of the truck.
always liked the pile like this because it wood be a little crooked when it landed on the ground. we used that to our advantage here at our home also because we cut this same wood us for our own use. sooooooooooo i developed a winch system that includes a sled or sliding headboard if you will that is in the front of the load of wood.
there are two rails like rr traks under the wood that this sled rides between and the wood is ON the traks.
when i get to your house I remove the rear two steel pipes that the state says must be solid pipe and in secured. these pipes are in pokets . i remove these and put them aside. there are two wood stakes inside of pipes that hold the wood on the truk. under the bottom of these wooden stakes there are two hydraulic cylinders.
these are controlled by a hydraulic valve located on the front of the trailer.
it insures my safty as well as yours. when these wooden stakes are pushed out the wood falls on the ground immediately. i have a standard joke that i tell every customer if they are standing by the rear of the truck when i am taking out the steel pipes. I tell them that this is a terrible dangerous place to stand for the next few min unless i have been paid. if i have been paid dosnt matter quite so much. ee eee eeee
this is a serious controll issue for safty for you and your kids. dawg. dawgs dont know and if you have one that follows you around. pleae be aware how quick they are and are always running through this danger zone. keep em in the house please.
I engage the winch and get in the cab. as I pull ahead I push the wood off. I try to spread it out so it is approx 4 ft high so when the customer cuts it up he is on the saffer side. most loadertrucks do not want t o pick up their out riggers so they set in one spot and put the whole load into a pile with a peak on it and always a big ass log on top like a cherry. i have seen this a lot. those guys are proud of the nice pile they just made. kind of like leggos. welllllllllllll you as a consumer gotta get up there and guess whut. risk your ass and bust your berries getting at it. wellllllllllllllllllllll tell em not to do that. ya gotta discuss this with them ahead of time because its in their genes. this is serious safty issue so pay attention. if you dont get wood from me. at least use this page of information to help you dealing with the other guys. ok ???
so I then wind up my cables that i had over the wood or at least throw them up on the trailer. put the steel stakes back in the pokets and motor home.
how much time does this take. I know you are not going to believe this but from the time I push the wood stakes out. and engage the winch. it is less than two minites.. t hats right folks. 120 seconds and the wood is gently falling off.
it slides from the front to the back and if i let it push against the other wood i can make a pile just as straight as it was on the truck. some piles i could actually get under it and push it on the trailer and go with it to aother place its that stright.
I have three (3) axles under my trailers. the rear is a air lift. that makes it legal to haul ten cord on a trailer of my length. there are guys delivering ten cord on a tandem. at least they say its ten. thats another question you got to ask. how can they do it and I cant. hmmmmmmmmmm thats your call. what do you think.
my trailer to the top of the big stakes is just over ten feet tall. the loader truks are thirteen ft six in. 13.6 ft tall. wires. tree limbs. fancy stuff over the end of the driveway. ect ect ect. plus they are super hevvy.. they need way more axles and if you are getting a twenty two cord load your drive way is going to get over 200,000 lbs on it. if you ax this guy to go behind the barn. past the birdbath or around the pole barn and put it by the boiler. aint gonna happen. your culvert aint gonna stand the grief for dam shure. let alone mommas posies when he makes the turn coming in. I have a hard time with that and I am half as long. so there you have it. safe and quick. you wont have to hang around long to see this show. if you go to the freezer and get your money you will miss it. 231-846-0346 is my cell no if you are printing this off for dad.
oh. we have a blue freight liner and a red mack. ugly as hell both 84 models. just plain good old work truks thought you mite like to no

true firewood is processed for use as just that. the consumer needs clean, relatively straight and of a diameter his saw can cut through and he can handle that size piece by hand after it is cut.
pulpwood can be processed with the machine that cuts the trees down and puts them in a pile with several other trees. they then are gathered up with a machine that has a grapple on the back end of it and dragged to the landing where a big loader and a chop saw processes them into 8 ft pcs. they then are put on a truck.
this saw has several hundred horsepower on it. carbide teeth and does not care how much dirt is on it. it is produced for the paper industry or power plant production that burns a tremendous amount of wood. they chip this with a huge machine with carbide chipping blades that is powerfull enough to blow through dirt.
I hate to harp on dirt but it is the mortal enemy of a sharp chain. a single grain of sand cought between the cutting edge and the wood makes a mark on the toots. dulling it just that much. when dirt is on a tree and the dirt is a half inch thick and add froze to the equasion. a single cut renders that chain totally worthless.
repeat. a single cut does that much damage. so cleanlyness (sp)? is very very important. ask that question first.
here is the question. ( are the logs you are going to deliver processed in the woods and then carried out or are they tree lengthed.?)
you want processed and carried out on a forewarder. new word for you here. means a machine that takes the wood that is processed and forewarded to the landing. rubber tired usually. this wood never touches the ground other than laying there for a while from the cutting process to moving it out of the woods. however if you get a bad operator and he pickes up the logs with the grapple or claw the city guys call it. and he grabs too close to the ground. he can also get dirt but it is different than drug dirt. it is loose and not stuck to the tree. still a problem but not as bad.
if you are printing this off and keeping it for grampa or dad. i am including my phone no 231-8460346
some of our wood is from small producers that still use a chain saw and hand pile it. this wood tends to run a little smaller. I have customers that specifically ask for wood stove cook wood. this wood is rare to find. older folks ask for this limb wood. it takes a LOT longer to get a load. not for the outside boiler but special for old fashioned wood cook stoves that some people still have and find it almost impossible to find. if you give me a month or two i can usually get a load. this wood that I find from processors or producers is always clean. I actually work for you finding quality wood. you want all oak. ok. give me a little time. what size. bigger. can do. order early like a year in advance. more later. al

Five acres for sale by paris Mi. on the west side of  131,    3 acres of cleared land and 2 acres of woods. excellent view of sunrise and sunset.   is ag or farm land.  it had a double wide on it. the land is leveled for it.    nice road through the woods.  here are a couple pics of it.  it is real easy to get to.  exit 142 and turn to the west to the first road that goes North.  that is  230th.  go north approx 5 miles.   just across meceola road ,     I have mowed the sides of the road..  the property is on  the right . it baks up to the expressway. i took my dozer and made a really nice trail t hrough the woods and a excellent place to park a camper trailer.

we have a small video of the drive thrughthe woods.  al cox   231 846-0346

the deer have a nice trail through the woods.  you can see for more than a mile when you are standing on the front of the property. it has excellent elevation. sunrise and sunsets are great.  it has a gate  and afence down the N side.

this land has been surveyed recently.  some fencing has been done.  all c orners are marked really well. if you know of someone that is retireing and need a nice place to go. please pass this on.  thank you in advance.

I like to use fables to illustrate things.   to make my point my favorite is the 5 blind guys that find a elephant as they are walking along holding a rope.   the first guy feels the trunk.   he says.  this thing is like a snake. the second guy gets the tusk. he says.  wrong. this is like  spear. totally nothing like a snake.  third guy gets the ear.  he says.  a fan boys. this thing is a fan. the 4th guy gets the leg.  he says.  you all are nuts. its like a tree.  a huge tree with skin on it.   the 5 guy gets the tail.  he says. a rope fellas, a nasty one at that and now i gotta wash my hands.     we are outa here.

on the use of e mail and voice mail messages.     lots of times they do not get deliverd on time and sometimes NOT at all.    assuming the other person got the first e mail is a major jump.    I gets lots and I mean lots of e mails.  they get lost. overlooked. arrive late like days later or maybe never.      my phone no is 231-846-0346, if you are really interested in connecting , please use my cell phone.    and then.   I have a nextell with terrible  recording qualities.   that is why  I ask to have you repeat your phone no twice and please add the area code.  amazing how many people do not include the area code.    folks say their numbers so fast that it is un recognizeable.  pretend  I am a  wood haulig truck driver  and you can really help me out by sayig it a little slower.  on the voice mail it gets tore up and even twice repeating it its a  amazing how many times i have to replay it.

MY point is. as we go through this wood quest we are both on.   me looking for good customers and you looking for a good wood supplier.  comumunication is most imparative and important.   I delivered  a load of 8 ft to  Grand Haven that the guy throught it was a load of cut and split.    we had talked many times.  he asked lots of questions.  we never ever hit on the fact it was 8 ft not split. either one of saw the elephat.   he took the load. we both were blown away how far off we were.

no question is not worth asking.  believe me there pops up one every now and then  I had no clue could be even asked but for new buyers, no clue no clue no clue as to what they are getting innto.      please ask.   and ya gotta know this.  I just love it.  please humor me. wood people are a great bunch.  this is the most fun  I have had ever, and after 30 years of doing this. always something new 

a place to share.    I am going  to have a new part of my webb site that is going to be like a book.  everytihing  I know about burning wood and handling firewood.  

this is the first words on my new blog sectio of my webb site.  thank you for stopping by.     al cox