Firewood Side Hustle cutting, splitting and selling
Our firewood side hustle has been a part of our lives for over 15 years. We have supplemented the heating in our house with our own firewood since around 2008. Dead trees are not a problem, with the recent Emerald Ash Borer invasion we have lost dozens of ash trees. This as one of our top retirement side hustles and we also happen to enjoy the exercise. Having trees die and not using the wood would really be a waste too.
How we cut and split for our firewood side hustle
Throughout the year we cut and split wood. We take down dead trees each year, split and stack the wood for drying. Since we only cut dead trees this wood is nearly ready to burn when cut. We still split it and stack it to dry for at least 6 to 12 months. Using a couple of chainsaws, the tractor, and a hydraulic splitter to produce about 10 to 12 cords of per year. We could do more but this is the right amount for us.
How we sell our Firewood
The firewood we cut and split goes right into racks that we sell from. We sell 4’x8′ racks and some 4’x4′ racks. Someday we may even but up a roadside stand, we have a good spot for it. Otherwise a couple ads on Facebook Marketplace gets all our wood sold quickly in the fall.
$1,000 per cord for a Firewood Side Hustle?
How is that possible? Here is how it stacks up for us. We sell about 6 cords of wood each year but in smaller quantities. We average about $250.00 per cord and don’t have to deliver any of it. Small quantities like 4’x4′ racks are perfect for people who use it in fire pits and they will pay more. They can fit that much wood in an SUV! They really don’t want big full cord deliveries. So this totals about $1,500.
We burn firewood in our home wood stove which saves us about 500 to 600 gallons of fuel oil per year. Lets call this $2,500 in savings per year. Finally because we harvest wood from the property and sell it, we are taxed on our property as a farm with a woodlot management program in place. This saves us about $6,000 annually in real estate taxes.
There you have it, $10,000 for cutting 10 cords of firewood per year!
Could we sell more wood each year?
As often as we think about it there is just better things to do. It is possible to have some tree services drop off wood at our property. We could get this wood for free, cut it up, split it and sell it. There is a good demand so it might be something to do once in full retirement. For now 10 cords of firewood meets all our needs, keeps our woods free of dead trees and keeps our farm real estate assessment in place. Firewood is a small but important part of Growing Our Retirement
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