Woods Tree Farm

I'm about out of good dry firewood, so I'm scrounging the property to see what I can find that can dry out this year.

I've been wanting to mill some of the logs from my property for a while now, and I'm finally getting the chance to do just that today. Today I load up some poplar, oak and pine logs on my trailer and haul them to a sawmill about an hour away. The EZ Boardwalk sawmill, which is the same mill that Adam at @Hometown Acres uses does a great job ripping through these logs and quickly turns the logs into usable lumber.

I've been buying some firewood to resell and I can't believe how much wood I see out there that is complete garbage. Many firewood sellers seem to have not a care in the world what kind of quality they're selling and that's really disappointing. I'm looking to aggressively grow my firewood business any way I can, but focusing on selling a quality product at a premium price. Firewood bundles are the most profit, but take more work to prepare, package and deliver, but I have a good demand for firewood bundles so that's what I'll continue to focus on for now.

I took truckloads of firewood off my website so customers couldn't order, but an unexpected firewood order came in.

My firewood business needs to change so I can make the most of this season. I'm nearly out of wood I've produced myself so I'm making the decision to limit bulk firewood sales to focus on small stacks and firewood bundles. My homemade firewood bundler is getting a workout lately as I've been selling a lot of bundles. I expanded my firewood bundle offering to include 12 bundles for $99 and that has done really well!

We've had good luck with leyland cypress, so we decided to plant some murray cypress. Murray cypress look just like leyland cypress, but are known to be more disease resistant, and also have slightly stiffer branches. These fast growing trees could become harvestable christmas tree height as soon as 2 or 3 years. We really hope these grow well as christmas trees on our tree farm because we really want to expedite the time it takes to bring trees to market.

Last year we did a video on saving seed and gathered a jar full of plump seeds from our leftover procut orange sunflowers. While we were slow and late to plant the seeds this season, we're happy to report the saved procut seeds did grow some nice looking flowers!

Firewood orders are flying in with more than double the sales so far this year compared to last year. The firewood business is growing which means I wish I had more wood. I guess that's the theme with all smaller firewood sellers. There is never enough firewood inventory.

We've done 3 years now selling flowers as a you-pick operation and this year we planted more flowers than ever. Our farm has been open for 4 weekends for flower picking, and now all of our sunflowers are done blooming so we're going to officially say we're done for the year. There are several things with our u-pick flower season that has gone well, and a few things we'll adjust for next year.

Working today to clean up the flower patch, set up some photo props, and get it ready to open for flower picking season. Need work boots? Check out Rock Rooster: https://rockroosterfootwear.com/?ref=ON20tR8q24UF0a USE CODE: "WOODSFARM" for 12% off at checkout. We're going to open our flower patches for several weekends we call Flower Fest. At Flower Fest at Woods Tree Farm, while flowers are the focus, we also have a number of games and activities for the whole family to enjoy as well as a bunch of photo props set up to make the experience a memorable one.

I'll give you an update on the Christmas trees from the Austrian pine we planted in the spring of 2022, the Caroline Sapphire, our first planting of Norway Spruce from the spring of 2019, and Leyland Cypress planted in 2020. Woods Tree Farm was started in the spring of 2019 and since then we've planted over 3500 trees, sold pre-cut trees at Christmas time, flowers during the summer, and grown our business as a photography venue for local photographers. We highlight all of these aspects of our business here on the channel. For other property maintenance, equipment use, and firewood cutting, splitting and selling, check out our other channel, @Flat Creek Outdoors

I've been a way and have a lengthy to-do list around the farm, but wanted to fit in a little firewood splitting while I had some time on a stormy afternoon. Sometimes I wish I could give my firewood business more attention, but sometimes 20 or 30 minutes is all I can give. I'm thankful for the Wolfe Ridge log splitter which helps me be super productive with the little bit of time I have to split wood. Thanks for watching!

Working to clear a new trail using my 36" pto tiller and the Artillian grapple and this job was completed pretty quickly and efficiently.

This is our first year using plastic ground cover in the flower patch and we didn't know what to expect, but we're noticing some dramatic differences between the plants with ground cover and those without. If this is to be expected, I don't know any reason why we wouldn't consider doing more ground cover in the future.

I got some hickory logs recently from another property and I had a few minutes right at sundown, so figured why not split up this wood. I hooked up the Wolfe Ridge splitter to my 22 year old honda rancher and got to work. In 15 quick minutes two trees worth of wood was split. I also got a nice little gift from @Woodruff Woods be sure to check out his channel.

Yes, I had a little fun with the thumbnail. No the splitter didn't catch fire, but looking at the oil temp it got quite hot after just 45 minutes of splitting firewood. This raises the question of what is the appropriate operating temperature for a commercial hydraulic splitter like my Wolfe Ridge Pro 28c? I know if the oil gets too hot, it can damage seals and other internal components, but how hot is too hot?

Its time we clear the overgrown pond dam on our property. After years of neglect, I want to clear the pond dam to preserve the structure and to improve access to the water for fishing.

After over a month away from the woodyard, temps are up and I'm struggling to get back in a routine to be productive at producing firewood. This is the time of year when I start selling more firewood, and we have other things going on at the farm which keeps us busy. But I know I need to spend more time cutting and splitting firewood if I want to have a robust inventory for next year.

We're using ground cover for the first time over part of our flower patch. This is by far the largest and most ambitious flower patch we've ever done and we're really looking forward to getting everything going so we can host our flower festival in August and September. This year, we're growing zinnias, cosmos, calendula and multiple kinds of sunflowers

This is our 2nd sunflower patch this season and we today I'll share the two methods we use to plant sunflowers by hand, using the earthway garden seeder, and by distributing sunflower seed by hand.

We're trying to aggressively increase our you-pick flower business, but we're off to a slow start with our spring Wildflower Picking season.

I now have the largest cache of firewood logs I've ever assembled at one time. This will be great for the firewood business and growing the 2023 firewood inventory. Today I'll use the Kubota L3901 compact tractor and Artillian grapple to move the logs to the pile where they'll sit until I'm ready to start splitting with the Wolfe Ridge 28 pro.

I've had a bunch of people ask for firewood lately but I don't think anything is dry enough to sell, but I'm going to check it with a moisture meter just in case. Don't forget to subscribe and join us on Facebook, too https://www.facebook.com/flatcreekoutdoors Our firewood business is growing and I'm working hard to increase inventory so I can sell more firewood than ever this upcoming year.

The biggest challenge I've had growing my firewood business is getting supply. It is too time consuming to harvest logs from my own property or to go out and collect free wood from other properties. I finally got a load of logs delivered which should help me boost inventory quickly and efficiently! Before we take a look at the logs, I need to cut up a sweet gum log with my Husqvarna 455 rancher and move it up to the front of my property to create a barrier to prevent unwanted access to an area I recently cleared. Don't forget to subscribe and join us on Facebook, too https://www.facebook.com/flatcreekoutdoors