guyd

dunno if I can ask this here - but need 20 good straight trees for a barn build - 15 foot max length of straight bit. minehead area.. gimme a call? 01643 862110 ?

Sorry - bit of a miscalc there - yes 800 quid to move 100 tons... What I find difficult to grasp is the massivly varying amounts that 1 / 4 men can shift per day - some say 20 tons per man per day - others 10 tons for 4 men total! The description of the site was the same (good level countour following roads, clear undergrowth, 15 feet spacing needing thinning, 12 to 18" diameter conifer) So - working on a worst case scenario - 20 tons for 4 blokes (all providing own gear, insurance, PPE, saws etc) @ 400 quid. 300 to move it to the field. (a bit more than half the 400/50 quote I had) 700 quid for 20 tons delivered. ish. Thats still 35 a ton - when euroforest will deliver soft for 30 per ton, or hard for 40 per ton - and I don't have to do any of the sorting out of lads.... Or chase up loader drivers, find that someones got stuck / chopped the wrong tree down etc etc etc. You have a hard job - and I respect that - but I think I can see easier ways of making money. In the mean time - Im in the market for delivered hardwood to TA24 area - gimme a shout if you have some spare

Ok - I have had a bit of a chat with some characters from here - and have got a very rough figure of somthing like 20 tons of wood out per day, with a 4 man crew. OK - so 4 men / day = 400 quid Transport from side of forest track to 5 miles away (somerset - so can do this on a tractor) - £400 per 50 ton cord. This is a bit ott - but lets work on worst case eh? so for 100 tons - thats 1600 quid on lads, 8000 to 'forward' it Lets call it 10K in cost. firewood retails at 50 -70 per 'load' (about 1/3 to half a ton) - lets be nice and say a half ton (it aint - but hey) so 50 quid sale per half ton = 100 quid per ton. Cost is 100 per ton (10K / 100) Um - how do you make money in this game?

I have been offered the option of managing a small 100 acre hillside woodland of various tree types - from was-coppiced-then-forgotten to conifers that have been ignored, to nicely managed bits of oak. The land is solid, and the going is good. Its hilly, but easily walkable. There is little undergrowth. There are a plethora of good, wide, well maintained tracks through it all. I have a few acres to store the wood, and season it (I was thinking a little tarragon, maybe some paprika - what does the board suggest?) - about 4 miles as the crow flies from the site. I need:- -Bods to clamber about and chop trees down to thin the woodland to create decent timber for construction. -Bods to limb it and burn the brush -bod and big tractor trailer with grapple to stack it on trailer and take it to my land. -Bod to process wood, and stack it for seasoning. -All bods initially need to be contactors with own insurance etc - this will change if it appears to be workable. Now - I have no idea what this lot will cost me - I know what I can sell the wood for, and how much Im paying for it - I need the figures in between to see if its a go-able business. I'm a fair man - but don't take fools or rip-off merchants well. Interested? Location is near Minehead, West Somerset. PM me for a phone number if you want a chat. Guy