Loading Up on Firewood
I checked with Big R Ranch & Home earlier this week and they did say that while they are no longer carrying Press-to-Logs, they now are stocking Sis-Q-Logs. That's what I was buying at the end of last season, after Big R ran out of firewood, because the local Grocery outlet keeps a pallet of the logs, which come in bundles of five, on sale. We decided to get a pallet today, as we need to fill up on firewood and once the chimney has been cleaned, we'll probably start using the fireplace again. Indeed, there have been some days this past week when I really wanted to light a fire, but decided to hold off and just put on another layer of clothing.
I called Big R to make sure they still have the log pallets. The person there told me that while they sell it by the pallet, it's priced by the five-log bundle. That's annoying, and it means the price of a pallet (just over one ton of firewood) is $377, and worse, it's taxable, as the individual bundles were taxable while the full pallets in the past were not. That increases the cost of a ton of firewood from last year by about $100. (This is still cheaper than buying it by the single bundle from Grocery Outlet.) Still, we have relatively little choice, so Lisa hitched up the utility trailer and we eased our way down to Big R.
The wrapped pallet of logs was not well wrapped. When the forklift operator was loading our utility trailer, the pallet fell over, cracking some of the logs. This is, however, once case where the logs being packaged in groups of five helped a bit. On the other hand, it meant that instead of waiting until tomorrow to unload it as we'd originally planned, we needed to get it done today, as it was threatening rain, and had it rained, we would have had $400 worth of useless sawdust instead of a ton of useful firewood.
This is not the first time that we have backed the trailer down the fence to make it easier to fill the woodbox. However, it is the first time we've done it without nominally trespassing, as we are now parking on our own property. This quite reassuring.
Lisa got the weed blower and I wielded a broom while we cleaned several years of accumulated debris from the wood box. Lisa and I moved the small wood box up to its winter position on the porch and we moved the remainder of last year's logs to the porch box. The pallets stacked on the bottom of the box are to allow air to circulate around the wood, and to also provide some drainage. In case any water does get into the box, we want it to drain away as fast as possible.
Lisa got into the trailer and handed me the 8.5 kg bundles of logs over the fence, and I loaded the woodbox. It took less time than I expected (about an hour), but we now have a ton of wood (plus last season's leftovers) on hand, so we're not going to freeze, at least for now. Lisa and I both feel the strain from shifting a ton of wood this afternoon.
I'm going to contact another vendor from whom we have purchased the North Idaho Energy Logs we used a couple of years ago and see if they are carrying them, and if they would be willing to deliver two pallets to us. They are in Fallon and Yerrington, and the utility trailer is not in good enough condition to make the trip, so to purchase from them requires that they either deliver to us (and we get one of the neighboring businesses with a forklift to unload the pallets) or we rent a trailer from U-Haul, further increasing the costs. But first, we have to find out if they even stock the logs.
I called Big R to make sure they still have the log pallets. The person there told me that while they sell it by the pallet, it's priced by the five-log bundle. That's annoying, and it means the price of a pallet (just over one ton of firewood) is $377, and worse, it's taxable, as the individual bundles were taxable while the full pallets in the past were not. That increases the cost of a ton of firewood from last year by about $100. (This is still cheaper than buying it by the single bundle from Grocery Outlet.) Still, we have relatively little choice, so Lisa hitched up the utility trailer and we eased our way down to Big R.
The wrapped pallet of logs was not well wrapped. When the forklift operator was loading our utility trailer, the pallet fell over, cracking some of the logs. This is, however, once case where the logs being packaged in groups of five helped a bit. On the other hand, it meant that instead of waiting until tomorrow to unload it as we'd originally planned, we needed to get it done today, as it was threatening rain, and had it rained, we would have had $400 worth of useless sawdust instead of a ton of useful firewood.
This is not the first time that we have backed the trailer down the fence to make it easier to fill the woodbox. However, it is the first time we've done it without nominally trespassing, as we are now parking on our own property. This quite reassuring.
Lisa got the weed blower and I wielded a broom while we cleaned several years of accumulated debris from the wood box. Lisa and I moved the small wood box up to its winter position on the porch and we moved the remainder of last year's logs to the porch box. The pallets stacked on the bottom of the box are to allow air to circulate around the wood, and to also provide some drainage. In case any water does get into the box, we want it to drain away as fast as possible.
Lisa got into the trailer and handed me the 8.5 kg bundles of logs over the fence, and I loaded the woodbox. It took less time than I expected (about an hour), but we now have a ton of wood (plus last season's leftovers) on hand, so we're not going to freeze, at least for now. Lisa and I both feel the strain from shifting a ton of wood this afternoon.
I'm going to contact another vendor from whom we have purchased the North Idaho Energy Logs we used a couple of years ago and see if they are carrying them, and if they would be willing to deliver two pallets to us. They are in Fallon and Yerrington, and the utility trailer is not in good enough condition to make the trip, so to purchase from them requires that they either deliver to us (and we get one of the neighboring businesses with a forklift to unload the pallets) or we rent a trailer from U-Haul, further increasing the costs. But first, we have to find out if they even stock the logs.