Brrr! It sure is getting chilly up here in da Harbor. Got your wood pile ready?
All around the town, I can hear the sounds of wood: throwing logs out of truck beds, chainsawing trunks into fire logs, splitting wood and stacking wood. It has that unmistakable "donk, ta donk" sound when it hits the ground or other logs.
I've been splitting and stacking for the last week. My first day was hard, and I didn't last more than an hour (with a sore back the next day.) Second day the logs were too darn twisty and knotty for me to deal with, so I let Aaron split those. Third day a friend shouted, "Hey! Don't you know that girls can't split wood? Put the maul down!" Of course, then I split more fervently.
Fourth day felt like a dream. The pieces were nice and straight, even though they were thick. I thought you might get a kick out of a little clip of me splitting one. That's our wood pile in the background, and the rest of the logs that had to be split. Enjoy!
In the video, I showed you the top of the log, so you can see that I didn't already start it. Not bad for a girl, hey? Aaron makes fun of my swing form, but I bet he's not as fun to watch (although he can bust that pile of splitters into chunks in a third of the time I can!).
When the wood pile is stacked and covered, we can relish in the nostalgic smell of wood smoke through the chimney and the glowing orange heater in the corner of the room. Oh, I can't wait!
Excellent form with the wood spitting Amanda!... I'm impressed. I've got enough wood split in my pile to last a couple years but I gave up on manual splitting awhile ago. Renting a nice power splitter every few years makes the job much easier and is worth every penny. I'm sure you'll appreciate the warmth much more this winter though, after working so hard for it. It's great exercise for burning calories as well. You are definitely a copper harbor girl!
ReplyDeleteAmanda,
ReplyDeleteYou just be having too much phunn!! Actually, my wood pile has been split and stacked since June. Of course, I live in da city, where most people have fireplaces for decoration. I use mine. A lot of this year's wood came from a maple tree I took down in my yard this late spring. Most of that tree was left in 7-8 foot long logs and I made them available for my woodturning club members for free, but no one wanted any. Then I had a member bring his bandsaw mill over and we planked them out. Turns out they're all curly maple, so everyone missed an opportunity for some wonderful wood. You'll start to see some examples of that wood in new creations soon. I just wanted you to know that even those of us living in a city in "da lower" can have tree fun. Enjoy your piece of heaven.