Though it is only August, with the rainy cool weather (some nights in the 40’s) we have been having it feels like we are a little behind in getting our firewood ready for winter. We have many, many logs cut, some to size and some just thrown in the pile, but all of them must be split and stacked.
There is room under one end of the pole barn, so we built some racks to hold the wood under cover this year. No more standing in the snow fighting with the tarp that is covered with snow and ice!
This is the second one. They are ten feet long by four feet high and about two feet deep, so each one holds a little over half a cord when full.
I (Brenda) split it myself, aren’t you impressed? Of course I did have my secret weapon.
I’m sure I would be in much better shape if I used an axe to split the wood - assuming I lived through it and still had a few fingers attached. I figure the log splitter is safer, and a lot easier!
Please note the proper safety equipment being worn.
Some of those logs have been on the wood pile for so long (“seasoning” Rick tells me) they are growing fungi of some type. I am not looking those up in my mushroom book to see if they are edible.
You have a lot of time to think while splitting wood, except for remembering to keep your fingers out of the way it is a pretty mindless task. It occurs to me that people are a lot like wood. Sometimes you split open a log that looks good from the outside only to find that it is rotten inside, decayed and full of bugs, worms and other creepy crawly things. Some logs crumble when only a little pressure is applied and are hardly usable. Some splits very straight and true, right along the grain line, easy to work with. Just like people.
Little by little our log pile is getting smaller.
And our cut wood stack is growing.
One trailer full at a time.
I feel like the ant in the kids story preparing for the long, cold winter.
Just in case you were thinking we must have all the logs split, here is what is left in the wood pile.
These are mostly the trees our nephew Nick took out for us two winters ago before we cleared an area on the property. When ( if ? ) we ever get them all cut, split and stacked we should have enough firewood to last for years!
