September 20, 2008
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What Is It About Splitting Wood?
We heat out house with wood. Always have, probably always will. So, every year we have to lay in a supply of wood for the furnace and for the wood stove in the dining room.
This past week Ian brought a load of maple from the town and dumped it in our driveway. When he does that it is up to me to see to it that it gets split, sorted and put where it belongs. The stuff that is small enough for the stove gets stacked in the garage and the larger stuff goes into the basement for the furnace.
So, Wednesday evening Matthew set to splitting some of the larger pieces. Then the annual strange thing started to happen. I have observed this phenomenom every year since Ian was old enough to lift a godevil and try to swing it.
Matthew isn’t the strongest but he is wiry and he is very determined. He does a better job than I do and I have split more wood than he has. Now, I didn’t approve of his choice of footwear but he was doing a good job.
He did claim that the flash from my camera was distracting him and making it hard to do a good job.
You can see that that big piece is slowly being reduced to manageable chunks of stove wood.
Ian has been watching but he can’t stand it anymore. All this while he has been telling Matthew how to properly get the wood split. So he finally takes over.
He is much stronger and even more determined. He splits with a vengence, talking all the while.
He gets his chunk reduced to a more manageable pile, still giving advice all the time he’s doing it.
My husband, who has just worked an 11 hour day, works up enough energy to get his licks in. He’s the expert after all and should be able to get this block whittled down in no time at all, right?
Such form and power!!!!!
The wood practically splits in self-defense.
On to the next piece.
They all have to get in on the act. Splitting wood is like an olympic event around here. Once one gets going they all have to get involved.
Even my daughter when she came home from school had to get her chance.
She managed to reduce a pile to stove wood in a short amount of time. The best part of all this is that no one complains about having to split wood and it all got done and stacked. Now we just need more. It takes a lot of wood to heat this barn of a house.
Comments (2)
That brought back memories. I haven’t split wood since I was a child..and you are right..it is a chore and a half. I remember the first time I chopped down a tree with an axe. It seemed like an eternity and it wasn’t that big of a tree! Might have helped if my blade was a bit sharper though.
@felgild - Thank God for chain saws!!!!