Woodcutting

My parents and cousin have wood stove that they use during the winter, so I helped them today at my parents' house with cutting up wood. I got up at 7:30 this morning, after 5 hours of sleep. Due to my school workload, I've been up late every night this week doing homework. For this reason, and specifically because finals is next week, I told my parents that I could only work until noon on the wood.

We started working by 8:00. The goal was to start fairly early, to avoid the heat. But it was hot from the start. My dad, twin, cousin, and I worked the whole time, with my little brother and cousin helping for awhile.

We used a hydraulic log splitter. I'd used one before, and am always impressed by how many man hours are saved by its usage. There are always logs that are more easily cut than others, but overall, most would be much more difficult just using an axe. The splitter was pretty solid - roughly 400 lbs. The logs would be set vertically underneath a large wedge, which would then be hydraulically pressed down until the log was split. The logs ranged from 8 inches to well over 2 feet in diameter. The average log was about 18 inches in diameter, and had to be cut 4 or 8 separate times. The largest logs had to be cut over 20 times. We'd first split them in half, and then keep going until they were small enough to fit into a regular wood burning stove.

We took a break at 10:30, and then didn't break for the rest of the day. During the break, we had a dessert from where I was born, which helped keep us fueled for the rest of the time!

We finished at 3:00, several hours after I was wanting to stop. But we got a lot of work done. My cousin estimated that we have enough wood for 2 or 3 seasons between my family and his. It's worth it for me, as I hate cold weather as much as anyone else there. Now if I can just get a lot of homework done to make up for getting finished later than expected!