Questions are answered

     I'm finally somewhat comfortable with the firewood progress so I thought I'd take an afternoon break and answer a question. I've been asked a couple of times what size maul I use to split wood.
    The answer is more than one. They are lined up in the photo. The orange one to the left is the main one. It is all steel and weighs 18 pounds. I use it for the biggest chunks, particularly of birch because it's such a dense hardwood. I've had it for 33 years. Sometimes even that maul won't do it and then I cut a chunk lengthwise with the chainsaw. Some of those are so tough I have to cut the halves into thirds. I usually split those where I cut them because they are way too heavy to be lifting. (I am 76 years old, after all.) The biggest piece of birch I've split so far this winter was 19 inches in diameter. The piece the maul is leaning aganst is spruce and 10 inches in diameter, so the birch was just about twice that size.
     The middle one with the yellow handle I use for lighter work, most of the spruce and some of the smaller pieces of birch. It was new last year, bought after the wood handle on my old one shattered in my hands. It weighs 6 pounds. The spruce it's leaning against is 7 inches in diameter.
    The one on the far right with the blue handle is the weight of an ordinary hatchet, but the long handle gives it more versatility. I usually use it only for splitting kindling or for trimming a branch from a chunk that I missed when I first cut it.
     For backup I have a 3-pound, short-handled maul and steel wedges for splitting the tough ones. Hint: don't waste your money on those plastic orange wedges. I have broken every one I've ever used.
    Now, did you notice the chickadee inspecting the product? If you missed him, he's standing on the edge of the sled to the left in the photo. This spot is right under the feeder. Not the best choice of a location considering the birds, but life on a hillside doesn't offer many level choices. Besides, it doesn't seem to bother the birds at all. They flit in and out all the time I am there and I have even had them land on me. It's all so quiet here I can hear their wingbeats as they fly to the feeder.
So there we have it; not finished yet, but in good shape for next winter.
    Henry David Thoreau wrote he loved heating with wood because it warms you twice. According to this account, how many times do you think someone who really cuts firewood feels that warmth?
    You cut the original into sections of the proper length. You haul it to where you plan to use it, in my case by hand with a 6-foot plastic sled. You split it. You haul or carry it again to where you stack it for storage. Stacking is warming too. Then when it's time to burn you haul it out again and carry it to the stove. Only in my case you don't do that for a year. That's six times by my count, not even considering the fire itself.
     I think old Henry had his firewood delivered, at least in the round.
     The photo at the bottom shows the progress so far: slightly bigger than a cord, counting what still needs to be brought up the hill. A cord and a half holds me through the winter and I have a month and half to get that last half. I also have a bunch of spruce cut for kindling that I only need to split.
     One year when I was quitting smoking I left a small pile to split right outside the door and whenever I felt uptight and wanting a smoke I went out there and split firewood. Haven't had a cigarette in 15 years but I still leave a pile of wood to split by the door. That's it in the picture with the splitting gear.

Firewood and revery