Seeking wisdom from seasoned Jacks on splitting cycles

First of all, I just want to say that I very much appreciate all of the combined years of experience and wisdom/knowledge that all the rest of you lumberjacks bring to the forum.

Here is my situation-

I am 34 and still have good arms and a decent back.

I have access to a lot of wood in my area from a few different sources.

I big log splitter have I none, but I do have a 6 & 12lb mauls, along with one of those little 8ton foot pump splitters that I picked up at a hardware store.

This weekend I plan on borrowing my neighbor's splitter to help me finally finish getting next winter's wood processed and stacked so that I can somewhat relax this summer.

My plan after this is to resume cutting in the fall [about 5-6 cords] when the leaves start falling. I originally planned on then just bringing home the rounds and letting them sit neatly stacked on pallets to sit that way through the fall and winter and then split/stack them next spring. My original thought was to either rent or borrow a log splitter at that time to just do it all at once over the course of 1 weekend.

The dilemma that I am facing is that #1, if I borrow my brother-in-law's splitter it is electric [25ton run on 220V] but I don't necessarily want to have to run the extension cord out of my stove outlet out into the back yard. #2, I really would rather not rent a splitter for the day at $80 and #3, I am still uneasy about borrowing my neighbor's just in light of the fact that if I break it, I don't have the $$$ to replace it. [I have also considered looking for a used on on Craig'sList but we'll see about that later].

ULTIMATELY, since I am still a young buck and sit behind a desk or driving all day for my job I need some exercise so I would rather just hand split all of it....but I want to be smart about it.

I have read on here that some woods are better manually split right after they are cut and others should season a bit first...... so my question is this- what about splitting it by hand in the winter when it is butt cold? Will it split easier with the moisture frozen?

Those of you who split by hand as your primary means- what cycle do you have for processing your wood?

ALSO- if you are doing it manually, what tools are you using? Sledge/wedge, mauls, splitting axes, etc? Do you use skinny or fat tools?

BV, most of what I am going to be splitting this weekend has been laying around in my yard for a few months already. I got a little over a full cord of giant pine this last weekend that had already been sitting around for a year in someone's open shed. It seemed like much of it was already ready to burn when I brought it home.

Even though I live in town, the wood stacks are located in an area that gets every breeze that blows from every direction.

I wouldn't mind working at things little by little through the year, but my job is busy and when I am home I have 4 kids under the age of 10 and they aren't really big enough yet to help me where it really counts.

BogyDave, when you say that most wood splits easy right after it is first cut, are you talking about living standing wood? Most of what I will be working with has already been cut and may have been down for anywhere from 1-12 months already.

This guy makes the work look so easy, but I have a feeling he's much larger in stature than I am-

OK, I opted to borrow my neighbor's 20ton splitter. He's renting it to me for only $20/day So I should be able to get everything that I have left in my yard split between today and tomorrow. I'll also offer to also mow his lawn or some other way of saying thank you. $40 for is much better than $80 for 1 day at the hardware store 15 miles away.

I will probably just start saving pop can money and eventually buy my own splitter one day. It is a lot easier....

In the mean time I kind of like Onetracker's idea of just busting up the big rounds and saving them for later when they dry a little and can be a little easier to work with. I kind of did that with what I could using my foot-pump splitter. I would crack them with that and then drive the final splits with the maul.

Thanks Jim, but the question is still whether you split all your stuff green or do you let it sit and season a bit first?

Thanks everybody!

Over the course of this weekend I now have everything split and I should be ready for this winter.

I will have to look into something like the Fiskars 4.5lb'er. I ideally want to be able to go out and cut and split at the same time so that my yard doesn't end up looking like this at the end of the season. If I can keep all my mess in the grove then I think that we all would be happier and have less work.

Everything else that is still in the yard is either rotten, bad and thick bark, way too knotty [even for the splitter] or too long & it wasn't worth it to me to hack 2" off the end; but now it all needs to be hauled away and the yard raked and then we'll be back to "normal."

The shed on the left is for our fire pit that is hiding behind the roof there. That just has long and big pieces that we'll use for when we have company or, like Sunday evening, we cooked hotdogs & brats out there while sitting on some rounds around the outside.

The middle stacks are all my "regular" spits and the pallet box to the right is for my shorts & uglies.

The fence is going to come down in a few weeks and I am going to hack that stump completely out and use that "mirrored" area next to my short & ugly box for my 2013/14 supply.

Jim, I think you might be referring to the X27 model? http://www2.fiskars.com/Products/Yard-and-Garden/Axes-and-Striking/X27-Splitting-Axe-36

I think that one day when I was at Walmart I saw a smaller model. I was surprised to see it there but I didn't think about it being for splitting. I will have to look again though.

I see that there is an X25 and an X27, the X25 being only 28" in length as opposed to your 36" model. The description seems to say that it is ideal for either the taller person OR for medium to extra-sized logs. Well, I guess I would probably need it for the extra-sized stuff since I don't fall into that "taller" category at my whopping 5'5".

Part of me kind of thinks that the power for extra-sized stuff might be overkill for what I would be doing, but I guess I would rather have too much power than not enough.