Split some wood today.

Borrowed a 20 ton MTD splitter from the family of a friend from high school, and went to town on the pile of splittable wood I've cut for next year. Typically the splitter stays in the bed of the truck, which is a nice height and saves the back from being hunched over all day. I don't know how much wood is in the pile, but I've got empty space for a cord on the rack you can see in one of the pictures.

The first picture is the setup in the truck, the second the pile when I started, and the third is the pile just before I quit this afternoon. A little more to do in the morning, then I'll roll the splitter off and head out to get more wood to replace what I just split.

JotulOslo

I just lost a pretty long post I had written; needless to say I'm pretty cranked about it, but I'll try to reconstruct it the best I can. We load the splitter with a couple of ramps and three people. Two push, one guides the trailer hitch end on the way up. Two ratcheting straps and away we go! Last year, before I had a stove but while I was helping my girlfriend get wood for her stove, I borrowed the splitter and was too lazy to take it out of the truck, hence the vertical useage. Really saves the back. The wood I split today for the most part would not take a wedge well. To split the rounds to get them into the truck required that I score an X on one end of the round with a chainsaw, and then my girlfriend hammered away at the wedge. Most of the logs are 16"+ in diameter, and I am into the stuff that is 36" in diameter now.

I live in a development that has been around for about 25 years, and is heavily wooded. The nearest house behind me is about 400 feet. The whole place was open fields about 100 years ago. There is more forest in NH now than then. Some of the wood I am splitting is maple and was tapped for sap to make maple syrup with. I split a log in just the right spot and discovered a copper tap that was left in the tree. It was about 4" in from the bark. Glad I didn't hit it with the saw.

Last year's hard work is paying off this year. Behind the pile in front you can see stacked wood and a blue tarp. Last year, a little earlier than now, we did the same thing and got 6 cords or so in. This year, I'm hoping to get another six before the snow flies, if the girlfriend is willing. She won't let me cut alone, so if she doesn't go, neither do I, Personal Protection Equipment or not.

The people we get the wood from are friends of my girlfriend's parents. We pay 15 bucks a truckload for it. Four truckloads even to the top of the bed work out to be about a cord, but we heap the thing pretty good and then secure a cargo net over the top to prevent vehicles behind us having to dodge bits that might fall off. I'm not sure I get a third of a cord per loads, but in any event it's pretty cheap, but not as cheap as free!

JotulOslo