First hand splitting session.

Looks good, If you do a little everyday it will get easier on the body some call the exercise, plus fire heats you a couple of times, splitting stacking then burning.

Looks like a lot of good work there. You will definitely want to top cover your stack to keep your garage roof runoff from soaking your wood. Get it pitched so the water runs right over and off it.

That'll work.

I like to do my splitting and stacking using the little bit every day method. I do 1-2 hours a day till its done. usually takes me a month or 2 to get the years wood done working 3 days a week or so. And Im still sore after each session.....

Looking good. Getting ahead is definitely the tough part. Good idea to get it done ASAP, the drier the better.

Yea I only burn supplementally. So I only go through 2.5 - 3 cords a year. I got lucky this year and got a friend from work that has 2 big silver maples he wants down so I have done 4 truck loads of maple then across the street they had a ash come down and they gave it to me so I got about 2/3 cord from that ash. That was some of the easiest spliting wood I have ever split. I would love to get 3 or 4 full cords of ash.

If you like splitting Ash, just wait 'til you get to work on some nice, straight Red Oak or Black Locust.

Just did some straight red oak and yes it stplit fantastic.......... But my god it still smells after 2 weeks. Least the ash stops smelling after a couple days.


My neighbor came over yesterday asking if I fertilized... lmao.

Red Oak can piss off the neighbors.

What I find crazy is that when I have several days of "working too hard", is how much I miss it the first day off! I start looking around to see if maybe I left just a little bit of work that could be done to satisfy that physical Jonesing. What's up with that??

Soundchasm said:

I miss it the first day off!

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Love being in the yard this time of year especially after this winter.

WriteNoob said:

Endorphins rock. I've been hazy, but happy, all night.

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I've chosen a hopeless project of slightly altering a creekbed with my shovel. I've been going down there with my shovel periodically and shoveling creekrocks slowly re-training this creek. I swear after 30 minutes it's a ridiculously hard task, but I'll end up 2-3 hours down there, and most bizarre, it's starting to work (at least for the very short-term).

It must be the endorphins from a repetitive physical task. And it's a pretty good excuse for justifying that bowl of ice cream I'm going to have afterwards!

[quote="WriteNoob, post: 1722330, member: 30538"

I wonder what else I'm this friggin' wrong about. [/quote]

You didn't take ibuprofen BEFORE picking up the Fiskar's. Nice crib, Nice work!

Soundchasm said:

slightly altering a creekbed with my shovel

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wow. hey bud if you make it out my way I have a 15ft deep 25ft diameter sink whole in the back 40 you could fill in. ought to be endorphin city!

I also enjoy hand splitting but, then again, we only use about a cord a year all during the shoulder seasons. We burn birch and I only do the hand splitting for about 30 minutes a day during the summer months. I figure that's enough upper body exercise for a 68 year-old. Straight-grain birch splits beautifully but I set aside the junks with lots of knots and contrary grain and borrow a buddy's gasoline splitter for those nasty pieces.

ChipTam

Missouri Frontier said:

wow. hey bud if you make it out my way I have a 15ft deep 25ft diameter sink whole in the back 40 you could fill in. ought to be endorphin city!

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Is this the classic "start at the bottom and work your way up" kind of thing??

1.5 cord of tough wood can be a good bit of work to hand split.
I have to be careful with the body these days, plus I just don't have the time to devote a whole day or even afternoon to processing wood, so it's a 'little at a time' proposition.
It causes a lot less pain & you'll be pleased at how you move along if you can just grab an hour, or even half hour here and there on a consistent basis.
Just starting out and trying to get ahead can be a slog for sure, but once you're there, keeping up isn't too hard.

If I'm gonna do more than an hour or so I pull an Osage & IBU-up before I even start.

I can say that one thing I was very friggin' wrong about was stacking my wood 7' high. Drying + frost heave + gravity =
You're racks look more stable than mine were, but I now subscribe to a 4.5' limit.

Soundchasm said:

Is this the classic "start at the bottom and work your way up" kind of thing??

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From the top or bottom, it would be a monumental chore. But I figured, if you are rerouting creek beds with a shovel you might be up to it.