Splitting Weekend

[red oak]

Made the annual trek up to Pennsylvania this weekend to help the father in law split his wood. He cuts it on his farm over the course of the year. On this day his job was to run the splitter while my job was to lift all of the pieces. Doing this from 9 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon made my back a bit sore! After we got everything split we began to load up the trailor. So the pics below are of us splitting and the kids helping load the trailor and carry some into the house. We filled the trailor up twice and there are probably 4-5 more loads like it. Wood was mostly cherry and locust with some ash and a very small amount of oak mixed in. Some of the wood may be burned this winter but the majority is for next. Beautiful weekend for it with the leaves close to the peak of their color in western Pennsylvania. Pefect day for splitting with weather being sunny and highs in the 50s.

 

[onetracker]

yep. splitting wood in the autumn.

ain't it grand?

looks like the youngster there can carry more splits than my 18 year old son !

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I'm betting that splitter can not be used right (vertically). That is a shame and your back is paying the price.

I remember helping out an old fart a few years ago. He had a big pile of wood and it took us several hours but we had one guy sitting at the splitter and 2 bringing wood and removing wood. He was pretty happy when it was all done. I was amazed at how much we split during that time.

 

[JOHN BOY]

Yep vertically would have required a Milk crate ! BACKWOODS.

 

[thewoodlands]

Nice work Red Oak, times you'll always remember.

zap

 

[red oak]

I'm betting that splitter can not be used right (vertically). That is a shame and your back is paying the price.

I remember helping out an old fart a few years ago. He had a big pile of wood and it took us several hours but we had one guy sitting at the splitter and 2 bringing wood and removing wood. He was pretty happy when it was all done. I was amazed at how much we split during that time.

Dennis - I've only ever used 2 splitters (one belonged to a friend, the other belongs to my father in law) and neither had the vertical option. After a few hours I was wondering how much better I'd feel splitting vertically. But we got a year's worth of wood split in a day and after a day or two the back was fine. It is amazing how much you can get processed in a day if you work at it.

 

[Gasifier]

Nice work red oak. Those kids are some strong workers. Keep them doing stuff like that. They will thank you for it when they get older and they are doing well in life. I see too many kids today who are not required to do any work when they are young. Play video games too often and too much, and watch way too much TV. Then when the work in high school gets challenging or the work at the job they get in their teenage years gets tough, they don't want to do it. They often don't want to do anything that requires much effort. If they are never required to do any chores, they will not want to do any work when the times comes. Plain and simple. I feel bad for the kids and the parents when I see them going through tough times because the kids just don't have any get up and go!

 

[ohlongarm]

Made the annual trek up to Pennsylvania this weekend to help the father in law split his wood. He cuts it on his farm over the course of the year. On this day his job was to run the splitter while my job was to lift all of the pieces. Doing this from 9 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon made my back a bit sore! After we got everything split we began to load up the trailor. So the pics below are of us splitting and the kids helping load the trailor and carry some into the house. We filled the trailor up twice and there are probably 4-5 more loads like it. Wood was mostly cherry and locust with some ash and a very small amount of oak mixed in. Some of the wood may be burned this winter but the majority is for next. Beautiful weekend for it with the leaves close to the peak of their color in western Pennsylvania. Pefect day for splitting with weather being sunny and highs in the 50s.



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Nice outing with the family for sure,and living in Northwest Va. is #1,I'm looking at retiring in Cana Va,probably close to you.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Dennis - I've only ever used 2 splitters (one belonged to a friend, the other belongs to my father in law) and neither had the vertical option. After a few hours I was wondering how much better I'd feel splitting vertically. But we got a year's worth of wood split in a day and after a day or two the back was fine. It is amazing how much you can get processed in a day if you work at it.

That's a shame you couldn't try it vertically. For me, standing in one spot is a back killer. Also just having to work and do some lifting away from my body just don't work well at all and really makes me hurt a lot. What I found was splitting vertically takes away all that pain. I did experiment on how to position the body best. Tried on my knees, higher and lower until I found the perfect height. I put the splitter right next to the pile and when I can no longer reach the wood, it is simple to move the splitter a few feet. I used to use an axe for a grabber sometimes but a pickeroon or hookeroon works much better. Mine is 36" so it helps for grabbing logs rather than getting up to roll them over. Just one more little tool that helps a lot.

 

[corey21]

Nice work.

 

[bogydave]

Great family outing.
Love the wood hauling trailer, kids get to ride on top ?

 

[red oak]

Great family outing.
Love the wood hauling trailer, kids get to ride on top ?

We leave a corner on the trailer open - they love it and that's their reward for helping!

 

[CageMaster]

great exercise and nice family bonding time.