Son had commented a few days back that it would be a good idea for him to add some wood to his pile before the 'hard cold' sets in. Yesterday, he showed up about 2PM with his 16' dump trailer and both kids to begin the task. By that time, the dirt road was thawed to a 2" depth of slimy mud so had to shift to an alternate location. That added a lot more time to the task and by the time the trailer was full, it was dusk and getting colder fast. We've got the job down to fairly efficient once the trees are blocked off to splitter size. Four pairs of hands makes things move right along.
My 'job' is operating the hydraulic wood splitter so I have to be pretty much focused on where everyone's hands/fingers are at all times. I really don't like working up the 'saw log' sized chunks but Son doesn't seem to mind. One of the dead ash trees we cut and split yesterday had a 24+" diameter trunk 16-18' long that made a 1/4 of the trailer load by itself. Some of those blocks were all Son and Grandson could manhandle onto the splitter table.
A long way from me going out Sunday afternoon to cut a tree and split it up by hand for the next week's wood supply like it was 'in the old days' forty years ago.
My 'job' is operating the hydraulic wood splitter so I have to be pretty much focused on where everyone's hands/fingers are at all times. I really don't like working up the 'saw log' sized chunks but Son doesn't seem to mind. One of the dead ash trees we cut and split yesterday had a 24+" diameter trunk 16-18' long that made a 1/4 of the trailer load by itself. Some of those blocks were all Son and Grandson could manhandle onto the splitter table.
A long way from me going out Sunday afternoon to cut a tree and split it up by hand for the next week's wood supply like it was 'in the old days' forty years ago.