splitting wood

Last year we got the new fireplace, so I started working my way through the firewood that we got when we cut a tree down ten years earlier. Most of it was too thick to burn conveniently, so I got a nice splitting axe and split it smaller. The summer before last, I got more firewood from my neighbor, that wasn't split at all. So I've been splitting it.

The other stuff was very dry maple. This is not-so-dry ash. Much tougher than the maple. I really don't want to spend too much effort splitting it, but I want to get rid of this pile this year, and there's too little of it to rent a splitter.

It's kinda fun, though, when it's not too tough - when I aim the axe well, and it flies apart. Then, it's an easy task and I feel productive. But some of these logs are really tough, and I work forever to get them split. And I don't even try some of them. If they're too long, I can't get through them. Or if they have branches, they're not going to split. And some of them weren't cut well enough to stand up.

But this summer I think I'll be getting several more trees, so I'll have to rent a splitter.