[The firewood supply rebuild started late and I came off the line slowly and had a dead saw day but my uber-woodsplitter redeemed me. You build a mountain a pebble at a time. It’s a whole lotta’ work so I’m reporting on it whether anyone cares or not.]
Round #3:
My splitter was already abandoned at my friend’s house but he had a tree of interest that was deep in his woods. I loaded my trusty old ATV on the pony trailer and headed out.
Even a wimpy ATV can do more than a man alone. I dragged some logs out of the woods. I bucked them because his saw (which started well) stalled and wouldn’t restart. (What the hell is it with chainsaws this year?) The splitter always starts. Honda should make chainsaws!
The stuff I dragged out wound up hauled, bucked, and split. He kept that wood. I was fixin’ to leave when I spied a stack of old log cants from his portable sawmill. Bone dry! Lonely forgotten wood! Future firewood in need of a loving home!
He was more than happy to let me “clean it up”. I waded into the pile and realized I was inside a six foot tall Jenga game. Good grief! The saw wanted to kick more than usual and there was a certain amount of plunging a bar into parts unknown. Lucky for me I encountered no hornet’s nests or metal detritus. He loaded most of it into my truck while I was manning the saw… which is why he should be wearing a halo.
It was fruitful but slow going. Stacking a truckload of split logs takes effort. Stacking a truckload of “plank bits” takes twice as long because they’re so small. Who knew? After the truck was full we tossed more on the trailer. Unfortunately some moron (me) had already parked an ATV on the trailer, using up most of the space.
End result? Half a cord of the bestest driest most kindling-errific wood you can find. It took unusually long to stack it in the shed but I’m a big fan of quality and this is good stuff. Unfortunately, the woodshed has a mere 1 1/2 cords of wood. That’s not enough. By New Year’s Day wolves will be at the door.