Oh, my aching back...

...and legs and arms....

So yesterday morning I got the hydrolic log splitter out of the garage and set up to reduce the rounds of former trees into much smaller pieces so they could spend some time drying before winter gets here. Let me say that the 25-ton Yard Machine splitter was one of the BEST purchases I ever made. It's gotten some serious use the last three years from both Mark and myself and has successfully reduced cherry, maple and beech to firewood for both our cabins. Mark spends much more time at his place during the winter than I do and burns close to 8 face cords of wood each year. I'll go through 2 maybe 3 face cords during the hunting season and the few extended weekends I come up to enjoy the snow and solitude. (Hey, maybe there won't be much need for that solitude stuff now that I'm out of NJ and into north-central PA where it's pretty darn secluded to start with.)

Anyway, I set up around 8:30 AM and worked until 1 PM when the sun and heat started to get to me. By then I was two-thirds through the stack of blocks but it was the easy two-thirds. I took an extended lunch break during the heat of the day to get off my feet, have something to eat and drink, and then checked the cameras. (Ho hum, lots of pictures of our "Teddy" bear who has taken possesion of the feed pile but a few of a spike buck who snuck in while "Teddy" went on walk about. Got a couple of raccoons and a fox, too. Not bad for one night.)

I got back to work around 2:30 and went at it for three more hours before finishing the last splitable round and put the splitter away. There is one heck of pile of split maple and beech laying in the yard now, but I'll leave it for Mark to stack for air drying. (I'll post some pictures when I get back to PA. Nothing but dial-up service at the Bolt Hole.)

The maple was pretty easy to run through the splitter as many of the rounds were from a tree that was either hollow (real easy split) or a bit punky in the center (also easy splitting but the center is nearly worthless as fuel). The beech, however, was a b*tch! The grain is straight but really doesn't split that way when wet. The inner fibers cling to one another with a mean spirit. You had to run the splitter all the way through the chunk and even then beat the two pieces apart. Of course much of what I did in the afternoon was the beech. Should make good firewood once it dries out, though.

Today, I've got to cut the grass before/between thunderstorms. It will give me a chance ot stretch some of the stiffness out of my legs and back. I use a walk behind push type power mower and have about two or two-and-a-half acres of relatively flat lawn to cut. It' should take about two-and-a-half to three hours to finish. THen it's shower, pack up and head back to the Aerie.