May 23, 2017 3 min read

We are nearly finished with our firewood supply for this fall. We typically burn between six and eight cords each winter, depending on how cold it gets. And that old adage, “Firewood warms you twice,” is definitely true. Cutting, splitting and hauling firewood definitely warms you the first time.

Late this winter, during one of the wet periods (that is not very specific, considering how wet the whole winter was), a large tree fell into the pasture behind the house, pulled clear up at the roots. Then, my husband spent a few weeks pulling downed logs out of our woods and dragging them into the open where they could be more safely and efficiently cut and split. However, before he could begin cutting and splitting them, he had open-heart surgery and became quite limited for the duration of the spring work.

One Sunday after he made it home from the hospital, one of our friends showed up with chainsaws and fuel and headed up on the hill where the logs were. After a few hours, he had half of those trees cut into chunks.

A week or so later, another friend came and, using our tools, finished cutting those logs. I helped him fit the tractor with the log-splitter, and he began splitting the wood, as well. A cartload at a time, the kids and I hauled it to the barn.

That left the big tree that fell. It was so large that our chainsaw wouldn’t cut it. I called a friend from church and asked if he could ask around as to whether anyone would be able to help me get it cut. He replied he loves to cut wood and he would be by to get started as soon as he could.

True to his word, he and another church member showed up a few days later and began whacking the tree apart. One man cut the base of the tree from the root ball so that he could measure the diameter. It was 32 inches across.

Those pieces were far too large to move to the splitter. (Trust me, I tried and have black and blue legs to prove it.) Instead, we had to use a sledge and wedge to bust the logs into quarters, so they could be muscled around. The problem was, we couldn’t find a sledgehammer or a wedge, so instead, we set an axe as a wedge, and used the back side of a maul as the sledge.

It got the job done.

One more afternoon and we’ll have the quarters all split. A few more hours after that, and we’ll have all of the firewood hauled to the barn. Then we can put the log splitter and the hand tools away and stop thinking about winter heat for a few months.

We’ll replace those thoughts with thoughts of hay, gardening and lawn mowing instead. Those jobs will keep us busy until the very second we light our first fire this fall, when our wood begins to heat us for the second time.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.