Splittin' Up Sandy

They say firewood warms you twice; once when you split it, and the second time when you burn it.

RG, aka 'Workforce-1' with his first splits.
A knotted maple round from Sandy's
throwaway roadside woodpiles
 put up a tough fight.

Definitely the cutting and the splitting was a warming experience, and by the time I came indoors, I found it so warm inside, I had to turn the heat down.

Ditto for RG, a.k.a. Workforce-1, who learned to split rounds today, and a few things about sawing and prep.

It's been hard to find easy to carry pieces. Most of what I've scavenged has been a minimum of 40# with many sections weighing 60-100#.

But it all makes for some excellent wood for seasoning.

Quite a lot of red oak and a white hardwood that I can't tell whether it's white oak or maple, or some other tree.

The block Workforce-1 is resting the fiskars x27 on is (was) a stunning piece of wood — it almost calls out to be sculpted.

Here's a couple of views of a red oak cut. The ends that are "white" have been exposed to the elements for some time, then in a dry storage. The ends that are red are the parts that are fresh cut.

I think we burned about 700 calories apiece sawing, moving and splitting rounds today for a couple of hours.

Now we just have to wait a couple of years for the red oak to season.

The two ends on the left have been exposed to the elements for
some time, and have 'whitened.' The section visible on the left
with the red interior, is a fresh cut, revealing the true color of
the red oak heartwood.