And down he goes - adventures in log spitting.

My buddy Aaron and his brother Wes called me early in the morning yesterday and asked if I be interested in splitting some wood with them. Aaron has done tons of favors for me in the past, from cutting my grass to helping put up ceiling fans. He's a good guy. So, of course I said yes.

Being a "city mouse", it should come as no surprise to any of my two or three readers (who are probably family - Hi Steph!) that I have never split wood. Aaron and Wes heat their home with a older wood burning stove, but increased it's efficiency with some good DIY thinking. They also sell wood to supplement their income.

The idea behind splitting wood it is pretty simple. You take a tree and section it down into usable bits. This is normally done using a chainsaw, which I didn't use - that skill I'll pick up later. Then take your nice round section of wood, place it upon a bigger rounder stump and then take a nice look at it. You want to start around the edges, trying to cut it along any cracks or breaks in the wood because those are the weakest points. Then simply let the ax do most of the work.

OK...no issue, seems simple enough. Expect when the wood that I decided to try and split and a shitload of internal knots. So in other words no matter how many times I swung that ax, I was making little progress. Even as my aim improved, in other words each time I cut the wood the ax was striking in or near a straight line, it seemed that I was making little progress. So I admit that I got a little frustrated and started to work harder and faster trying to break that damn piece of wood wide open.

I winded myself, sitting down trying to catch my breath...I started to feel light headed, in fact I was wondering if I was having a heart attack...and over I went. I fainted.

I was OK, just overexerted myself. Still though, I'm a man in my approaching my mid 50's and way out of shape. I should know better.

As it so happened both Wes and Aaron had trouble with that damn cut and eventually used a log spiltter on it. I did manage to split a few logs with the ax as the day went on.

We did get a lot done, but it was a nice day out for a change. I just have to remember to breath and not let myself get caught up in my own stupidity.

Comments

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