At my friend's house, I finally finished all the splitting. There were BL shorts, and longs. But its all done!! His stacks now have 4 cord, 3 needed for this next season. My stacks there now hit the 5 cord mark. I cut up some White pine logs, making sawdust (shavings) for misc uses here, as well as firestarters we make. AND I finally learned how to sharpen a chain by hand. The machine I have (Harbor Fright) does well for multiple chains, it's quick. But I like being able to do things by hand for when the power goes out, or I'm away from home. The other drawback to the machine, is that it has only one pitch wheel size. Kinda limited. I am about as giddy as if there was a big snowstorm rolling in, and there was a nice toasty fire going. My good friend was with me today, so help and fellowship were the order of the day....the dude can chuck some wood!! Pics below: Slice the round vertically. Rotate it 90° and slice again. A nice load of pine shavings (below the saw buck) And a pile of kindling.
This spring, I'm taking after a certain buZZsaw BRAD and have split 6 cord by hand. Good for the shoulders and the heart. I also took 3 rather challenging trees down today. 2 fell into another, their root ball up in the air. All 3 were under tension, one of them in 2 directions, as it was behind another tree when it fell in a recent storm. I cut gingerly, watching the cut, and for barber chairs. And the root ball, which flopped down as the last cut was made. That was the most risk-fraught felling I have ever done. It was slow, just seeing where the sension wanted to go, and cutting from both sides. Now I see why they didn't want to touch those trees! The Lord was surely watching out for my sorry tookis. Sirchopsalot