Eric and I were good friends in high school, did a ton of snowmobiling together until our mid to late 20s, at my cottage up north, and on the river when the I've was good and there was at least an inch of snow to coat the ice. I only see him occasionally now. He got married and pretty much never fan his sled after that.
We must have different elm then. I could post a video, because it's pretty ridiculous if I try that with the elm I have. It can be the straightest, no knot stuff I can pull from the pile, and my maul just bounces off, even if I hit it as hard as I possibly can. At best it leaves a little mark.
I've got the same stuff Horkin, wow. My son was swinging away at some earlier this winter and I thought I'd go over and show home how its done...no good!!
Thats why I said I'm going soft I don't even bother with the maul on elm. Even my 35ton splitter creeks with the 4 way head on. I'm thinking of welding a hitch on that trailer and pulling two so I can get more on each trip. Tomorrow its back for more elm after work I may even set out a tipup.
Once again I'll state that it depends upon the tree and how long it has been dead. Also it depends upon where the tree was growing. If it grows in an open area, it will be tough to split. Ours grow in the woods and along the creek. Most times the bark is at least 90% fallen off before we cut the tree. If we try to get them sooner, they can be terrible. The elm you see on the ground here is part of a big elm that broke off. Nice stuff it is. Notice too right next to my wife is a small elm that we still had to cut (not much to that one) and there are several more in this area. But notice too that this is deep in the woods so the wind don't do a lot of bending and twisting while the tree is growing. This picture was taken before we cut up that limb. You can see the small dead one and that had its top broke off too. The tree that limb came off is the one on the rh side of the picture. We normally would not cut that tree yet but with that big limb off, water would have gotten in and I was afraid if we left it until next year it would no longer be good for firewood. After we dropped the bigger section, this is one of the loads we got from about 12' up on the main trunk. Notice, no bark. But the bottom of that trunk did still have bark. However, it was falling off and when I tried using a canthook, the bark just simply fell off. In the bottom 3 logs (that would total 4') I would say those could not be burned this year. The rest of the tree could be burned right now.
It is great wood, just a pain to split by hand. Granted, I've only tried to split a few logs by hand. There may have been some I burned, or will burn that could split by maul without too much hassle. After those attempts, my brain still is feeling that jolt of a maul stopping dead on the wood. So I won't even attempt elm splitting by hand.
Made another run after work today. The first pic looking across the river. The second one is the chosen elm down got a small bonus ash super dry. The load coming back. Then the fruits of my labor. Also seen some otter tracks.
That's great supersparks. We used to haul wood with a trailer like you have. Used that for probably 25 years or more. Now we have one that is built lower to the ground so it is a bit easier to load. And like you, we use an atv for the horse work.
Made a wood run tonight made three cuts chain stopped turning (rats)! Took a ride thought I would take down my ladder stand but someone helped them selves to my stand it was a sob to get there using a boat. Now the rivers open fifty yards up and down river I made it where I normally cross its only about a foot and a half deep slow current and wide 6" ice then I went and bought beer. now i'm better!
