Wood Splitting Party

It was a wonderfully mild weekend so one of our friends came over with his wood splitter and we made quick (well, quicker than hand splitting) work of the pile of logs that he and Paul had worked on about a month earlier.

Dual Splitting Capacity!

Junior Log Splitter in training.

We're still not up to snuff on our winter wood pile, even with what we did this weekend.  I admit, Paul does the majority of the felling, cutting, splitting and stacking.  But in my defense, I have to watch Rhiannon.  But I did make breakfast, run for beers and do some log-chucking.  I even got my sloth of a self on the splitter for a while.

Right now our wood piles are protected from the elements by tarps.  There's a wood shed on the Never Ending To-Do list, but I suppose if we stop to do that project, we won't have any wood to put in the wood shed.  I was thinking of doing another cattle panel hoop house covered with tarps, but they aren't a very good long-term structure.  The ones we made for the round bales have been rendered almost useless because the tarps just get torn & shred to nothing after a year.  The summer sun and the wind just break the tarps down too quickly.  I'm not saying we didn't get our use out of them, but it's definitely not a permanent solution unless you like purchasing tarps every year (and picking up the shredded remains of them all over the homestead).

So we'll (ok, Paul will) continue chipping away at our wood lot and hope that we don't end up having to burn anything that's too green if it's a really nasty winter this year.  Last year we went through everything we had put up.  Granted, we still have the electric heat pump but the electric bill is horrendous enough without turning that money-sucker on.  Maybe I'll get my butt out there and help more so we can get some set back for next year.