Will and I pilfered wood the other day. There was a tree cut down in the neighborhood that was interfering with a telephone wire. It was a tree belonging to the city, so *technically* it did belong to Will and I, and the other random couple who drove up in their wagon who had the same reaction as Will, "Look, FREE wood!" We made 7 trips total and I think now we have enough wood, if it seasons in time, for the full winter.
The tree was cut, however, into massive logs. Not fireplace ready logs, but tree-trunk sized logs. Will bought a gasoline powered chainsaw and he spent yesterday cutting the logs into smaller bits. So, *technically* the wood wasn't free. And of course, there is the cost of the manual labor, including the oh-so-back-breaking-fun of splitting the wood.
It was certainly made easier on some of the logs that Will started a place for the wedge to go. But we split the logs. Yes, I was able to split them, several times with one whack. It is amazingly satisfying. We did about a third of the sections Will cut and will work on the rest this week.
I certainly won't need to lift weights at gym this week! Though, I may need to go to fashion school. You can see all the wood in the background that needs to split.
One swing! I am soooooo strong.
And yes, our neighbors think we are totally bizarre to be doing this ourselves. One offered another chainsaw and the other offered to split a cord of wood from a dude he knows, who knows a dude, and would come and dump it for a fee.... but now I have honed my skills. I just need a circus in town, then I could so swing the hammer and ring the bell and get a big stuffed animal.
Though, to be honest, this is a much nicer prize: a warm fire on a cold winter's night with wood we pilfered, cut, and split ourselves.
