Continuing the discussion from Life goes on - Winter 2023
That picture sure looks like spring is here.
12 Likes
Is that you mr Holton? Looks like you got some winter still around…
Lovely dogs by the way 
8 Likes
Yeah, that’s me and my three way better halves. That’s a January picture. Didn’t really get much snow this year. Pretty happy about that.
9 Likes
im done with maple syrup and the taps are pulled. It was a weird season.
7 Likes
Well maybe not summer. But not winter here anymore.
Spring
The marigolds did not like this mornings night clear sky frost bite.
Almost enough rhubarb new growth to start asking for a baked crisp dessert!
You may have to enlarge to see the from seeds now spring greens showing themselves:
S.U.
18 Likes
I anxiously await the first snowfall of each Winter.
The first snowfall of Spring is harder to take.
8 Likes
Happy Easter Everyone! I hope everyone was good this year and got a visit from the magical egg laying bunny. 
8 Likes
Hmm. No place current to put this one.
Some of these I’ve seen.
Some are very imaginative.
Ha! And they all . . . except one; take shaft power to work:
I re-counted my fingers after watching this.
S.U.
14 Likes
Mostly a lot of elaborate tooling for a simple task IMO. Stack it into a sawbuck and cut through all at once, multiple times. The main thing I appreciate my battery saw for.
9 Likes
Glad to see signs of spring for you guys north of the equator. Down below, the weather is still pleasant, but there is a chill in the air. A couple of weeks ago, we started having evening fires to take the chill off. Now AM fires too.
Since the wood in the woodshed is starting to be used, I turned my attention to logs left over from last winter’s cutting. They had been drying in the summer sun and I wanted to process them and get them under cover before the autumn and winter rains.
Big miscalculation. The dried wood is nearly impossible to split. Logs that would split with a “tap” from my light weight maul, were difficult even with my heavy weight maul that I reserve for crotches and other gnarly woods. I was expending easily ten times more effort to split the wood, and some logs I just gave up on. I was seriously thinking of getting a hydraulic splitter. Luckily, some logs from the center of a pile weren’t so dry and split easily, so I threw a log into the stream for a week to see if that would make a difference. Thank God, the wood splits easily again. Now I’ve set the other logs on end to get the rains to rehydrate them. It seems like sacrilege to me, but they will have next summer to dry out again.
18 Likes
MartinS. do get the hydraulic wood splitter and pat your self on the back for your aging wisdom.
Then be able to reduce down split any time, any condition.
Do select the model as much for the cycling time; as it’s ultimate force rating.
Anything work with cycling longer than 9 to 11 seconds and you’ll hate your choice.
The tons-rating gets the job done. I say at least 30 tons rating. Mines 34 tons. 20 ton borrowed and rented were worthless for me. Stalling and sticking. Then having to beat the stuck wood off with a heavy maul.
But the cycling time is based on the engines power and pump capacity, not tons force to get the job done expeditiously. (fancy word for within the limits of your patience)
Regards
Steve Unruh
17 Likes
Dads neighbor had a very old john deere brand splitter 18 ton i would split with in my teen years (paid for my first toyota pickup from him with wood splitting labor) it was a transfer that could flip up and run vertically. I would wrestle 3-4’ fir rounds onto it to start the split, finish it with an axe, then quarter split with splitter and from there far faster to put the axe to it. Later years i learned to “read” the wood as my dad says and i can do all with just the axe now. No more swinging with youth vigor without looking where the damn knots are and twisted stump grains. The few heavy hitter splitters i have gotten to run over the years were a treat, they really do ease the process. If a guy only had straight grain doug fir, less then 2’ even that old 18 ton was nice. Log lifter is a wonderful attatchment for the big rounds, and a splitting deck to stage wood. Then kinda dabbling more towards a firewood processor in some ways
15 Likes
I split by hand until I was 71. Just thought I should keep pushing myself as long as possible. I still do some for the exercise. If I got into stuff I couldn’t split back then I would just cut it up small enough to get into the stove. Most of my firewood is ash, so not that hard to split but it none of it was close to green.
14 Likes
I am of the same reasoning as you Tom. I’m at 69 and want to keep doing this as long as possible. If I don’t, then I’ll have to get a gym membership. Then I will be spending money on doing boring exercises in town that I’ll have to drive 30 minutes to. Of all the wood gathering chores (felling, cleaning up, cutting into rounds, moving and splitting) I prefer splitting the most. Maybe I’ll get some mechanical help someday, but that day is not this day. 
12 Likes
I think I remember you live on hills Marty. Probably worse than mine. I usually have to throw or roll the stuff i cut several tiers down hill to where I can load it. That’s plenty of exercise. I don’t want to insult anyone but walking an hour on a treadmill seems idiotic.
14 Likes
Well fellows I do not always use the engine driven hydraulic wood splitter:
A cord and a half all done by hand at our Grange. It has a wood fired forced air furnace.
Logs were donated. Another old fellow and I split up the working up of this donation.
He did 100% of the stove lengths cutting. We divided up 50/50 the splitting. Him a ~150 pound, ax-man. Me a 200+ pound, maul-man.
And I did all of the stacking.
Ha! That from the ground picking up 4-5 armloads of pieces those hundreds of times was the real joints aching job of it for me.
I go twice a week for elder class exercising at this Grange. Mondays and Wednesdays.
She really works us out. Ha! I learned I had to do the wood working up on off days. Too tired, otherwise.
Just was not worth towing the wood splitter the 5 miles to and from for this job.
No license on it. My luck I’d get a State’r traffic ticket.
S.U.
13 Likes
Very wise Tom!!! I’ve still got plenty of working years ahead of me, but I’ve promised myself that I will never own a chair that is too comfortable. For me, a wooden rocker is about perfect. Certainly pleasant when you want to take a load off, but sit too long and your body lets you know that it’s time to get moving again.
14 Likes