Holy Smokes that's a lot of wood

Just a while back if you can remember we lost our 90ish year old sugar maple to a storm...I said to myself "I can use that wood in winter and for the fire pit..." Five and a half months later it's finally time to start splitting. The neighbors have probably held their tongues for a while looking at the eye sore of cut wood in the yard. I borrow the venerable truck from Jim, rent the splitter and get busy. It becomes evident pretty quickly I am in a little over my head as the split wood piles up and the pile to be cut barely has a dent in it.


This is the stack of "Big" Logs to be split after I've been working all afternoon. I stuck to this pile today but need help to get the bigger logs to the splitter. Just FYI I attempted to split some by hand (earlier) and got frustrated by lack of progress...wouldn't you know the log I tried to split by hand could barely be split by the machine it was so knotted up inside...just my luck to pick that one.

The grass may never be the same and yes Little Tykes had that in mind when they designed it.

Pile#1 Split and unsplit

Pile #2 Split
I thought I'd be nice and let the boys work for some extra cash...after an hour and 20 minutes (including a twenty minute "bathroom break" Mr. B asked how much he had earned. I thought 5 bucks for a 9 year old was plenty but his jaw nearly hit the ground with indignation. How did my children get so spoiled...wait don't answer that.

Get ready Dusty I'm a callin' soon, the splitter goes back tomorrow at lunch!