We were just talking today about getting some rounds and splitting them ourselves.
Unfortunately but at 1/10th the cost of Made In America.All I see is that crappy Chinese wood splitter
I do some chopping to Rob Zombie
Sorry, Joking,
It's a mix of Spruce, Larch, Lodgepole and Ponderosa. I buy the rounds from various sources, mostly side hustles for the loggers, wildlife and forest service workers as well as some tribal. They know where the fall is and take advantage of stuff that is already down, they have the equipment and expertise to be quick and safe. The Tribal guy we use is about the best, he has access to stuff the others don't. I buy a few cords worth of rounds in the fall. I save those for splitting this time of year after they get good and dry. The price is worth paying for the rounds. I also have a friend 2 hours north that has 10 acres of thinning work ongoing and she has enough down to supply both of us for life, but the 4 hour drive makes that unfeasable for a primary source, so I drag some back each time I visit.
I have maul envy when I go to the hardware store here. I'm not skilled enough to yield the kind of quality availble locally. As you can see in the images that the handle has taken some hits, I would be hard on Hickory, and this China steel has seen the ground on multiple occassions. I've bought a few vintage hand tools up here at estate sales that I'm much more skilled with and don't abuse. Yes the cost delta is significant. I'm not sure they work that much better, but they do look a whole lot cooler. I don't feel bad when the edge ends up in the dirt.All I see is that crappy Chinese wood splitter
I've been chipping away at the list of chores, the Can Am prep is in line after 2 more projects. We want to do the Peace Trail this year if possible and another Glamis trip.
We had a wood stove for heat in the house where I grew up. Absolutely hated the whole process of gathering wood for the winter. My dad loved it... LOL. We'd go up to the forest in the afternoon after he got off work in the summer, and put up about 4 cords of wood every year. We burned Aspen, dead fall dry stuff to get the fire going and green standing to keep it hot. So we didn't split a lot of wood. Every once in a while Dad would get a load of ponderosa pine and that would get split, but we would only split that as needed. I still remember break up logs in the winter.
I'm glad I have central heating in my house...
When we lived in Menifee we only had wood heat. I also had the Eucalyptus grove for unlimited fuel. Damn that stuff was hard to manage. Cutting and splitting that stuff was a bear. It used to stall out our hydraulic splitter and then explode when it finally forced through the grain. We had to try and find soft wood to get that stuff burning. All these wood types up here are easy to split, but they burn like paper. I would love to have some hardwood to sprinkle in.There is nothing like a wood stove for heat... I just hate all the work that goes into it.
