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| 1 of the 2 stacks to be split |
Fireplace season has begun and the Advil bottle is
running low this week at Morgan Manor.
Steven and I have enjoyed the beauty and peace of a couple fires as we
commiserated about our aching muscles and sore backs.
We just finished a project that started back in ’09. That’s when we cut down the first tree in the
backyard due to a stress fracture it developed after a particularly bad wind
storm. It was cut it down or wait for another
storm to blow it down. The next two came
down in 2010 to make way for an attached two car garage. The wood was stacked to season and in the
blink of an eye, a couple years passed and splitting time was upon us!
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| 1 of the 3 piles - still only 1/2 size! |
I grew up with a fireplace and love that our home of the
past 27 years has one. During any given
winter, we have about 5 fires a week, so we go through a lot of wood. Most years we rent a splitter, however this
year Steve found a beauty on Craig’s list.
We made the purchase, and were off ~ working some days alone, and some
days as a team as work schedules and daylight hours permitted.
We split, and split, and split.
We went through the large stack along our back fence and another
stack just as big that ran along the side fence. That first day or two of splitting felt
great! Then that pile of beautifully
split wood, begging to make a roaring fire in the fireplace soon grew quickly
past a nice fire or two. Or a season’s
worth or two. By week’s end, we had three
HUGE piles and the thrill of those romantic nights by the fire faded in my mind
with the looming task ahead.
We stacked, and stacked, and stacked.
We took a lot of Advil.
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| 5 covered stacks in back |
I can’t imagine splitting this batch by hand, like we did a
LONG time ago when we were MUCH younger.
Barring a handful of seasons when we had a few cords delivered, we have
always “laid in” our wood supply. Seems
every few years there was always a neighbor or friend who needed a tree cut
down or removed from their property.
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| 1 covered stack by the garage |
And still, even with the aching muscles and sore back, I
admit I don’t recall any other project being quite as sensory or satisfying. I love the contrast of the sharp crack of a
log as it splits with the dull note it strikes as it lands on the wood pile ten
feet away. I develop a comfortable
rhythm and time passes quickly as log after log gets transferred from pile to
stack, each piece getting spaced according to size and shape. And
that earthy, rich smell that gets released with each split seeps into my gloves
and clothes, wrapping around me, so when I go in the house at the end of the
day, it stays with me.
Silly maybe, but looking at the completed work, I feel a connection
to a life long ago. There’s a silent acknowledgement
of the difference when searching out wood and preparing it for the long winter
ahead meant survival and not just an enjoyable evening fire. And those same fires, well, they bridge some
of the most pleasurable memories of my childhood with my adult life.
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| The fruits of our labor! |
All told, we most likely have about 10 – 12 cords from this
project. That should give us about five
years of lazy evening fires or ones started on a cold weekend morning that burn
all day. And that’s good, because our muscles and our backs could use the
break. All that’s left now is to sit
back and enjoy…and of course, list that log splitter back on Craig’s list!
