That was a good day.
Not an easy day, but a valuable day. One filled with a lot of work, good barbecued food, and connection with friends. It took six hours of almost constant work (other than lunch) to cut the lumps of wood into burnable wedges, and while I thought there wasn't going to be too much, we ended up with a pile large enough to last us probably three years. Although, we will give a lot of it to the neighbors who helped us anyway.
We borrowed a "klapikone" from the neighbors, which is a 2200W hydraulic splitter. And, one of the helping friends also brought his, so we had two machines running. One was a bit smaller, so it was used for the smaller logs that the women could carry more easily, and the other was for the huge lumps that required two people to do it safely.
Essentially, it is a slow, but high-pressure driver that pushes the wood up against a splitting point, and breaks it down the middle. Normally, birch wood would just crack away easily, but this was not only filled with a lot of nots, but also very fresh, so it was a bit harder and more awkward, as well as a slower process to get the job done. There were a lot of fibers that we had to cut away with a small hand axe.
You can see me using the machine in the next image, where there is a safety feature where one hand has to hold the on button, while the other pulls the lever to start the press, to make sure the hands are out of the way. For the large pieces, it is better to have a friend help and in some cases, two friends, as the large cut pieces fall away, and are heavy.
It was a workout.
I don't know how people do it with an axe only.
Smallsteps got in on the action, spending time pressing the button whilst others managed the rest of it. She was pretty chuffed to be so useful and it was pretty cool for her to be included and hear her having adult conversations with the neighbors. Afterward, when everyone had left, I had a talk with her about the day and she was saying how great it was. I pointed out that housework when done together, is a lot of fun, even if it is hard work.
Yesterday, I spent the day building shelves and making space in the garage to store the wood, but was told today that the wood should stay outside through the summer to dry first, as there is so much moisture, and then we can put it in there later. We still won't be able to use it (unless the summer is very warm) until winter in late 2025, but we have wood to get us through until then anyway.
So now, stacked up about a meter and a half high, three meters wide, and four rows deep, is what is left of three birch and a small maple. There is a tarpaulin over the top to keep most of the rain off, but I will have to adjust it a bit later to make sure there is enough airflow underneath to let it dry properly.
When we were sitting eating together, we were talking about doing these things more often, and how in the past, a lot of the houses in the area were built with a group of friends helping each other. Next on the list is one of the helping couple's decking, which we will assist with - as even though I can't do much of the precision work, I can at least help lift things into place.
It really was a nice day spent together in the sun, very dirty, covered in sweat, and watching what we set out to do, get done. There is something satisfying about seeing the pile of cut logs diminish, while the pile of cut wood grows. And, there is something even better about getting to the end of the day, with a sense of accomplishment together.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]