Splitting wood

Outdoor activities rule the roost when the weather cooperates. Today we learned about splitting logs.

A huge tree fell across the road a few weeks ago, and it's gradually been disappearing into woodpiles, firepiles, but most of it has been languishing by the side of the road waiting to be split. Well, today was the day. Uncle Phil came with the neighbor's hydraulic splitter, attached to the farm tractor. The wedge went through three foot diameter logs like butter. Everyone got to take a turn at the splitter, and we all drank lots of water afterwards.
Its hard to imagine how heavy trees really are when they stand so easily above us.

After the tree fell, it knew immediately that the end of its life had come. The leaves shrank and sank sorrowfully. The tree had rotted at its base, probably over many years, and the strong winds of our recent storms simply took it down. We were lucky that it did not fall on our building. A visitor actually watched it fall from his seat inside. It slowly started to topple, hesitating, then suddenly continued into the crash, decisively.

We will use it for firewood next winter. And the stack of newly split wood to the east is quite beautiful right now.