The Growing Stack

This is most of my split wood. There is some more off to the sides of this picture and some stacked stuff in the front yard and still a lot to be split. I have not measured but my back fence is pretty long and I have about a 4ft stack all the way along it and a couple of other long rows.

The highlight of my weekend was the 3 hours we had the 20 ton log splitter rented.

Saturday morning Tony and I had a couple egg sandwiches then headed over to Bledsoe’s to rent the splitter. I got it all rented then discovered the ball on my truck was not the right size. So we went to Jon’s to swap balls. Once there we took off his ball but were unable to get mine to budge so instead we put his ball back on and took his truck. Finally we got the splitter picked up and brought it home. Stephen and Derick were there waiting for us when we got home.

We were on the clock so we quickly got the splitter set up, started the engine and started cracking open logs.

One person ran the controls, one person loaded a log under the wedge and the other two people

• moved split wood away by putting it in a wheel barrow and dumping it in the backyard
  
• kept an eye on the barrel burning bark
  
• brought over big rounds to be split so the person loading could constantly be splitting.

I like splitting wood by hand but I had a few rows of really nasty stuff that I was having trouble splitting. I was worried this old wood was going to get too rotten to burn before I got it split up and then I would be stuck with all this rotten wood with no use. We got 95% of this stuff taken care off during the 3 hours but it did not go down with out a fight. Many logs would quickly pop and crack in 1/2 when the splitter pushed down on them but many of them were tough and would slowly peal apart and try to hold together with lots of strings.

Logs like this took more time because the slow moving wedge needed to go all the way to the bottom and back up and sometimes we had to clean them up with the axe to get them apart and sometimes the splitter would get stuck on them and we would have to beat them off the wedge then try a different spot.

We went hard for the whole time and really cleared up the old stuff so it would not rot.

But there is still a lot of work left to do.

At the end of the 3 hours we returned the splitter and paid just over $50. Then I returned Jon’s truck and came home. Stephen headed home and Tony and Derrick came with me to Waldo Pizza for lunch with Heath, KK and Chiaki who had been wedding dress shopping. After lunch we came home to find our barrel fire had caught some of the big rounds on fire. Felicia had warned us when she got there but we were surprised how much was burning.

We got out the hose and put out all the fire except what was in the barrel and we moved the barrel away from any woods. Derrick headed to Jon’s house and Tony and Felicia got cleaned up and I headed to my mom’s to pick up Pumpkin. We got home and Tony and Felicia left and Heath got home and we all took naps.

Later on that night Derrick, Stooks and Amanda came over and we brewed some Big River Brown Ale.

We hung out outside and kept an eye on the bark fire and followed the beer brewing procedure.

Including having some home brew while you brew.

Eventually the beer was ready and we moved inside to cool it down, add the yeast and take readings.

We were getting hungry so I cooked up a big pan of potatoes, eggs, beans and corn. We ate and watched some Pawn Stars then everyone headed home and too bed.

Sunday we did lots of cleaning and getting the house ready and at night we watched Adventure land. We baked bread with the leftover grains and then at night made sandwiches with it.

Durring the afternoon we had a Graduation Open House for Heath’s brother Trent.

A bunch of family came over and we ate lots of good snacks and talked to them.

Friday Tony and Felicia came over and Heath and Felicia went to watch a band and Tony and I watched TV and Pumpkin. Planned a backpacking trip and helped Stephen move his pool table.