Splitting Logs, ft. JuJu the Donkey

I know. I am almost obsessed with splitting wood, luckily it's a healthy 'hobby' that will build muscle, get my heart working, make my lungs take deeper breaths, give me strong fingers and arms... and then heat my house without causing a huge heating bill this winter. Saving money is sweet, and so will be cooking on my wood stove.

Here is a short video I made yesterday morning while starting to split logs... the big wood pile to my left is what I had split the morning before. The big donkey who appears is JuJu. :)



xoxoxo

One Small Split For Womankind (and tiny people)

I wanna show ya'll all the logs I've been splitting this month (see pic above and below)! This does not count the ones I have already burned on the cold nights...
I have always considered myself a feminist, not a preachy one but a quiet one who doesn't talk about it. I rather live it. Am i saying it's easy for a tiny woman to split her own logs for winter heat... NO, I am saying you CAN do it, I CAN do it, and it's vastly rewarding to be able to take care of yourself without relying too much on the system. Or the man.
No offense guys. I wouldnt mind if a dude was taking turns choppin' these bitches with me... but the point is I am doing it myself and am capable.
*
Historical note:::
historically speaking men did these type of chores and women were home preparing & cooking food, taking care tons of kids, ect... I would like to say that I can now see from a back in history man's perspective why he'd be wanting a hot meal when he came home from busting his ass - splitting all these logs makes me want to come home to a warm meal too. One I dont' have to cook...
But presently speaking, I do all of it. YAY! This is one for the ladies AND small people!
xoxoxo

Learning To Use An Ax Part 2 (The bungee cord idea!)

Ya'll might recall when I was learning better ways to split wood with an ax called a "go devil"? Well, the poor "go devil" is now R.I.P like most things with a plastic handle end up these days (it's cracked at the base) - and we have now moved onto old school wooden handle ax which I like bunches better. But hec, that isn't what this post is about... it's about how we tried out the awesome bungee cord idea by one of my most favorite readers 'Gratuitous'! (Hi, Gratu! Yeah, I am talking about ya...)
I did give a few swings on this bungee cord wrapped humongous black walnut log, which happen to be sitting in thick mud puddle... when I swung down the ax hitting the log that cold puddle squirted me right in the mouth and eye!! lol
So... moving right along.... Here is how this trick works:

• We tied a bungee cord around the log (see bad ass video Gratuitous found here!)
  
• Push it closer to the middle or bottom to prevent breaking the cord itself
• Go ahead and swing as per normal, except now you wont have to keep standing the pieces back up cause the bungee will be holding them all together!

Pretty sweet idea, cause it worked!
XoXo

Learning To Use An Ax

Oh...Gawd... today I learned how to better split wood with a "go devil" style ax! I have not done much log splitting in my life, being that I grew up in a tropical big city that only sees the icy junk we call snow like once every 20-30 years and also thrived on central heat for the rare chilly days. I remember begging my parents to put logs in the fireplace, just for fun. :)
As you can see in the very top pic, I have to stand and meditate before i swing the ax, getting just the right position before swinging. And I can tell ya, I was doing it all kinds of wrong.
See in the pic above, my hands are WAY too far apart at that point, but my legs are not. The reason I am standing so funny is because should I miss the log, I didn't want the ax to hit my leg instead... even the thought of the chance of some possibility of this occurring terrifies me more then the worst horror movie ya eva' saw X's a million nightmares.
Because my hands were so far apart at the end and too close together at the beginning of the swing, I could not get proper momentum going to crack the log...only getting a few dents...
Once ya give it a good wack and it doesn't split or crack, the ax kinda gets stuck in there - which can seem impossible to pull out, but if you hold down the log, and then pull the ax handle down to the ground in front it will roll back out.
THEN START OVA' !!!
Hells yeah! With the right amount of force, aim and hand placement (which is not really shown below, cause i slid my hand back down after it split), it gets alot easier. The hands start out on opposite ends of the ax in order to pull the weight up over head, and when coming down they slide to the bottom together.
The thing is, I used to use something called a "wedge" to split logs and I can say for someone my size (AKA tiny as hell) using a wedge is a little easier if ya' don't have the body weight to really slam an ax down. But it is never a bad idea to have some basic skills to work with, in case you are ever in a situation where all the easier tools are not available and ya need to make a fire. (Blizzard perhaps? Zombie Apocalypse? Peak Oil? Living out in the middle of nowhere and have no car to get supplies easily? Extreme poverty?)
BTW- the logs were from trees already dead on the property here. Supa' eco-nomical. :)
XoXo