Wood Chopping 101

As most of you know, we heat our house with a woodstove( i highly recommend one). We have a furnace as a back up if we are going to be gone but over-all its used maybe 2% of the time. The woodstove has proven itself quite efficient; sometimes too efficient. I'm sure a few friends and family have left here "lighter" on their feet due to profuse water loss. I actually had one friend who got a little light headed-oops.
The cold doesn't feel as "cold" after you get good and warm and then there is nothing like coming into a really warm house where you can feel the heat radiating from the stove. Wood heat is a "dry" heat so we definitely go through the lotion and saline nasal spray but I wouldn't get rid of it for nothing.(well, maybe nothing)
Okay, anyways, in order to use the woodstove we of course have to go get firewood and lots of it; usually 5 truck and trailer loads. Thanks to friends and family, cutting firewood has become a somewhat, enjoyable tradition that usually starts in May or June. This year, if the weather permits it, we are going to start in April. Volunteers are always appreciated-the more the merrier!
After the wood is home, it is unloaded and stacked; by this point each piece of wood has been handled 3 times and by the time it is in the stove, 5-6 times. (just something you think about when your loading, unloading , stacking, chopping, putting in the woodbox, and then finally into the stove).
When we cut wood, we bring just about everything home. If its 1-2" in diameter its coming home. The large stumps will need to be split later but that can wait until they dry out some, so here is Bryan showing us how to chop wood.



1st. make sure that you have pants on, a long sleeved shirt, gloves, good shoes, eye protection and ear muffs that have radio-yes radio. This all needs to be done before you start; oh, don't forget the ax; after all this you can select your victim(as Bryan is doing) and pretend that it was that person that........just joking!

When bending over, make sure that one of your legs is up as a counter-balance because some of those logs are heavy.

Another example of how to pickup wood

And now for the actual chopping; make sure that the log you are splitting is sitting on another log and not the ground(its to soft plus its "closer to the ground" and not you, which equals a longer distance before impact). Then with the ax in hand, both hands , swing it from up and over your head and make sure that you bend at the knees as it is coming down to add force.

As you come down, start to bend at the waist and follow through-imagine that you are going to split the log in one swing, chop, slice, whatever you want to call it.

Following through. When done with enough force the halves will actually go flying; one to the left and one to the right.

Ta-Da!! a split log ready for the stove.

After a hard workout of wood chopping make sure that you go sit down and take a break. This may be the most important part. If you were on the sidelines watching and photographing, make sure that you tell them thank-you and that you greatly appreciate them doing it so you don't have to. This step is necessary if you want a repeat a few days later when your running out of logs to burn.