(#5039) My firewood

      Early this year in January a tree cutting service cut down an old Oak tree in the creek area right behind my property. I lobbied hard for the city not to cut the tree as it was a home to many birds and squirrels. But the tree was growing on the side bank of the creek and some of its roots were exposed. Meaning that if a strong enough wind came blowing it could come down into the power lines. The decision was made to be on the safe side and so down the tree came. I watched each of the 3 days that the tree cutting crew worked. I gave them access to my backyard for them to have an easier time of accomplishing their work. Because I have a man gate to the creek from my backyard.
     So the city representative and the cutting crew decided to let me have the wood from the cutting to do with as I pleased. Well they cut up all the long sections they took down into manageable rounds and the ones they could lift tossed over the creek fence into my backyard. The larger rounds from the base of the trunk were too heavy so they left them near the fence. I was able to go through the gate and split the big rounds into smaller pie like slices so that I could get them into the wheelbarrow to bring them to my back driveway for splitting. It took me a couple of weeks to get all the big rounds left out in the creek area cut into smaller slices and transported but I did get that done.
     Then, off and on, over the course of the year up until this morning I have been slowly splitting the rest of the rounds into overall 2 cords of firewood. I am about to finish the job of splitting and stacking today. I don't burn firewood myself but others around here do so I figured I could make a little money from all that heavy work I am about to finish. I went through a few hatchets, axes, mauls, and sledge hammers plus a small chain saw but the work was healthy and rough which reminded me of my youth, as a logger, miner, and residential/industrial wood and metal framer. I think I have sold them as of tomorrow and the wages I earned will be less than 50 cents an hour for all my efforts. Not much profit but the work was a pleasure.