You know how they say that chopping wood heats you twice? That’s bunk.
*WOOD HEATS YOU SEVEN TIMES!*
1 cut down tree and cut it up
2 haul away brush
3 haul away logs
4 unload logs
5 split logs
6 stack wood
7 carry wood to house
It’s a buttload of work!
…Add in any axwork if you dare. I used to drop em with an ax. A foot-wide tree took an hour of sweat right there. That was GREAT FUN. Basically the best fun ever, really. Axwork is great. It’s even pretty fast, really. Actually, until I found a chainsaw for $20 at a garage sale I used ax plus bucksaw. Whew! That was fun, too. Each 12″ round took me maybe 1-2 minutes to buck. Not bad. But now with kids and crazier work and a cheap chainsaw I use that mostly. I still get warmed SEVEN FRICKIN times! But the AX IS KING. One really should make time for it. It is possibly the best fitness work. Sledgehammering might beat it out. But not for satisfaction. That and art count for a lot—and axwork has both!!
But pace yourself. If you’re totally totally dialed in to axwork, chop for like 3 minutes. Unhurried. Then lean on the handle for a minute.
And of course use a VERY sharp ax. Clean and oiled. And a BIG ax.
But only use the ax to cut em down. Bucksaw em up once they’re down. It’s necessary to have a sawbuck for bucksawing, so you can’t easily handle trees that are over a foot wide. You gotta get the log to saw height. It’s doable. Part of the craft. But, ya know, it’s been long enough that I forgot how I did it for the dozen trees I handled that way in our yard. It’s doable. And bucksawing is GEAT exercise, too. Simply splendid.
The best thing though is the sound you get to make when you chop down a tree. No one hears that sound anymore! Talk about sound-pride. If you live near other people, that is. Anyone around will stop when they hear an ax. THOK! … THOK! And when they hear it go for, say, a half hour, they’ll know there’s some pride in the area.
I’ll have to put up a pic somehow…gulp! : )
