New Pal

Before vacation, Jason purchased a manual, hydraulic wood splitter. Our backyard wood splitting practices have evolved from using a steel splitting wedge and sledge hammer to a very large ax. But, both were very strenuous and time-consuming and sometimes impossible. We'd seen our neighbor using a hydraulic splitter with a foot pump pedal, so Jason starting researching but only found manual ones online (no where local). Genius me suggested calling Shoppers located a mere 12 minutes away. Long story short - this is our new, powerful pal. It works awesome and can split up to 18" pieces. Less than a month ago, we picked-up a truckload of oak and a truckload of maple. Good hardwoods for burning. The wood will need to 'season' for a year before we can use it. Now, we just need to find some softwoods to get our fires started. Being campers, we have been ripped-off far too many times on the cost of firewood, so this was definitely the route to go for us. People often post free firewood on Craigslist but it's never cut-up in manageable pieces. We estimate that he has split $250-$300 worth of firewood. Not too bad for only the cost of fuel to pick it up. One day, this will come-in especially useful when we have our wood-burning stove. He split all of this in two afternoons - about 4-5 hours total. I split a few, too. :o)