Re: A Bicycle Safety Parable

On Mon, 22 Jul 2024 18:52:17 -0700, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com>
wrote:

On Tue, 23 Jul 2024 07:40:35 +0700, John B. <slocombjb@gmail.com>
wrote:
>

On Mon, 22 Jul 2024 10:31:49 -0700, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com>
wrote:
>

On Mon, 22 Jul 2024 23:56:17 +0700, John B. <slocombjb@gmail.com>
wrote:
>

Depends on what you are splitting. Big fat oak needs a wedge and a
maul while most smaller softwoods split with an axe quite easily.

>
Contrary to many expert sources, I've found that white oak splits VERY
easily immediately after the tree is felled.  I cut, bucked, and split
a few very green and wet small oaks without difficulty.  However, if I
let them dry for a few days, they become difficult to split.  I worked
on one oak two days after it was felled.  I started in the morning and
splitting was easy.  By evening it became difficult to split.  The
next day, it was even more difficult and by evening, it was impossible
to split by hand.  I had to hire someone to finish the job with a
hydraulic splitter.

>

But who chops down a tree and immediately saws it into lengths and
splits it?

>
Ummm... me.  A neighbor was dropping three 17(?) inch diameter oak
trees on his property and asked me if I wanted the wood.  Of course I
said YES!  The professional tree crew had already dropped the oaks in
10 ft (3m) lengths.  I had to move them off his property before he
changed his mind or someone else made him a better offer.  All I had
available was my Subaru.  So, I sawed the 10 ft lengths into 32 inch
lengths after the tree crew removed the small branches and fed them to
their big chipper.  It took me about 5 hrs to move the wood off the
property to where I normally park my car.
>
The only place I had available to stack the wood was up 50 stairs.
Carrying heavy green oak up the stairs was almost impossible, even in
32 inch lengths.  16 inch was possible, but difficult.  So, I decided
to split the wood in my parking place and carry smaller amounts up the
hill.  As I mentioned, I was rather surprised at how easy it was to
split the green oak wood.
>
Splitting took 3 days.  Carrying the wood up the hill took about a
month using some hired local labor.  The pile took 2 years to dry.  I
forgot how much wood there was, but my guess is maybe 1.5 cords.
>

Perhaps someone that has only one tree but as a general statement
those who are getting stove wood from a "wood lot" or grove of trees,
spends a day cutting and maybe the next day trimming and maybe the
next day cutting to (perhaps) cord length for hauling away.

>
Nice rule of thumb.  I don't have a wood lot or organized schedule.
>

Or at least that's how my grandfather did it and he spent about a
month each fall cutting, hauling and splitting wood to heat a three
apartment house during the winter.

>
I spend most of the summer (about 3 month) intermittently dealing with
firewood.  Usually, there's a big rush to finish near the beginning of
fall. 

Lets see... I looked up the average stair step height on the Internet
and it seems to be about 7-1/2" so your 50 stairs would be something
like 31-1/4 feet. Which seems like a long way to be scampering up and
down frequently.

Why not some sort of powered lift of some sort?

As for the rush for wood, how much do you use? Again going by my very
early days you probably cook on a gas or kerosene stove and use wood
for heat. "Back in the day" the usual plan was to heat only one room,
and only in the day time. Sleeping in an unheated room was said to
healthy :-)

--
Cheers,

John B.