Balancing Act
Mike is getting quite good at using the front loading tractor when it comes to dexterity. With the scoop bucket he mucks out the barn and drops the loads into the manure spreader, scoops rock and lays down thin coatings on the driveway and hauls the generator back and forth from the various barns. With the front tines on instead of the bucket, he moves logs, transfers wood cribs, loads and unloads the pickup of cargo, fluffs the log decks and moves large butt blocks of wood to the big splitter.
Since our furnace can hold pieces of wood pieces that are quite large, Mike likes to split those big butt pieces of fir that are left after logging. He has a big pile of them stacked near on of the log decks, most blocks weigh well over 200 lbs. and some 500 lbs. When we have a break in daily chores, we bring out the big hydraulic splitter and work our way through a few big blocks at a time. Two or three blocks take more than an hour to break into pieces small enough to lift by humans, and that is about all the energy we have for one day. It is a good thing that our furnace can take really big pieces. Mike calls them ‘good night’ pieces because one will burn all night long. I call them ‘goodnight’ as in, goodnight they are heavy and cumbersome.
On this day of splitting, Mike went to scoop up a big block to bring it close to the splitter. He balanced the block on one tine of the front loader and moved it from the pile to the splitter where we made quick work of getting the massive block broken down into manageable pieces.
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I thought the balancing act was Mike practicing walking across the river so he doesn’t fall in next time. Mike’s prowess with machinery makes much more sense.