Autumn Work

It was a crisp autumn day, the sun was shining and the wind had finally stopped blowing. A perfect afternoon to split up a few chunks of wood to feed our outside wood-fired boiler. We have wood stacked in the woodshed and an extra supply outside the woodshed already, but I had a few big end pieces that had been sitting around by the log landing that needed to be cleaned up before winter.

The dogs, Jackson and Butler were busy with their own tasks of chasing a grey squirrel that had holed up in the limb pile and was chattering noisily. The sounds of squirrel chatter sends the dogs into a frenzy and the game is on.

While I attended to the wood, the dogs could be seen going round and round the limbs, twigs and rotten wood. They would stop and dig for a while then stick there nose in as far as it could go before moving to another spot to try it again. A couple of times the squirrel would pop out of the pile and scamper over to the trunk of the large maple tree at the other edge of the landing where he apparently has a vacation home set up. The dogs follow to try to extricate the squirrel, but the vacation home is as armored as the limb pile.

Between watching all the excitement I was able to get about a Gator load of wood chunks split small enough to fit the boiler and began loading the bed.

Two pieces of wood were loaded before Jackson, all tuckered out from squirrelling, commandeered the bed space for a much needed rest. I could not get him to move so I stacked a few pieces around him and called it a day. I figured that wood will still be there tomorrow and maybe by that time the dog won’t be so tired.

I use a sledge hammer with a couple of wedges to break apart stubborn pieces that are too large to lift onto the table of the Super Splitter. Click on the picture for more info or to shop at the affiliate. By clicking on the picture, I get credit for directing people to shop and may make a small commission without any cost to you. Thank you for supporting my stories