5.2 miles, 55 deg, sunny.
Rain came through last night. Broke the heat. Ground was still wet this morning. Beautiful morning.
Took Buddy for the first loop. He was fine. Cool enough to keep the deer flies at bay.
Was a bit sore in the back and hands and forearms this morning. Went out yesterday afternoon and attacked that red oak tree that had fallen in a storm. I could see it from the trail. It was close enough to the trail head for me to scavenge. Red Oak is beautiful wood. Very dense. Great fireplace wood. The colonists used to make ships from it. They would form the wood to the shape of the vessel when it was wet. Then when it dried it would be incredibly strong. Sort of the wood version of pre-stressed concrete.
This tree was about maybe a foot and a half in diameter at the base. Maybe 80-100 feet tall with very few limbs. It broke off about 12 feet up from the ground. The oaks will snap like this in storms because they are so rigid. There is typically carpenter ant damage in the tree or rot of some sort to make them snap. This one seemed healthy enough. Maybe it was struck by lightning.
I gassed up my Poulin Pro. I took the remaining base down. I sliced the length into segments 3-4 feet long. I was a bit optimistic on my ability to haul these out of the woods. I’m not in the best Spartan Warrior shape. I tried using my hand truck but the ground was too tilted and uneven.
I ended up taking my hammer and wedges out and popping the lengths in two vertically. The other thing about fresh Red Oak is that is splits very easily. These 1/2 lengths I could carry out of the woods to my waiting truck. Maybe 100-150 pounds a piece. I took 3-4 lengths out this way but decide to call it a day. I could tell my arms, back and shoulders weren’t used to this kind of exertion and I probably should quit while I’m ahead.
I stacked the split lengths up off the ground loosely so they can start to dry. If I can get them up and covered like this through July and August they should be ready to burn this winter. especially if I split them small.
I’ll go back out this week and pop the rest of them in two and carry them out. It’s a good core workout.
If you got 100 people in room these days how many of them could use a chain saw? How many could swing a hammer or a maul or an ax with any kind of effectiveness? How many could read the grain of a log to know where to split it?
Thanks Dad.
Coming to the weary end of the 5 at 5 project. Need to figure out my next gig. I’m thinking I’ll do the MarathonBQ plan and modify it for old guys and target a Maine race in the fall.
Life is not so hard unless you make it hard.
Cheers,
C-,