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Tag: wood splitting

Ten sixteen litre pails of rocks.

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The aftermath of ten 16 L pails of rocks pulled from the front field at the farm over the course of the last six weeks.    (Fig 1.)

Ever since I started to split wood at the farm in mid September the dog and I have pulled armfuls of rocks out of the tilled field each weekday. Some days we found more than others, but I eventually wound up with eleven separate piles along the north/eastern edge of the front field where the apple orchard isn’t. Those are in the next field directly north, across the farm. I’m working closer to the peach trees hidden behind a hedge row out of the direct winds.

Anyway, I have been meaning to grab a bucket and haul them away, but I was more focused on the picking them out of the field portion, and not the hauling them off to the culvert to dump them. Less fun, more tiring work lugging 90 lbs buckets over to the ditch to pour them out.

But with yesterday dental issue I thought my outdoor time was going to be severely limited, but it was a quick fix (read inexpensive) and I had my child back to school before recess was over. This meant I could cut the grass one last time purposefully, and mulch the remaining leaves with the mower. We’d just had a big storm so the trees are fairly bare now. Which also means no more leaves to worry about until Spring time! At least on my property. I’m sure we have leaves to do at the inlaws, and the cottage too.

After that task was done I took the dog back to the farm and brought six buckets from my shed with me. I had previously filled two yellow pails conveniently left by the field already that morning when walking the dog. So not only did I move six buckets out of my shed, but I moved eight full buckets of rocks, then went back for two more full bucket loads, and voila! Rock job now done. Until I locate any more that is!

But I have paid work now. So no rocks, and no wood splitting to do until I complete this report. After this one there are only two more (that I know of) on the books for this year. I could get surprised with one additional random report, but given the current state of the economy both north and south of the border, I don’t hold out much hope for extra cash flow making its way into my pockets.

But I have paid work now, and that’s all that matters right this second. I had best hop to it then! Have a great Wednesday in early November 2025.

A holiday Monday: The wood splitting extravaganza.

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Managed to step away for a spell yesterday to run the wood splitter for a few hours. Together we split nearly two Cord of wood, with another two left to go. Not going to lie, my hands, forearms, back, hips and thighs felt every second of that work afterwards. Some of it just popped apart cleanly, and others (only a few) were that stringy fibrous mess that doesn’t entirely want to come apart. The reason, you may ask, why are you splitting so much wood? Well March break approaches, and with it comes syrup season. Which means keeping the sap in the evaporator running 24/7 for nearly a full week. Gotta have lots of firewood on hand to keep a three by six foot pan full of watery sap boiling for six or seven days straight. I do enjoy spending some time each year tending the fire, stirring the ice out of the sap buckets, filtering the watery sap, and keeping the levels up in the pan of the evaporator. It can either be windy and bitterly cold, or sunny and almost hot out. Either way the exposed parts of the face are likely to suffer a sun burn, even this late into winter. Hats, sunglasses, and covered clothing won’t help. The sun will find a way to bop your nose, chin, or cheek tops. Kissed by the UV rays from the sun. Unless it’s early morning, most can be done with a beer in hand. Just be mindful of the smoke, and heat & ash from the fire underneath it all.

Not only that but the buckets and spials have to go out into all the Maple trees, and teams will need to trudge through the forest to empty the tree pails into larger sealed buckets to transport back to the evaporator. Where we let the cold weather freeze off the water, and eliminate some hours of boiling, but pulling large chunks of ice out of the larger sealed collection buckets. Then you need to filter out things like bark, bugs, twigs, leaves and such, by straining through a massive cheese cloth sieve. Then into the large pan over the open flames it goes. Gotta keep the flames even under the whole pan. Don’t want a hot spot, and cold areas. Gotta rearrange the coals underneath constantly, and add new fuel spread evenly to keep the fire going. So much fun.

We have benches set up, and lights, and a massive stockpile of wood all within arms reach of the evaporator. If only the wifi could stretch that far, you could watch movies on your phone while working away. I’ve had the pleasure of starting the fire after a quiet night of letting the sap cool off. When it starts to get close you have to slow down, as it can kick off, and go from done to burnt in the flash of an eye. My extended family then drains off the pan into sealed buckets, where they filter it again, and finalize the boil at home in much smaller batches, on propane stoves in industrial sized cauldrons. Still smaller than the pan, but gigantic compared to anything in an average home kitchen.