Some of my plans got cancelled today and I had a little free time. I could either take a nap before going in to work tonight or start spitting. Guess which one I chose
No help and no quad today, just me and my splitting tools. I started on the biggest piece. It was leaning upright on the creek bank. I got it almost split in half and then I got the bright idea to push it over into the creek bed so I could get to the other side to finish it up. Of course it landed wrong and I couldn't get to where I needed on it. I moved on to the next section. I started driving the wedge into it the mighty beast and it spit it back out at me. It shot up at least 2'. I caught it in mid air and shoved it back into the log and tried again. This time it started to split. Once it started, it went almost to the other end. I put one more wedge into it and popped it the rest of the way.
I started back up at the top and put the wedge into a natural split. My plan is to wedge out pieces just like cutting a slice of pie. The dead center is really helping. A short time later and I had the first chunk out. And then another. I drank the last of my 2 liters of water and started splitting again. Except while I was taking my water break my hammer somehow gained 5 lbs and become hard to swing. I completely ran out of steam. After an hour and a half, this is what I got done. It doesn't look like much, but it is a good start. I am glad to see that there is no insect damage and almost no twist at all in it.
So far this is what I have for the stave count guessing contest:
SA - 39
Cracker - 43
Blackhawk - 48
Will H - 50
