Took me about two hours to do this pile. Man, I felt good afterwards.
This is my Snow & Nealley 3 1/4 lb. axe on a 32" haft. It is, by far, my favorite splitting axe. I got it out of my grandfather's garage in Northern Maine a few years ago. It had a few chunks taken out of the face. I filed it down to repair it and it has been my favorite ever since.
According to the markings, I'd say it was made in the 50's or 60's. It goes to show that investing in a good tool can bring you (or, in this case your grandson or great grandson) years of use.
Pax Domini,
MOH
I don't know if that's what you're meaning, but I had axe shed a piece of steel from the edge one below-zero morning when I hadn't let it warm by a fire before use.
ReplyDeleteGiven that I only have single flue chimney and the furnace in the basement is hooked up to it I can't run a wood stove in the house. So I only heat the shop and garage with wood and my consumption is quite little. I probably have a couple of cords but seem to be going though it awful slowly.
ReplyDelete@gorges - It wasn't quite that bad. Metal was folded over a bit on the face in areas. Looked like they were chopping rocks!
ReplyDelete@michael - Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. What do you do for heat when the power goes out?
A 6500 watt Generac Generator. LOL. It will run the whole house if needed. But due to ground water run off in the spring I get about 25 gallons a minute in the basement sump and two staged pumps kick in once a minute so I simply could not be without a generator if I lost power Id have a pool in my basement in no time flat. We have a newer oil fired furnace for the domestic water and hot water baseboards. We don't really use it for heat just domestic hot water. Primary heat source is a propane Rinai direct vent unit in the kitchen. Burns about a gallon a day even running full tilt boogey. The house has a 500 gallon underground propane tank so I fill it every 16 months and since I buy 400 or 450 gallons at a time I get bulk price of 2 $/gallon. It hurts to write the fat check but it is very efficient, and contrary to popular belief propane is actually quite environmentally friendly. There is a reason forklifts in warehouses run on the stuff. It is a waste product of oil extraction and refining, the only cost is bottling it and transporting it. The oil fields I grew up around in Venezuela simply flare the stuff of rather than going through the trouble of bottling it all. I am looking in to a on demand propane water heater so we can do a way with the oil fired boiler all together but again due to the configuration of the house I don't have a good place to put it So I'd have to do some remodeling. But when I get rid of the boiler then I can reline the chimney and hook up a wood stove and burn free wood of which I get a lot. As you see it is all a domino effect situation.
DeleteDon't I know it. We're going to build a guest cottage here at home. To do that, I have to tear down a shed, cut all of my wood, find a place to put everything in said shed, then build. If I could just build, it would take less than half the time!
ReplyDeleteAnd, for the record, I like propane.
Well that should be a fun project. I have often wanted do do something like that but local zoning laws are a PITA. I just have to move out of yuppyville suburbia where I can have some more elbow room to do that sort of stuff. The Cabin Porn and Tiny House Swoon blog sites have some neat ideas I'd love to try and do. An acquaintance of mine, Brian Schulz from the days I was building skin-on-frame kayaks has done some neat stuff out in Manzanitas Oregon. Check out the documentaries on his little farm and his tiny cottages. I love his little Japanese motif house.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32WtDb3c3ws
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc0CNevB1bo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DSQ0W2lwtw
No kidding! Those sites have been my inspiration. The one we're doing in the back yard will be more relaxshacks.com style, but on the land, we're going for tiny house. If it's 10x12 or under (on the land), we don't need a permit. I'm going to do three 10x12s, then maybe do a permanent, larger structure when we move there (we're talking about it - not decided). I'll check those videos later this afternoon!
ReplyDeleteI checked out those videos. Pretty cool. That guy is BUSY! I've actually watched a lot of Kirsten's videos. She does good stuff. Most of it, anyhow. How'd you meet that guy?
ReplyDeleteI met Brian when I was involved with Qajaqusa.org and was building traditional skin on frame kayaks. He is an interesting cat, but a bit out there for me. I admire what he has done and the neat business he has created around teaching folks to build skin on frame kayaks. Capefalconkayak.com Check out his page, there is a lot of neat stuff there. I met him a couple times at some kayak symposiums. But had a hard time connecting with him. The video does not show it but he is quite intense, does everything way overboard. Its hard to keep up with him. I taught myself to build the kayaks and learned most of the rolls. You can see a video of me on the latest posting on my blog. Due to physical conditions and a worn out shoulder I have had to give up paddling as of late.
DeleteAppreciate thhis blog post
ReplyDelete