Hey CowBoyDoc,
I thought about letting people come in and get the wood but I won't do that for a couple of reasons. Having people on the property will drive me nuts. I know they will throw cans/bottles/wrappers/etc on the ground. Littering is a Real Hot Button for me. I just can't stand it. Its lazy and disrespectful. I'm going to catch one of the contractors littering one day and he is going to get a tongue lashing he won't forget. Can't stand it.
That right there is The Reason I won't have people on the property.
Another one is Liability. NC state put out a paper I read about landowner liability. The best way to prevent any liability was to post your land and keep people off. The worse thing to do, liability wise, was to charge someone for the use of the land. I would think that picking up the wood even if already cut would fall into that. Having them cut up the wood would be worse I would think. So that is a no go.
And if that is not enough. One of the land clearing/driveway building contractors said he could not GIVE AWAY cut up firewood. He had access to tons of cut up wood. All people had to do was pick it up and split it. They only wanted it for free if it was already SPLIT!
Go Figure.
Log Splitters. I slaved over one of those noisy, smelly, hydraulic beasts on very hot and humid summer in the Ohio valley. I mean right in the valley with farm frontage on the Ohio river. HOT AND HUMID! And I'm a Florida Boy, I know Hot and Humid but at least in Florida you usually have a breeze. Not in the Hell Hole of the Ohio Valley. You don't get now stink'n wind!
I have a splitt'n wedge on a stick that works wonders. I think it is as fast as the smelly hydraulic beast I used to use at least on straight grain wood. Both the wedge and the hydraulic beast provide a good back work out but I really think the manual splitter is faster....
Later...
Dan McCarty
