Sometimes life is good and all your plans work out. As a dour cynical Scot I expect this to happen with the rarity of a bottle of unicorn tears; however it does happen and I am more delighted than someone who is always 'positive'. Life must be a continuous disappointment for them, while I am occasionally overwhelmed with joy.
My chopping block had seen better days, I use it regularly to split wood and during social events in my garden it becomes an impromptu table. I had been using it for about five years and the usual flat surface had become more like a bowl, with a soft mashed up interior. I was worried because it is relatively rare to come across a chunk of tree that is movable and is large enough to act as a good block. I aim for a height that means the top of whatever I am splitting is about waist height. This makes for more comfortable splitting and better use of energy.
It was reasonably soon after I was pondering how to replace my block that I was told of some felling that had occurred in a nearby industrial estate (which was being cleared to build luxury flats apparently) and there might be a chunk of tree I could help myself too. So without waiting any longer I set off in my pickup and worked my way into the estate, climbing some pretty tricky obstacles designed to prevent the average scavenger from getting in.
I found a suitable tree and with a combination of skill & good fortune cut out a piece that suited me perfectly. The first thing I noticed was that it weighed much more than I could comfortably lift, it being fresh green wood and fully saturated. So, I sat down on it and had a smoke while I tried to figure out what to do. Then it came to me like a flash, a memory from a Boy's own story from my childhood!
I quickly set to with the chainsaw and cut myself some logs of equal height and dimension, in reducing sizes of diameter.
After a few attempts and some deep thinking I arranged them in a manner that allowed me to handle them while moving a very heavy log. With a little care I was able to lift the log onto the first stack and using some brute force and patience get the base logs where I wanted.
I'll let you into a secret here, I don't normally take photos of what I am doing but I was looking for an excuse to get my breath back and my heart rate back down.
Yes that stack is a precarious as it looks and the more observant of you will notice that the logs of different sizes have moved around. I'd love to pretend it all worked in one go, but in reality it took several attempts. Let's just keep that a wee secret between you and I?
And there it is, a massively heavy piece of wood precariously perched on top of some very wobbly logs. However, it was there and at a height that I needed. All I had to do was reverse my pickup, tailgate down, as close to the log as I could. Again I had a wee break and decided to do a bit of measuring. I measured from the rear wheels to the edge of the tailgate then I measured the same distance from the log and placed a couple of bits of wood. The idea was I would reverse, the wheels would hit the wood and as long as I stopped we should be all lined up.
And it worked! All I had to do now was a final push and the log would be in. I braced myself and then plunged in, a big push, the log fell onto the tailgate and all the support logs fell away. I'll be honest, I nearly did not make it and faced the prospect of an hour's effort thumping to the ground. I was lucky and the log finally moved forward, beyond the centre of gravity.
I am sure the more philosophical of us will manage to extract a bead of wisdom from that experience, perhaps an allegory for the human condition in some delightfully inspiring manner, but I am a dour Scot, I had a chopping block and that was good enough for me.
Peace and love to all!
