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Saturday, February 17, 2018

Splitting Sweetgum Logs

About half a day of sunshine maybe twice a week is all we're seeing these days. Yesterday was one of those sunny half days, and warm too.



Poppy said, what do you want to do...finish blowing those leaves, or split and stack the rest of that wood up near the garden. Let's do the wood, I said!



First, have you ever tried to split a Sweetgum log? It will beat you to death! Even the heavy steel wedge made only a small split in the log.




Poppy swung that heavy sledgehammer over and over and over...






and finally the wedge broke free, but the log was far from being split.




He hammered the wedge into the side of the log. The grain of a Sweet gum goes in all directions. 





then finally!!

Our half day of sunshine was used up on this one log. One log!! Well, we did split one other short piece...just to say we got two of the pieces split and moved to the back porch. 

Poppy had warned me that splitting this Sweetgum would not be as quick and easy as the maple we split and moved a week or so ago. 

I can remember mama talking about chewing gum from the Sweetgum tree when she was a child. 

From an article in "Wood Magazine"...
In the old days youngsters throughout the rural South went to the woods, not the grocery store, for their chewing gum. There they sought a tree with unusual star-shaped leaves, and bark resembling alligator skin. From it they pried off, then popped into their mouths, yellowish brown balls of a fragrant, resinous substance with a licorice-like taste. This treat was the sap of the native Sweetgum tree (Liquidambar Styraciflua).   


Just for the record...


 I helped!

Thank you for coming along on my boring wood chopping post. 

Love,
Henny

43 comments:

  1. We split wood with an attachment hooked to the front of a BobCat, and sweet gum logs are even difficult to split using it. Getting in wood makes a person warm twice: hauling it in and then burning it. I tried the "chewing gum" as a kid; stuck to my teeth too bad!

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    1. I mentioned to Poppy that maybe we should rent a log splitter. I bet that gum would almost pull your teeth out. I'd better not try it!

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  2. It's amazing what labor it took for a lot of things before power tools and construction machinery came along

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  3. I've never split any kind of log! Looks like hard work.

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  4. Well, it must be a good burning wood, to merit all that work !
    Both of you are such hard-workers, doing what it takes....
    Tomorrow, take it easy :)
    Hugs,
    ~Jo

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  5. WoW, now that you mention it, I do remember my Daddy cussing a sweetgum log, once or twice! LoL

    Grace & Peace,
    Pam

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    1. I bet he did. Poppy said an ugly word, a time or two while swinging that sledgehammer. :)

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  6. Here's a post I can relate to!! Most of our ice storm damage around the house has been that huge maple. It is soo nice to split. There were a few smaller pine logs and they were just like your sweet gum. I think I pulled a muscle on those! Finally Larry, with the chainsaw, put a deep slot into the end of the log. Even then when I swung the maul and got it right into that slot, it still wouldn't split in half. Then all of a sudden one time it finally said 'you win', and fell apart. If all of the wood had been like that, we would have had to get a log splitter. Thankfully most of the pine was small enough that it didn't need splitting, and we just left it in the rounds. The only thing is when you stack those rounds, they don't lock together and we had a couple of rows fall apart.

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  7. "I give up." is what I would say with these logs. they're not meant to be split.

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  8. Wow that was a tough piece of wood. I bet y'all will be sore all over tomorrow.
    Love you both!

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  9. I have to agree with Red. Some logs are just not meant to be split. You work too hard!!

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  10. After all that time on one chunk, I would be finding some use for then out in the yard, unsplit!

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  11. You are excused a few "ugly" words when doing this kind of work. No wonder they call it sweet "gum." That "gum" is really holding that wood together! Just think of the exercise and fresh air you got. That is worth a lot in this world of easy satisfaction. You tried. Could have wasted those hours shopping or watching some dumb movie. I admire that. Phil/Minnesota

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  12. If you have a lot of those rounds, a log splitter would be worthwhile rental. Otherwise, saw them lengthwise with the chain saw about half way or a little better, and it will take the starch out of them and they will split easier. Not easy, just easier.

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  14. I once heard my dad say that Black Gum was a good wood to use for "making a boy's wagon wheels." I suppose Sweet Gum might be too, for the wheel would certainly be in no danger of splitting. Around here a lot of "Gum" timber is sold for making railroad ties. I love your picture swinging that heavy hammer! :~)

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  15. I am in awe of both of you for your perseverance, I think I would give up.

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  16. Goodness, but that looks like hard work. Does the wood burn well enough to be worth all that effort? Funnily enough I had just seen mention of that gum in a book I read recently, so thank you for the information.

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  17. I agree with The Wykeham Observer, all that fresh air and exercise must make for two very healthy people! This is exactly what I have yearned for, coveted, and dreamed of my whole life--- granted, there are many things about the country that would spook me(rodents, bugs...) but I've felt it in my bones since childhood that city living is missing something. Well, all I can do is enjoy my dream life through my favourite bloggers! Not at all a boring post if I learned some new things from it.

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  18. What an interesting post. Will those logs fit in your fireplaces whole? Maybe save them to add to the fire after it is going strong and don't worry about splitting them.

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  19. HP, I don't think anything you do on your place is boring :) Somewhere recently, on a video I was watching, I saw somebody pry a piece of "gum" off of a tree and chew it, just as you describe. Now I wish I could remember where I saw it! Good work, you two.

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  20. Hi Henny! Oh, that sounds WAY too hard! I remember chewing stuff we scooped out of sticks. I guess it wasn't poison. LOL!
    Have a lovely week, lovely YOU!

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  21. That is one thing that I've never helped my hubby with. Is there anything you can't do, my friend? This was not a boring post, by the way. I learned a lot from it...mainly, that I wouldn't ever want to try splitting a Sweetgum log. It was neat to read about where chewing gum started, long before you could go to the store and buy it. :) xx

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  22. That's a lot of work, Henny! Hopefully, you will get to do some more fun chores in the garden before too long. Love, Terry

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  23. Hi Henny,
    I enjoy learning more about the South. I have never been South. I hope someday to travel to the South. It is interesting that we all live in the USofA, but we have so many different trees, plants and way of life.

    I spy your pink wheel barrow.
    xx oo
    Carla

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  24. Oh- that is a big job. My dad had a large saw that he set up (hooked up to a belt powered by the tractor) that he ran the long logs through crossways and then cut them into chunk sized pieces on those hardwood trees. It was a process. I got to tote and stack. lol The less dense woods were split by an axe. xo Diana

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  25. What a job! I've never split sweet gum, I'm happy to say. But I've split a lot of other kinds of wood and carried a lot of it, too. I hope you had a big lunch after that job!

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  26. Thank goodness for gas fireplaces is all I can say!

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  27. goodness gracious, I do think that's the hardest tree I've ever seen! that is alot of work, hope you are resting!

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  28. Well look at you swinging that ax :) yes, those trees are sure hard! Maria

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  29. Wow! This is a lot of hard work splitting logs. Never tried this, but my parents did because we had a woodstove. Wood heat is nice and warm.

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  30. Once when we were walking through the pine forest at a campground in the mountains (southern California) my mom went to a pine tree and picked off a ball of sap and started chewing it. "This is what we chewed when I was a little girl (she grew up in Colorado). I was very surprised. Now I don't remember if I tried it. Se have a sweet gum tree in the front yard. I'll have to check that out.

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  31. Oh my, what an adventure and what a lot of hard work! I so enjoy our wood burning stove so I understand the need for wood. There is nothing quite as nice as wood heat {{smiles}}

    Hugs to you!

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  32. Yeah, I think you need a log splitter that isn't a human. There's got to be an easier way!

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  33. My goodness that does look like one tough tree. You should invest in a log splitter and save the wear and tear on your bodies!

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  34. Hi! That looks so hard to split! You both must be in very good physical shape. Nancy

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  35. I want to be exactly like you when I grow up. I love you bigger than the whole wide world.
    ~your oldest girl,
    Lynn

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