I am becoming the queen of wood. I feel like I write about wood a lot here; heating with wood, the merits of different species for producing heat with less ash. I’ve researched wood burning stoves; this winter I stacked and burned 3 cords.
A couple of weeks ago, I took down three trees in my front yard. There were still a couple of feet of snow so I let them lie while I worked on the burn pile. Well, the snow is gone and it’s time to clean up.
A friend introduced me to his wood-splitter. I’ve rented splitters before. I towed the monsters behind my truck to the house and spent hours listening to the engine whine; then many more hours with a buzz in my ears and a headache. This little puppy didn’t look like it was up to the job. It was small enough for me to move, almost without incident, and being electric, it whispered while I worked.
Most gratifying was the fact that I neatly split up all the two foot chunks in no time.
Then came the chunks I couldn’t lift. They weighed roughly the same as me.
Enter the Pulp Hook!
This ingeniously simple invention removes all the bending and carrying of large chunks. It extends your reach by nearly a foot and allows the user to move the wood while putting the mechanics of your own body weight to work.
The little, $300 splitter chugged along, carving up the most challenging logs.
As you can see, I have really gotten into the “Zen” of wood and occasionally can levitate a log!
Therapeutic Misadventures 
Both my parents and my grandparents heated with wood. I can remember long summer days spent with an axe, maul and sledge hammer splitting wood the hard way. So much easier with a splitter!
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