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No pictures of this interesting development but last night when filling my Hardy H2 with its evening's compliment of wood, I was startled by something ...At first I thought it was a snake as I saw the tapered end of its tail disappear into the stacks of logs. Upon further review it was an opossum who made a nest in my woodpile! Cute little bugger. The area of my woodpile I am currently picking from is over a year old, so this guy must have taken advantage of the logs as they went undisturbed for a while. He had made a nice pile of leaves and even went as far as to pull a piece of kindling over his structure for added support. It looks like he has been there for a while.
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Not being a mean spirited woodburner, I placed the log back on top of his nest and gave him the night to remain nestled in his warm bed. This morning he was gone...and as of tonight still no sign of him. I don't know where he ran off to, or how far. For all I know he only moved one cord back into my woodshed and made another nest. Other than birds and an occasional mouse who runs out from under the back of my Hardy, this is the only wildlife I have stumbled across in my woodshed. The mice have been trouble as I have seen where they have chewed on the insulation of my Hardy and even nibbled on some wires. I figure they can only get so far on the wires before Mr Hardy decides to bite back. As for the opossum...he can stay but I may even consider building him a nest myself if he would help tidy around the place, shovel some ash, and stack some wood.
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Here is a photo of my Hardy and the woodshed after a recent snow fall. I'll be sure to tell my new opossum friend you all said "hello."
Good stuff! I get mice and that is about it, boring but I'll take it. Do you think un-split logs burn better than split? I have logs that are about10 inches in diameter, as an example, should I split them or throw them in? Obviously when I have a 20" log I split it so my wife can load it, but I can't seem to decide what to split and what not to split. What say you?
ReplyDeleteI have made a practice in only splitting the logs that won't fit in the door of my Hardy. You will not have a problem burning a big round. I find the rounds last longer but it helps to use a big log in conjunction with a few smaller logs thrown in with it. At night I will toss in some smaller rounds first, and set the big round on top. That way it can kiln dry all night before it gets its turn to burn on the grates. This fall I bought my maul and had a lot of fun splitting wood...and I split just for the workout and because its a blast to do. Not splitting your wood is a major labor saver...time you could spend sawing with your new chainsaw! OWB
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