The Great Maple Tree Challenge.

We had a huge 31-inch diameter maple tree at the cottage that was leaning more every year and threatening our pump house, deck and possibly the cottage itself. Last year it was touching the pump house and we were afraid a good wind could topple it as it was rooted in sandy soil. The best time to attempt a take-down was in late November or early December when the leaves are off the tree, the ground is frozen and there is no traffic to disrupt.

We called on Rockingham Tree Service to do the job. Rhett Gustafson arrived with a rented crane, a Bob­cat equip­ped with a grappling device and a wood chipper straight out of Fargo.

After positioning the equipment and strapping on his climbing spurs and harness, he grabbed his chainsaw and rode the ball on the crane up about 40 feet and was deposited in the tree. He cut off the branches and big limbs and then sectioned the main trunk of the tree. Piece by piece it was lowered to the ground for disposal by his ground-crew.

Three hours later we had a pile of logs for firewood next to our woodpile and all the limbs were chipped and broadcast into the swamp behind us.

Rhett and his crew came back in April and bucked up the logs to face-cord length.

Our good neighbour, George Friesen, offered to help me with the splitting of the firewood. We rented a 25-ton Lumberjack splitter from Rhett at a very reasonable rate of $55 a day. George and I are two 25-year-old farm boys with 100 years of experience between us. We managed to do the job in a day and a half. The first day we used the splitter in the horizontal position and split all the small rounds.

The splitter could be tilted up to receive the larger pieces at ground level which was a lot easier on our backs. We could also roll the splitter to where the rounds lay on the ground.

Day Two saw us wrestling with the big rounds. We tried using splitting wedges and sledge hammers but found that was too much effort. I had a heart attack in 2015 and my stamina for such exertion is severely restricted. The last time when I told my cardiologist that I felt tired after splitting six cords of firewood, he said there was no pill for common sense.

Instead, we were able to roll the big rounds and lay them on the lip of the splitter that was in the vertical position before sectioning them into smaller manageable pieces. George and I made a great team. I sat on a stool and was able to position the smaller pieces while he operated the splitter. George, being four years younger, also did most of the wrestling of the larger pieces. (Reminded me of the old Bob Bailey radio show called 'Let George Do It').

I already had about twelve cords of wood left from the last splitting job five years ago and we use about a cord a year at the cottage. We should be good for 20 years.

Final thoughts: never challenge a couple of old farm boys to a seemingly impossible task.