We acquired a gas powered log splitter. It’s not something that creeped up on us overtime, we never once considered it. In fact we helped a neighbor use one a while back and it very much turned us off. The work was noisy and repetitive.
Then a monstrous maple tree showed up, and even though I bucked it up in short logs to make maul splitting easier, the amount of work it took to get even a crack in it was just too much. We need wood now, and we occasionally get impossible knotted logs, it would be nice to be able to produce larger quantities of wood faster given our increase use with sugaring, and extended stove season much beyond cold weather for cooking and water. All of a sudden it simply made sense, but the decision was hard and I sincerely hope it won’t affect our family maul swinging tradition much.
After using it once, it is indeed nice to see super tough logs pop open with no effort, but I took no satisfaction in the work and this was reassuring in a way.