So, we had a whole load of wood sitting in front of the garage. It all stemmed from a board meeting where the board member from our nearest university said they have over 100 trees come down in the storms we had in December and January. So, it was worth a punt and I sent an email along the lines of
A cheeky request from the owner of a wood burning stove to the manager of an estate with over a hundred trees down…
It worked. They have no problem with members and associates collecting fallen wood from the estate, so long as it is done safely. I was even shown the ‘log store’ by the grounds manager, who told me how to get in touch and arrange to collect wood. Sooperrb.
I didn’t do that much about it for a while but recently have made the effort to get
along and pick up a boot full when I can – cue driving home standing up so I can see the horizon above the bonnet! Four or five trips later and the drive is full of large round pieces of wood. Most of them are fresh, as in they came from a tree that was expecting to be doing lots of spring type stuff in a couple of weeks, probably until it got chopped up by the nice men in orange in fact.
Today was the day for getting it all(?) turned into smaller pieces that might stand a chance of seasoning whilst I’m still alive and then fitting in anything smaller than a power station furnace. 
A couple of hours, that should do it, right? I mean how hard can it be? I’ll just pop some scrap wood down as battens to keep the logs off the wet ground then chop and stack. Simple.
And, given I am now armed with one of these, what could possibly take any effort? There were plenty of 
people raving about it on various forums and it seemed to be a great compromise between a £12 lump of Chinese cr*p and £90 worth of Scandinavian hand made marvel. Bizarrely, Fiskars don’t sell it in the UK, only the shorter version which comes with a Shin Meat warning from users. Furtunately these people also pointed out the ease with which one can buy and import from overseas now. Not only was it cheaper from the US (including shipping and import taxes) than the shorter one was over here, but it only took about 3-4 days from order to doorstep. Be warned UK Retail Consortium. This shopper has felt the power of price competition on a whole new level.
Well, the axe is VERY good, but Mrs. B was still right that I shouldn’t under-estimate the level of effort required! It could be something to do with being a bit lazy, a bit fat and a bit middle aged. It’s good to get some exercise though and now I can’t wait to get the next four car loads to get another upper body workout. Bring it on.