Hope you had a chance to enjoy the warm springlike weather over the weekend. Personally, I would have no complaints if spring started right now and summer lasted till next Thanksgiving, but there is one winter pasttime I enjoy. Having a fire on a cold, or rainy day. When I moved in to my new house I was the lucky beneficiary of about a cord of seasoned firewood. Whoever left it behind had left it outside, so I promptly put it under cover following a few dry days this fall. Best I can tell, the wood is a mix of Poplar, some sort of swamp tree, and a few soft pine logs which had been sitting just the right amount of time… long enough to dry some of the pitch, but not long enough to get punky with surface rot. Perhaps you can tell I'm a firewood connosieur. My favorite pick above and beyond all else is apple wood, which is hard to find unless someone is selectively trimming an orchard. It burns hot and long and smells wonderful. Cherry is good, and I grew up burning Oak and Maple. Red Oak, White Oak, Black Oak, Sugar Maple, Red Maple, Silver Maple, you name it. The harder the wood, the better the fire. Poplar seems to burn through pretty fast. Some folks swear by Ash and Beech… it seems to be a good middle ground. While pine is not so good for your chimney and or stovepipe due to the pitch, I find it useful to have at least some on hand to really blaze a fire up good and hot… just make sure you don't burn it all the time or have yourt chimney cleaned. Of course, all of this wood needs to be split, right ? I like the old fashioned pioneer method with a splitting maul, and or sledge and wedge… maybe just a plain old axe for the lighter stuff. If however you have a lot of wood to split, why then this is what you need: