Have Axe, Will Travel

This is sort-of a cross between a business plan and a philosophy.  The idea came to me from two directions:  

First, I normally jog past a house which had a pile of un-split tree trunk rounds.  The pile recently disappeared, but had been there for at least a couple of years.  A high school kid could probably earn enough on the job of splitting that pile of fire-wood as it would cost for a decent splitting axe.  

The second direction was my own experience of tree-work.  I cut down trees, on my own suburban lot, because trees need to be removed and doing it myself is much less expensive than hiring a service.  Even so, I wouldn't bother cutting down trees if I couldn't make use of the wood.  I solved this problem by installing a wood burning stove. 

There are 4, (5 if you count the process of burning wood in the stove) main jobs in tree work.

1.  Cutting down the tree.  This is unpleasant.  It involves the use of a chain saw, which is loud, vibrates, spews sawdust everywhere, constantly needs to be repaired, fueled, gassed and oiled and gives off noxious fumes.  Plus, it's really dangerous to operate such a device. Finally, it's really stressful since many trees can fall in ways which could cause damage to property, or death.

2.  Cutting up the tree:  Pretty much all the above applies, except that you can't really damage property.

3. Splitting the wood.  This is actually fun, gives a good workout and isn't particularly dangerous.

4. Hauling and stacking wood.  This is satisfying too.  You get to see a pile of firewood build from nothing to a year's supply.

So, what's the philosophy part of all this?  Most of us have jobs that don't require any physical strength or endurance.  It feels good to use bone, sinew, skill and endurance.  It feels good to be mildly out of breath and have a damp forehead on a cool fall day.  Not just physically good; good like...connected to nature, your own physicality, doing something productive that's tangible.

I think the world would be a better, happier place if everyone did this kind of work a few times per week.  Especially men.  For people who already spend all day, every day, on backbreaking work; they could use more breaks, more time to do mind-work.