They say fire wood heats multiple times, from the time you cut it down to the time you put it into the wood stove. I'm leaving out about a half dozen steps, including this one, splitting it. Most of this wood is black birch, one of the best fire woods you can find in western North Carolina. It smells like wintergreen and mint when you split it.
Weird – my right knee is starting to ache… I can just hear the maul tearing apart the fibers!