Guest Blog by Mike Austin
There is something intrinsically fatherly about splitting wood.I’m talking about grabbing an ax, a sledge hammer, and a steel wedge and whacking away at a cut section of log. Can you feel the testosterone?
I learned to split wood from my dad, when I was about 11 or 12 years old.It was a matter of necessity.We had a fireplace, and if our family was going to enjoy it, the wood had to come from somewhere.
Every summer we spent a day in a stand of timber that one of my dads friends owned, cutting down two or three trees. When we took a break, Dad and I sat on the tailgate of his old Ford and ate the sandwiches my mom had packed, and we talked a little. Then we rode home completely tired out. We talked about how hard the work had been, but neither one of us complained too much; we had to show we could take, it I guess.
Early each fall, Dad and I spent another day working together, out back of our house, splitting the wood from the trees we had cut down. We split the wood and systematically stacked it so it would be easy to grab on a frigid winter night. I dont think Dad meant this annual task as any great learning or bonding experience, but I got a lot more than just neat sections of logs for my reward.
We shared a common goal, and that gave us the chance to connect on many different levels. We talked about school, his job, my girlfriends, his childhood (when he was a boy he had to get up every morning and stoke the fire in the stove and fetch more wood), and life in general.I also learned some basic things, such as how being careless with tools will land you in the hospital (I actually caught the ax in the head oncemy fault).
Dad has been gone for more than 25 years. But now I get a great deal of pleasure watching and helping both my sons split wood for our fireplace.We talk and I tell them about my childhood and their grandpa, and I teach them the things my father taught me about the wood, the tools, and life.
If you have the opportunity, I urge you to try this chore with your son or your daughter. The rewards you get will be much greater than a pile of nicely split and stacked wood.
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Mike Austin is a voice actor and host/producer of Radio Dad with Mike Austin, a nationally syndicated daily radio feature about being a dad. Mike is the father of six children ages 6 to 18. He and his wife, Lisa, live in southern Wisconsin, where Lisa is a stay-at-home mom and Mike works like crazy.
