Back then, my dad and I would split firewood behind the barn while we listened to Larry Munson describe each play on the radio during Georgia Bulldog football games.

Dad was a University of Georgia graduate back in 1932. He was a true Bulldog fan, so we had to listen to all the Bulldog games on the radio. Now mind you, we had a television, but not out at the barn.

Munson Memories

During those play by play commentaries on the radio, we would stop and listen to Munson describe the plays. It was easy to picture them in our minds. I can't tell you who played for Georgia at the time, but Vince Dooley was the coach.

Dad and I could get quite a bit of wood split during commercials, timeouts and halftime. We weren't fortunate to have a gas-powered wood splitter. I don't even know if they made them back them.

We used a wedge, a sledge hammer and a tool my Dad called a "go-devil." The go-devil was simply a splitting maul. It had a wedge on one side, a hammer on the other and a long handle.

Even though Dad was in his 70s and blind in one eye from a car wreck around 1936, he would take the go-devil, and with a powerful swing, bury the wedge deep in the center of the short length of log we were splitting.

Science of Splitting

If the log was straight-grained, like pine, oak or hickory, it would usually split into equal halves. If it had knots in it, splitting the log was a bit more difficult. And if it was wood with an interlocking grain, like sweet gum and elm, it was darn near impossible to split.

We had a lot of sweet gum and elm.

If Dad didn't split the wood with the go-devil (sometimes it would just bounce out), he would leave the go-devil stuck in the log section and hold the handle steady, and I would use the sledge hammer to pound the hammer side of the go-devil completely through the log. Eventually, it would split. Sometimes we just gave up on the sweet gum and elm.

We stacked the split wood under the barn so it could dry. It takes at least six to nine months for it to dry (then it's called seasoned wood).

Seasoned Wood

If it's not seasoned, I can't burn wood in the wood heater I have now. So I have to plan for the winter well in advance if I want to use my wood heater.

Green wood will burn, but seasoned wood will have more heat value. That's because heat is lost as the moisture in the wood changes to steam, which then escapes and allows the wood to burn. Green or wet wood sizzles, fizzles and spits as it burns.

Green wood will often split more easily than dry wood. Red oak and locust split easier dry than green. On the other hand, white oak, ash and maple split easier green than dry.

Splitting wood is a skill I learned from my dad. It was good exercise, a diversion for us at times. And it created some memories of my dad and football on Saturday afternoons, memories that seem to come back every fall.