From the time I was 14 till I was 20 we had a fireplace with insert and wood was our heat. My Dad worked the chainsaw and for years we lived off of trees that had been dropped along the local power lines.The folks who ran the power lines went on a widening program and we reaped the benefits.Me mostly and some times my cousin hauled the cut sections to the truck.Many were six feet long and we would flip them end over end.Then when we got home Dad would finish sectioning them.It was my job to split and stack the wood with a 16 lb all metal maul.I would turn the flood light on in the back yard and split a few hours at night.The colder the better.Once the logs froze they would pop apart much easier.I would pass the wood through the window to Mom or dad when they needed wood.Had a small stack in the house as well.
Child labor kept my butt warm at night. This and mowing the grass was about all I had to do as a kid or scxrape the paint off the house once before my Dad painted it. Never realized i was being abused.