[MRM]

JP, if you do plan to split some by hand, I really, really encourage you to get a monster maul instead of the old fashioned wedges. I grew up heating with wood in Wisconsin during the last ice age in a hundred year old farmhouse with no insulation. We cut and split a lot of wood. A lot. The difference a monster maul makes is hard to describe until you've experienced it for yourself. You get all the force exactly where you want it with far more power than with wedges and you don't have to sto and reset the wedges all the time. It's as fast as chopping with an axe but has the splitting power of a maul and wedges. If you try it you'll never go back.