more about wood

I tried to chop wood. I really did. I even got Ciprian to give me a lesson on chopping wood. You hold the ax at the end of the handle and raise it above and behind your head and bring it down with every ounce of energy you have and if it doesn't sink into the wood far enough, you have to yank the ax out of the wood.
But if it does sink in enough, you lift the ax with the wood still stuck on the ax blade and bring it down on the chopping block in an inverse direction (with sharp ax end pointing up). At which time, if the wood is not full of knots, it splits in half. And then you chop the halves into smaller pieces.
Yes. pretty simple in words.
Its the lifting the chopped log of wood over my head and bringing it down in an inverse direction that is my Achilles heel.
Ciprian watched over me dubiously, giving me pointers.
"see, you can't lift it over your head. Let someone else do it. You don't need to know how to chop wood." (while I'm ungracefully trying to swing the wood over my head)
"no no. This piece is still too big. It dries quicker when its smaller"
After a bit Ciprian loses interest and I have a few minutes to look incompetent in peace. Then Gabi comes out to hang up laundry.
"So you want to be an independent woman." She smiles.
"Well," I sweatily respond,"It never hurts to know how to cut wood. Whatever. You're an independent woman." I say to the woman who works full-time with two children and is always happy.
"I don't cut wood and I still stay warm." She jokes.
After a couple hours, the smaller pieces of wood were all chopped and I knew I had to admit defeat with the bigger pieces. damn Achilles.
But give me an ax and pieces of wood lighter than a 5 liter bucket of paint and you've got yourself a wood chopper.