Andedammen,
We must be related because my dad said the same thing about cord wood warming you more than once.
I am not sure about Cottonwood or Ash (we don't have those varieties where I live in Texas) but Oak will typically have what we refer to as a "wind check". It is in the center of the rings when you look at the cross section of a log. I was always told when splitting wood by hand to align your wedge, maul, axe, etc with the wind check and you were more likely to make a clean split with less energy. Of course, that bit of info came from my dad during what he refers to as my "formative years"! He seemed to think splitting wood was good training for football.
It seems as though yall have it figured out with hydraulic splitters; however, if it doesn't work out, send a bus to Texas and we can fill it with "exchange students" (illegals from South of the border). They work cheap and you can offset their cost by selling the surplus they produce!
