Coppicing in a neighbouring wood

Yesterday was cold - again!
The pond at the bottom of the wayleave has grass poking through it (it doesn't have water in it for much of the year), but that's now frozen:
We had Dudley, who I know through PowerSwitch, and his friend Laura visiting. After hot drinks we went for a walk around the wood, and went into one of the neighbouring woods where the owners have arranged for Tim and Sal to do some coppicing.
They were splitting the chestnut to help it dry, just as I'd been (it was Tim that gave me the idea for the firewood processing method), but I saw Sal doing it with a maul instead of wedges:
I'm going to have to give this a go, as it looks much quicker.

Tracy, Dudley and Laura stood warming themselves around the chainsaw - though I think they might have been better off round the fire... ;-)
And finally, does anyone know what this is, because we don't: Mike