Wood gives me wood

[Magnon]

No fetish here, we’ve burnt 14 cubic metres of oak every winter ( since 1996). Sometimes we get good stuff already cut to 50/55cm other years we have to cut it and sometimes it’s absolute shit. Trouble is the suppliers are a dying breed and to be fair, even if the wood was free to me, I wouldn’t cut and split four cubic metres of oak, load it on my tractor and deliver/stack it for 200 euros.

I now use a pellet boiler (and a couple of wood stoves)

[daveuprite]

No fetish here, we’ve burnt 14 cubic metres of oak every winter ( since 1996). Sometimes we get good stuff already cut to 50/55cm other years we have to cut it and sometimes it’s absolute shit. Trouble is the suppliers are a dying breed and to be fair, even if the wood was free to me, I wouldn’t cut and split four cubic metres of oak, load it on my tractor and deliver/stack it for 200 euros.

I now use a pellet boiler (and a couple of wood stoves)

Yeah, it's hard work that's for sure. It helps a bit that we have a very large deciduous forest right behind us and a wood yard nearby. At the yard they make the oak into beams to order and I buy the 2 metre long strippings (all the stuff left over). I collect it in bound bundles in my van - about 600kgs each load. Then I cut this down using a chop saw so I end up with exactly the sizes I need. 45/50cm for the wood burner and 30-35 for the Rayburn. We are home based, so we can keep the fires burning all day if necessary.

Of course a modern central heating system would be far more bloody convenient, but also a bit sterile. The house comes alive in winter when the logs are crackling and the heat is a different kind of warmth - kind of chewy... The biggest advantage is that, apart from some limited local transport costs and the fuel/electricity involved in felling/cutting, the heat it produces is basically carbon neutral.

[gbags]

God bless wood fires, logs, axes, wood piles, fire pits, kindling, splitting logs and everything to do with log fires, even and including weeping eyes from the smoke that follows you around a camp fire, no matter how often you scoot about.

[Flintlock]

Guilty of this pleasure. Not to the same scale as above, but cut up my own wherever possible.

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[Flintlock]

Use the smaller branches for the BBQ ( no need for charcoal)


And. also for lighting sticks for the stove

[steve the grease]

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[PHILinFRANCE]

ohhhh i , love me wood , picked up 15cu M the other day in 1m lengths and look forward to cutting it up , we're lucky our fire takes 65cm lenghts so one chop per length.
I like to be a year ahead but this year had a proper clear out so starting again , when this lot is chopped up ill get another 10cu ready for next year

20180923_091724 by Philip Parkinson, on Flickr

[daveuprite]

Guilty of this pleasure. Not to the same scale as above, but cut up my own wherever possible.

20180922_175241.jpg
20180922_175319.jpg

Talking of scale, I'd rather like one of these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trak-Met-25T ... SwIMBbmhMa

[Brads]

Last delivery, all now stacked. I have around the same again already in the log stores

[chunky butt]

There brilliant bits of kit Dave, saw one ( excuse pun ) at a country show once, was shifting some gear.....thought about a business opportunity here in France !!! Peut-etre