Firewood for Winter

[Richard]

I had a few bits and bobs, but made three short walks down the Lane to my little treasure trove and got some more today

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Should someone mention it, the Wood is owned by my Landlord and he allows me whatever I want from it

Anyone else doing the same or have any other access to 'frugal firewood' ?


Richard

[Totally Scrambled]

I have a source of free firewood too. The chap who had our house about 25 years ago planted loads of specimen trees which have grown slightly since. As they are getting a bit on the large size I am pollarding them bit by bit and turning them into firewood. I hope if I do one or two a year that by the time I've worked my way through them the ones I did first will be in need of pollarding again so that I have a continuing source of free wood
This year I have cut, split and seasoned a supply of maple, oak, hawthorn and hazel.

Me doing a bit of pollarding

Cut and ready for sawing and splitting


Sawn, split and seasoned

Last lot sawn, split, seasoned and ready to go in the log store.
Quite a good haul for this year.
Dom

[Richard]

Bloomin heck, that's amazing !!

I am lucky that last year I had free pickings of loads of logs from trees cut down over the Lane, hopefully enough there for quite a time this year.

For my Rayburn and Sitting Room fire (both only lit in the late afternoons - the Rayburn well stocked just about lasts all night) I reckon I can get sufficient from the Woods in about 5 days tooing and froing, but tend to do it 2 / 3 hour shifts.

But your efforts are amazing !!!

Richard

[Sara]

My fire wood this year was fairly frugal, but sadly not a free source

I took the order for a few others in the village and negociated with my friend who sells wood, And in exchange he cut the price of my logs and threw in 3 extra meter squares, so all in all for a few phone calls and a bit of negociations i managed to get enough wood to heat the whole house for the winter for half the price, all seasoned and cut ..... Not free but definitly a saving

[Spreckly]

We have a small stock of firewood, some bought in the spring for this winter, but we had to make a start on it. Then our chicken-keeping neighbour two doors away cut down a fir tree, and offered us some of the wood. He is also supposed to be taking a large tree down next month, and has offered us some of it.

Eight years ago when we first moved here, we would go out picking fallen wood off the roadside and ditches, which was strewn everywhere. Very soon, that supply dried up, and if any branches come down, they are quickly taken away.

Dom, you supply and climbing skills are amazing!

[KathJ]

I'm very impressed with your log supplies We're having a log burner fitted in our living room on Friday and I can't wait, we've wanted one for ages so decided to go for it. I read somewhere that pine cones make really good kindling so hubbie and I went off to the local cemetery yesterday where we knew there would be loads and filled a sack with them so I hope they work. We'll have to get foraging for wood when we see any but to start us off we've paid for a load to be delivered so we'll have to see how long it lasts

[AL37]

This year I have a smaller wood pile than normal but I can bulk that out with timber offcuts from my new job. We have a skip just for wood (apparently its cheeper to have to skips if you sort/devide the waste) I asked if I could take firewood out of the skip on a weekly basis and they were more than happy for me to ake it. When I put the bike away for winter and start using a car I intend to make the wood skip reduntant.

[bmpsands]

We bought one lot of logs last year because we had no seasoned wood to burn in our new stove. Since then we've cut down two trees to make way for the hen run and garage, so that gave us more than we expected. A friend took down his cherry tree and we got the big stuff from that. We filled one log store made from 4 old pallets and some old slates from when the new roof was put on - that is now full. A second store, same construction, is about one third full. We also collected some fallen branches in the storms last year and they are piled up in the garden waiting for a chainsaw moment.

Kindling I pick up whilst out on dog walks. We've got two baskets full in the house and three coffee sacks full next to the log stores. All free.

There's some scrap wood at the old house that we'll move up here in the next couple of weeks. There's a howling wind blowing at the moment so I'll be "sticking" again later in the week.

In our garden we have a laburnum that is much too big for its boots. We're getting a tree surgeon in to see if it can be reduced in size. If it is, that's more free wood. I can also ask the TS if he has problems getting rid of chippings, bark etc. If he does, perhaps there is a deal to be done.

I love the idea of thrifty/free fuel (or anything else for that matter) so our log burner and the open fire in the front room mean that we don't run the heating so much. Mind you removing the old stove, renewing the brickwork and fitting the new stove cost about £1000 so we're not in profit yet.

[manda]

We usually get a truck and trailer load during the summer and then split it so it has time to dry out before the winter....it's not free wood but it's still cheaper than getting it cut and split for us ....and as it's the only heat source in our house it makes it a bit cheaper as that will do us through the cold.

(This is a picture of Raven hooking into a new wood pile when he came to visit us).

Our kindling we usually get from the bits of bark from this and pine cones which there are plenty of around here....and they are free

[Totally Scrambled]

Nice load there Manda but we might have problems getting that lot onto our land
When I chainsawed my lot to length I put down a tarpaulin under the saw horse so that the chippings didn't swamp the grass. When I'd finished I looked at the sawdust and noticed it was pretty chunky stuff so bagged it up and used it in the chooks run. I had enough to cover a 12' x 6' run with a goodly layer.
Dom

[manda]

Good Plan Dom ...we've got a shelter belt hedge running the length of our property....and it needs topping...it' s not our hedge but the people renting the house are going to get it done. Then we'll sort out our side ....there is going to be some wood out of that (Macrocarpa) but mainly a fair bit of woodchip (which will go into the chicken run..pity it's not now because we've had a wet winter and the chook run was like a flipping quagmire!)

[chookmike]

We used to get a lorry load from a saw mill when we lived in NZ for about $10 or something silly but we bought a stove which fitted into a fireplace and it never heated the house very well - much better to get a free standing one to collect heat from all sides plus the chimney.

The woods around here are full of fallen timber but sneaking in to get it usually results in trouble. Crazy as the same amount of CO2 gets released from rotted wood as burnt wood so this makes no sense. Leave some fallen stuff for the bugs etc but the rest should be used and we should be planting more. Having said that a few miles away from here they are part way through planting the country's largest man made forest at a place called Sandridge.

Mike

[KathJ]

I've read somwhere that wood charcoal and ash is good for chickens to peck and dust bathe in. Do any other chicken owners use this in the run? We're getting a log burner fitted this weekend and thought we'd use some of the ash in this way!

[usman125]

ree firewood too. The chap who had our house about 25 years ago planted loads of specimen trees which have grown slightly since. As they are getting a bit on the large size I am pollarding them bit by bit and turning them into firewood. I hope if I do one or two a year that by the time I've worked my way through them the ones I did first will be in need of pollarding again so that I have a continuing source of free wood

[Richard]

Bang on !!

Richard