Bob's a Lumberjack

Talked with old friends on Saturday. They live in Keswick, and a few months ago invested in a wood-burner. Nothing terribly new about that, but what was interesting was how they fuel it: they bought a permit from the National Trust that allows cutting firewood in certain places, with strict conditions - no power-tools, for example, and pretty obviously only trees already felled for the purpose.

By my reckoning if thicker branches etc don't get used commercially, as many won't, they'll rot and produce greenhouse gases without us getting the benefit of heat from them. So at least three cheers to the NT for what is I think a pilot project, and one with imagination and sense. Fuel, exercise, fresh air, and helping keep the forests tidy, plus some income for the organisation (think they said £120 but won't swear to it).

Ready to Grow

Weekends in theory are meant to be for chilling out, but given Ruth is rarely happen unless we are actually doing something we just spent Sunday getting ready for the coming growing season. Part of that was more wood-chopping in the garden - a few dead boughs and the odd one that had got too big and shady being cut down, sawn to length for the burner and split so it will dry well. The greenhouse that was full of drying wood has been emptied ready for the plants it was bought to house, and partly cleaned up, and our propagator and a zillion seed trays disinfected ready for the seeds that will in turn fill the greenhouse.

Strange that so much activity - interspersed with buying seed potatoes for the allotment - should have in fact been relaxing.

Wood Warms Three Times

There is an old saying which has it that wood warms you twice: the first time when you saw and chop it; the second when it's burnt. I count a third, the warm feeling you get from thinking about that free fuel and the value of the exercise. As regards that last point, I find the gym boring beyond words, hate jogging as a pointless (and in terms of joints damaging) torture, but can spend hours chopping wood in the fresh air. Not an all-over fitness regime, but it ups the heart rate and my arms are in fine fettle.

We had built up a huge pile of old branches dried under a tarp beneath the now sadly unused (and rotting) tree-house. Over January I have reduced that pile by half, filling bags now kept in the greenhouse (until it is needed for growing stuff) and the shed. The driest, and ash that you can use pretty much off the tree is included in that, has been burned. Carbon neutral as it would rot and give off gases otherwise, it is not a fossil fuel. I'm leaving the twiggier stuff so that any hedge-hogs hibernating at the bottom will not be disturbed, but come spring will sort that too and use the space for stacking the cut-to-size split logs and bags of kindling. As eco here means economy as well as ecology, I reckon the 11 bags of big stuff and five of kindling would have cost about £75 from the local dealer. A gym membership would have set me back about £25 for the month, so we are £100 ahead of the game.