Improvised Kiln-Dried Firewood

A brainwave today has I hope made some huge lumps of ash burner-ready well in advance of their natural drying time. I was burning a load of old papers, credit-card slips etc, in our garden incinerator - one of those holey dustbins with a chimney in the lid. I balanced some of the big bits of ash on the top, turning them regularly to avoid them setting alight, though they still scorched a bit. The results are quite pleasing - the six pieces feel dry enough to burn without worrying about clogging the chimney with moist deposits. 

Don't for goodness' sake try this on the burner itself btw - I did an experiment, monitored very closely, and within a minute or so the wood on top showed signs of smoldering. Round the sides, a few inches away from touching the burner, is in my experience fine, though I always feel better keeping an eye on things. 

Years ago holidaying in a gite with friends at Easter we dried a couple of substantial logs at the side of a big open fireplace. Every night the other guy and I struggled to light the fire, to much comment from our wives. When we asked if they could do a better job on the last evening they more or less set a match to the by then dessicated logs which burst into flame as if soaked in paraffin. So drying's worth the effort. 

On Trees and Losing Them

Yesterday as we drove to our allotment we passed along a street where some fine old trees have just been cut down, trees with trunks a couple of feet in diameter. Our guess was that they had been removed because they were warping the pavement and trips and falls were filling the pockets of ambulance chasing lawyers. So the aspect of the area has been changed for the next several decades because of a fear of litigation. The street looks like someone given a razor haircut against their wishes.

Is it hypocrisy that one of the things we went to do on our plot was cut down a tree? In that case it was a pear, a substantial tree perhaps 20 years old, but that in our seven years there has only yielded one decent crop, in spite of much TLC - manure, sticky bands, pruning... Most of it is now in the allotment shed, one large bag brought home and put in our wood-store. That tree was also shading too much of our land, and our neighbours' land, and we had the foresight to plant a small cherry tree close by two years ago with the idea that the pear would go sooner or later.

Will the local authority plant replacements on that now bald street? Or will they think it too much effort (and cost, and future cost)? Their thinking about trees it seems is mainly what the possible dangers are, however unlikely: a few years back some other fine specimens, laurels of some sort I think, were removed from a park here because they were close to a children's play area, and the leaves contain a poison. After the felling it was pointed out that just to get a bit of a poorly tummy a child would need to eat several pounds of the leaves.