We’ve been feeling the cold too.  The sofas downstairs are piled with rugs, skins and blankets so that we can put off lighting the log burner for as long as possible.  But even snuggled under two blankets (and I do wear many warm layers) I’ve still felt cold.  We decided it was time to start lighting the burner again.  Once lit, it will probably remain so until some distant point in the Spring.  A point where we realise that we’ve somehow spent most of the evening outdoors and it’s probably easier just to go to bed than mend a fire.  We will also probably trip up over Willow on our way and realise she has returned to the official Summer residence.

We spent last weekend sorting out the wood store.  Yes I know we should have spent all our spare moments over the Summer doing this, we are definitely ‘last-minuters.’  We wanted to sort out waste wood from the quality seasoned timber and get it chopped up for kindling or at least to a size that will fit in the burner.  This is the one drawback, we find, of an enclosed fire. 

Its always odd to look at this interesting assortment of past lives.  Some of it looks like it might still have one more life before being consigned to the burner.  I liked the look of these triangular pieces pictured below.  I think they were used as temporary chocks.  The Man from Salford tells me he’s already hacked up a few of these.  This is a shame, I could have used them to make a herb wheel planter.  We’re not going to chop up the last ones until we’re sure they can’t have another life.

Now that we’re going to be releasing more CO2 into the atmosphere we need to make the most of it. We’re going to be sharing the warmth and energy with passers-by through the medium of soup.  And the wood store seems like a good place to hang out our 350 International Day of Climate Action banner.   

350 stands for 350 parts per million of CO2 in our atmosphere.  According to the best research available yet, this is the absolute safe limit.  Currently CO2 is measuring 387ppm in the atmosphere.  People all over the world will be carrying out inventive and imaginative actions to highlight  and raise awareness of this in the run up to Copenhagen. 

This coming Saturday afternoon we are going to be ladling out Off-Road Soup (the title describes the location, not the ingredients which will be vegetables!) to unsuspecting passers-by.  It’s our way of spreading the warmth and the word.  I hope our soup may even lure some one to pose in front of our banner for a 350  Climate Action photo. 

If you’re unable to get involved but fancy a bit of keyboard activism you can click the button below and add your name to the I Am Ready pledge. 

Here is a picture of Uncle Mike about to do battle with a birch tree.  He is The Man from Salford’s brother, he is also ‘A Man from Salford’, in addition to this he is a tree surgeon.  Now please, don’t start throwing green custard at me for this dastardly act.  This birch was much loved, its branches were just right for hanging bird feeders on. We could waste many happy hours viewing birds from the warmth of the kitchen seated next to the Rayburn.  Sadly it had planted itself in the wrong place and was beginning to interfere with gutters and the phone line, our only real connection with civilisation.   It was also shadowing the only part of the brambly slope that might one day be level enough to lend itself to some vegetable cultivation.  It will, of course, be replaced, hopefully with trees of a more controllable size and hopefully something fruitful.  (That might save a few Eygptian strawberries!)

Looking at this picture made me think about  the post of Willow cosily curled up in front of the wood burner.  Are wood burners sustainable?  I think the honest answer is potentially so, but not necessarily so.  It depends first of all on what you are going to burn and secondly where you got it from.  Trees are carbon stores and so burning wood will result in carbon emissions, there is no escaping that. Of course replacing trees at a greater rate than they are lost will soak up emissions.  People are often surprised to learn that the burning of rain forest is the highest contributor in the world to carbon release, more so than the entire travel sector.  However, the subject of sustainable forest management probably requires several dedicated posts in itself. 

For your wood burner try to use waste wood wherever you can, you’d be surprised how much of it is around.  We are lucky in that quite a lot of decent wood floats its way towards us along the canal. Make sure the wood can’t serve another useful life before you chop it up for fire wood.  Tree surgeons can be a useful source of wood though be prepared to split it yourself.  If you are buying wood (and indeed any wood product or wood derived product) make sure it is from a sustainable source.  The best guide is to look for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) logo on products.  If you are not sure where to go B&Q now sell FSC logs. I think some interesting greening stuff is going on at this store now, see their website for a fuller explanation of their One Planet Living commitment.

A log burner is the most efficient way to burn wood, far more so than open fire where much heat is lost.  Make sure that you shut the burner down once you’ve got your fire going, slow burning will radiate just as much heat as a roaring fire!  Make sure your wood is well seasoned, to burn most efficiently fire wood should only retain 20% moisture.  This will also reduce residues building up in the chimney, a potential fire risk.  Store wood for at least a year before burning, cover the top of the pile to prevent excessive rain penetration, but make sure it is exposed to air around the sides.  If you have a log pile waiting to be split, drill holes in the ends of some logs to provide homes for overwintering insects.  They will be your garden friends when spring arrives and you are no longer spending so much time in front of the fire. 

Willow and Wood Burner

Here is a picture of Willow giving her seal of approval to our woodburner.  This is one of those instances where we find ourselves repeatedly saying, ‘Why didn’t we get one of these sooner?’ or, ‘This is revolutionary!’  Before getting our Hunter stove we hardly ever used this room.  We had an open basket type fire which didn’t draw well, the room would usually fill with smoke straightaway and we all had to evacuate until it got going.  Once going we seemed to be burning an awful lot of stuff without the room ever really getting warm.  The other downside is if you have a dog that’s in the habit of sitting as close to a fire as they can, even though it’s obvious they are scorchingly hot and can’t stop panting, their fur tends to set alight – not a good smell! 

So here is Willow, fur intact, enjoying this piece of kit.  Of course, in some respects it’s old fashioned technology, the new bit is the clean burn system which means they always look pretty and the windows don’t blacken and fuel burns slowly and efficiently.  This particular model the Hunter  Herald 6 has an output of 6.5 Kilowatts, more than enough to keep us warm in here.  We chose this particular model because it comes with the option of a back-boiler which can heat a further two radiators and we like to keep these sorts of options open.  They come in a variety of styles and sizes according to your needs, there are also some different, but not radical, colour options.  When costing them you need to bear in mind that the stove pipe is usually sold separately (due to variations in length, width needs etc.) and you may also need a flue liner for the chimney.  Buy them in Summer, long before you need them, they tend to sell out like hot cakes just before Christmas.

I’m going to be looking at wood management and the potential of woodburners in a sustainable lifestyle in my next post on this topic.  Please remember to be responsible firestarters and keep your chimneys swept!