There’s nothing more satisfying than making something for the wood from the wood. Anything from a teaspoon to a log cabin can be fashioned from the materials you find growing or lying around. It keeps our 21st century plastic clutter out of sight and means everything is low impact and will eventually return to where it came from.
Here’s an idea for a log cabin on a slightly smaller scale, one for our feathered friends.
Most woodland owners quickly find that they generate more firewood than they know what to do with. It makes sense, environmentally and economically use it to heat your own home – and maybe that of their neighbours and friends, too.
The most important thing to consider is making sure you season your wood sufficiently. Well seasoned wood should burn easily and be considerably lighter in weight than green wood. It may also have started splitting, with the bark peeling off. If you invest in a moisture metre you will get a more accurate idea, and you should be aiming to get the moisture content down below 25%. There are a lot of myths about what makes the best firewood. Some people insist on only burning oak, ash, hornbeam or hawthorn. All of these are excellent, but the best firewood you can get is the one you have in sufficient quantities. Most hard woods have roughly the same calorific value, but differ mainly in burning characteristics. If you’ve got loads of birch or willow, for example, you may have to cut more – you’ll also get more exercise moving it and stoking the fire!
It is also important to know how much wood you will need for the winter, leaving a margin for error as a contingency in case the weather is severe. This will become obvious after a few years, but you will need to have a storage area which is covered to keep the rain off, with open sides to allow the air to circulate. It also helps if it is conveniently close to where you are going to burn it! If you can keep two or even three years worth of wood in this sort of environment, then you could put it into your store ‘green’. Make sure you have a good rotation system so you that the oldest seasoned wood is used first, while the newer green wood is drying out. You might be lucky and already have sufficient space under the eaves of your house, or you could construct an open-sided, slatted bespoke store, with separate bays to help with this rotation. If you use this method then just tumble the wood in rather than stack it neatly, as you the air needs to circulate around all of the wood.
If you don’t have the storage space close to where you are going to burn it, then you will need to stack the green wood somewhere to season it before processing and moving it to its final resting place. Make sure it’s off the ground – birch, willow, even hornbeam – will rot quickly if in contact with the ground. Stack it on ‘bearers’ in a ride or open space where it is not going to be engulfed with undergrowth. If you leave it in a freshly cut coppice cant, the new growth will quickly grow around your stacks and inhibit the drying process, probably causing it to rot.
Processing your cordwood into useable logs is the next step. The size of your log will depend on the size of your fireplace or stove. Today, most people’s fireplace will comfortably take an 8 or 9 inch log. If it is over 3 or 4 inches in diameter then this will also probably have to be split. If the wood is relatively knot-free and splits easily, you could use wedges to do this before you cross-cut it. This works well because you can construct a cross-cutting station from poles and cross-cut a large amount of ready split firewood in one go. If the cordwood is difficult to split, then I find it best to cut it into ‘rounds’ of the length you need for your log then and then to split it with a maul or a hammer and wedge.
Attaching an old tyre to your chopping block will make the whole process easier as you can fill it with rounds then split each log to the required size without having to keep bending down to replace it. If you’ve any amount to wood to split, your back will be glad of this refinement. Keeping the number of operations to a minimum is the secret to managing your firewood. Round wood will take a bit longer to season properly than split logs, but if you’re in no hurry, just leave the cordwood propped up somewhere or stacked where the air can get at it. Getting it cut, processed, moved and seasoned close to the point where you are going to burn it is best and can save having to restack it. It’s hard work, but reassuring to look back at your efforts and know you’ve solved one of life’s fundamental problems – that of keeping warm during the long winter ahead.
When my mother died just before Christmas, it was a bit of a shock. I suppose it should not have been unexpected, she was 80 and in poor health, but all the same when she succumbed to a stroke in just a matter of hours, the whole family was left with a numbness and disbelief that anyone who has experienced the sudden loss of a loved one would easily recognise.
Swog members joined Alex Bienfait in his beautiful and diverse woodland in Pluckley at the weekend for a meeting with the theme of small scale extraction of timber. We are indebted to Alex not only for his hospitality but also for arranging a demonstration of some timber moving equipment by Keith Douglas from the Micro Arb Truc Company.
Rich Townsend of the Forestry Commission’s Tree Team at Westonbirt
Arboretum helping to mark out the sculpture’s location.
Katrina Podlewska, Communications Manager at the Forestry Commission has sent us details of the sculptor being built with the products of the 2000 year old lime coppice at Westonbirt Arboretum. It looks a bit different from last time I was there, in full leaf and nearing the end of one of its 20 year coppice rotations, it provided great shelter in a torrential downpour. Take an umbrella if you visit it this year!
Woodlands.co.uk have created a very useful document giving advice about how to care for your woodland track. This is especially relevenat after the deluge of rain most of us have suffered over the last year or so. A printer friendly version is available for download here.
Happy Christmas to everyone, particularly to those who are suffering from the atrocious weather at the moment. I guess all of us will be having trouble getting into the woods, but this is just an inconvenience compared to those who will have had their home flooded.
Dwarf Haircap (Pogonatum nanum)
Bernie and Theresa (The Barrowers) recently had a survey of mosses and liverworts in their wood. It was carried out by Tom Ottely from the British Bryological Society, you may have seen the recent discussion on the forum about it. Here's Bernies report of an interesting aspect of our woods, which may go unnoticed. Many thanks to Tom for offering his services, I know several members have found it fascinating.
The SWOG meeting at Hendall last month was well attended and despite the appalling weather which was around us at the time, we somehow managed to stay reasonably dry! A well positioned tarp and make shift Tea room proved to be in exactly the right place at the right time when the heavens opened to a torrential hail storm.
Many thanks to Howard and Shirley who have sent us a nice write up and photos of their recent meeting at Clan Wood. Look out for this article and more pictures in ‘Living Woods’ magazine.
John Sinclair from the Sussex and Surrey Coppice Group has sent us these interesting pictures of charcoal burning in Turkey.
Here’s the reason why many of love our woodland, no matter what time of year it is, a magical experience is always there to be had. Thanks to Greyman for sending us these photos. If you’ve got any you would like to share send them to me by email and I’ll put up a gallery. It would be quite nice to have page for each month as the seasons move on.
rich@swog.org.uk
Here’s a chance to add to the growing evidence that woodland ownership, being in a woodland, talking to the trees, communing with nature….. is GOOD for us!
A selection of 'Naturescraft'
Andy Noble of Naturescraft is offering some excellent deals on his bushcraft courses this year.
“For the whole of 2012, and not just for a limited period, we have reduced all our 2 and 3 day courses for this year to just £100.”
He ran a special SWOG introductory day back in September 2010 which enthused and inspired everyone who went along. See the report here
http://www.swog.org.uk/articles/natures-craft-bushcraft-day/
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