11 October 2014

I can move

I thought I might not be able to move this morning. That's because yesterday morning we moved and neatly stacked all that firewood. I felt sure that I would be very stiff and sore — courbaturé — this morning, but I'm not. Even my splinted finger feels okay.


Most of the log had been split, but some were whole and round. Those were the heavy ones. Well, they were all heavy, actually, but the round ones were the heaviest. The job is done. Now each meter-long log has to be sawed into three pieces. That's because our wood-burner can hold logs only up to 40 cm in length.


Yesterday we talked about buying a new wood-burner next year that would take 50 cm logs (that's about 19 inches). Then we might be able to buy logs already cut to that length. It would make life a lot easier for the couple of old geezers that we are rapidly becoming (je parle de moi et pour moi, bien sûr...).

11 comments:

  1. Ken...
    Start your "chasse pour bois" here...
    http://www.lemarchedubois.com/bois-de-chauffage/centre/41-loir-et-cher/bois-buches.html
    they tend to display the most costly first...
    and ask your mayor[esse] or at the town hall...
    they usually have a list.
    That is how we found our first supplier.
    But....
    we found our current supplier in a tear-off add...
    stuck on the front of the goat cheese wagon on the market...
    and they now advertise through the site above.

    We are now paying a little extra... around 8€ a stére... and get it as 50cm...
    I am countering that against the damage that cutting seasoned timber is doing to the chainsaw!!
    They are meant to cut living wood and require three times the sharpening for continuous dead, seasoned stuff...
    and longer cooling off spells for the motor.
    But remember... in 50s it is twice as much bending as stacking metre lengths... :-(
    They also do 33s... but at 20€ extra!!
    Happy hunting.... 'tis the season, after all.

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    Replies
    1. This year and last we paid 250 euros for 5 cubic meters of oak logs one meter long. How does that compare to the price you pay, Tim?

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    2. This year...
      333€ for 5 stere of 3yr dry in 50cm... delivered TVA inc....
      mix of oak, ash and chestnut.
      We need the mix for the boiler...
      it musn't burn one type of hardwood continuously.
      Last year 296€ for the same mix...
      2011 258€ for 5 stere in 1 metre lengths...
      but... plus a new chain and petrol/oil at 98€ total...
      and 3/4 stere "wasted" as burnable lumps...
      because the 1m are much bigger than the 50s and need to be split...
      and the splitter [sold as 50cm] will only split 49cm... you can't get a 50cm in the gap!!
      Thank you Wolf Tools!! Not...
      so I was cutting to 45cm, twice... leaving a 10 [or bigger]cm chunk...
      still useable... but annoying...
      separate storage area, won't stack, inconvenient.
      We are going to get some two year dry in Feb...
      a saving of around 15€ to 20€ a stere...
      we've got the storage space.

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    3. Thanks for that info, Tim. I looked at the website you told me about. The prices are considerably higher going through those companies.

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    4. Try Centre Bois Bûche...
      www.centreboisbuche.com
      and, be warned, the prices are going up like a roquet!!
      All the supermarkets are buying it in and selling it by the pallet...
      SuperU in Descartes currently have one in their foyer...
      priced at 95€ for the cubic metre on a pallet...
      you either collect or rent one of their trucks...
      the truck will take two pallets...
      so that's three journeys...
      and you would need to unpack and stack the moment you got back each time...
      no hoist to play with on the truck...
      shame!

      Also, around here, there are now three enterprises making the plaquets needed for automatic feed boilers...
      they are also buying up the timber and selling it to the institutions that have taken advantage of nice grants to fit a new system...
      and then a paper company in Descartes is in the process of building a CHP [combined heat and power] unit that uses timber exclusively...
      they will need 200,000 tonnes per annum...
      garnered from an area of 1000 sq kilometres...
      but you can guarantee that the closer, the easier and cheaper the transport...
      that will be the main source...
      so all timber for burning will rise in price...
      they are currently using gas for the factory heating and purchased electric for everything else...
      so once they make their own and have covered their share of the installation cost by selling the excess power to EDF...
      who knows, they can almost name their price to make sure that supply doesn't end...
      it is worrying in some respects... but it will never be as expensive as oil, electric or gas.

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  2. we are ALL getting old, dear. spouse and I are looking into hiring someone to do the snowplowing on the driveway this year; it's getting to be a bit much.

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  3. Old geezers! Ha! Ha! Ha!

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  4. When we were hunting around for a new wood burner, my husband pointed out that we needed one big enough to accept the 19 inch/20inch logs that come with a delivery of wood, or he'd have to be chopping everything in half. I hadn't thought of that before, but the first thing I DID think of, was you two, and your wood stove, and Walt chopping every year.

    New wood burners are incredibly expensive, but we've found our last two used, at a fraction of the price -- of course, then you have to move it yourself!

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    Replies
    1. Our wood comes in 40-inch logs, but the maximum length our stove can take is about 15 inches. We made a mistake when we bought the stove. Live and learn...

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  5. My spouse welded a forklift for the back of the tractor that would handle tree lengths 3 times the length of our firebox. As he cut trees into 7.5 feet lengths, I'd drag them to the forklift and center them. (It's not that I'm strong; these were small trees.) When we had a load, he'd chain them all on. Back at the house, he'd make one cut just to the left of the left fork and one cut to the right, and there we had our 3 correctly-sized logs.

    Now he cuts much larger trees and drags them in a few at a time using the tractor's winch. He can't buck them up because they are too big, so he cuts them on the ground. And what do I do? Stay inside and eat bonbons and read novels. This is progress.

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