It all happened according to plan. Jean-Claude, a man we've known for at least eight years, arrived with his son-in-law, two grandsons, and a tractor pulling a trailer-load of oak logs yesterday morning. After a slight accident — the trailer bumped up against our front gate and broke the top off one of the slats — they got the tractor and trailer into the driveway and dumped officially 5 but about 6 stères (cubic meters) of firewood in front of our garage door. That's about 1½ cords.
So there it was. We paid cash (250 euros as agreed) and thanked J-C and family. Then we started stacking the wood. Much to my surprise and relief, it only took us an hour or so to get the job done. This will be one winter's wood, with some left over unless winter drags on into May the way it did last year.
Now each of those meter-long logs has to be sawed into three 33 cm pieces that will fit into our wood-burning stove. Then the wood has to be stacked again. It sure is a lot of work. But it's a big event, because we depend on the wood burner to keep our heating costs down. Fuel oil is just too expensive to be our sole source of heat.
P.S. If you look at Walt's blog today, you'll realize that we really don't coordinate our posts and topics.
P.S. If you look at Walt's blog today, you'll realize that we really don't coordinate our posts and topics.
If I remember well, last year's wood delivery knocked down your 'black cat' door bell?! Maybe J.C. needs some extra practice as far as backing-up his trailer into your drive-way is concerned :)! Martine
ReplyDeleteHi Martine, you are exactly right about the cat bell. We replaced it with a rooster bell because we couldn't find another cat bell. For this wood delivery, we were careful -- we took the bell down before the tractor and trailer arrived.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's quite a load of wood, and quite a job!
ReplyDeleteI soooo love the smell of a nice wood fire.
heard that the govt wants to put a carbone surtaxe on wood and other fuel
ReplyDeleteJust 7 years ago, the French government reimbursed us 40% of the price of the woodstove we bought, because it meant we were going to be using a renewable energy source to heat our house.
ReplyDelete