Firewood

Here on our Turkish hillside,  we are surrounded by deciduous woodland.   The local forestry work is carried out by the people who live in the village,  using horses for getting the timber out.   Our firewood for the house generally gets delivered by horse,  although we also get a trailer-load at the beginning of the season in the autumn.   We use two wood stoves,  one heating the living room of the shack,  the other being a range in the kitchen,  used for cooking (and warmth),  all year round.   We’re burning about 6 tons of firewood in a year,  and getting it,  chopping & stacking it,  collecting kindling,  and moving it around,  is a constant occupation.    Mike Abbott, author of “Living Wood” www.living-wood.co.uk  makes some useful remarks and suggestions about processing firewood,  most of which we have either discovered or applied:

1.  You’ll be lucky not to handle the same piece of wood at least nine times before it gets burned – our target is always to get this number down!
2.  Store the wood with an open side of the structure facing South: the drying effect of the sun more than compensates for any wetting from wind and rain.
3. Cut the wood in February when the worst of the winter is over,  but before the sap rises.
4. Split the logs a.s.a.p. to get maximum drying
5.  Have a good log storage around the wood burner for final drying.
6.  Combine your system with solar heating for hot water in summer.

Because we only moved here 3 years ago,  and that was just before a winter set in,  we’ve been on the back foot with firewood,  constantly trying to get enough to be able to store and dry it for the following year.    Burning dry wood is the target – but so far we’ve never had sufficient to be able not to use the fresh supplies  –  touch wood (!) this year we’ll have enough to keep some ready for next year.

The objective is actually to grow our own firewood, so I’ll be planting some saplings in 2012: 100 trees this year in a mixture of species.

Ponies going home, loaded with firewood

The wood shed

CT
PS: Found this exciting innovative heating system: http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp