Firewood is very much in favour now as high energy prices continue to make heating the home so much more expensive.
I have noted that so many queries on the site are for people searching for solutions to their firewood needs.
Chainsaws, log splitters, log splitting mauls and axes are really hot and I think that people are coming to realise that there is an alternative to oil and gas.
Have you considered logging clubs or communal sawing days. I did just that today with my family and our neighbours.
When we bought our French farm it came with about two acres of mature oak, a few ash, even less wild cherry and some hazel.
I have tried to pick out the standing trees that have been dead for at least two or three years. These will have seasoned standing up and will be ready to burn immediately.
Today though we were in our neighbours wood where they have quite a few chestnut trees. One particular stool had about eight dead trunks of about 30-45cm radius and stool thirty feet tall.
We cut them down, popped them straight into the back box of the Kubota. After about two hours, we had cut and split about four cubic metres - stacked and ready to burn.
This would have cost about £250.00 to buy but we used just three tanks of fuel in the chainsaws and a little chain oil, a little diesel for the tractor.
What is more, the kids got out into the open air and we spent a great deal of fun time together.
2009 is going to be one of minimisation and self sufficiency - what better way than to keep fit, have a laugh and save money in the process?
Our neighbours, who's house is rather a large French farmhouse, will burn twenty six cubic metres of wood. Suddenly, the investment in a piece of woodland becomes that little bit more attractive.
Why not check out the chainsaws and hydraulic log splitters?
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