One of our many aims in our quest to be as self sufficient as we possibly can be, is to successfully manage our woodland to give us enough wood to see us through the colder months of the year. This year with the long damp period and now this sudden, although very welcome cold spell, we have almost used up our supply of our own cut seasoned logs.
Knowing that any wood cut now would be much too wet to burn well and give off any heat we have bitten the bullet and bought in a supply of logs to replenish the log store and see us through these last few weeks of cold weather, and of course what we don't burn now will give us a head start in our gathering together of next Winters wood.
Kindling we have lots of ... as Lovely Hubby has a mammoth chopping spell every month or so and fills up a large builders bag of wood chopped from the many pallets and scrap wood we have gathered. We also have buckets of twigs and smaller bits of wood that I collect when I'm out and about, especially after windy nights. A few days in the log store and these dry out wonderfully and can be used to start the fire each night.
One tick of the list of self-sufficiency .... if you manage your woodland well .... which is what we intend to do now that we are almost at the end of sorting out the house and land around the house and we will finally have more time.
Sue xx