We had a load delivered at the end of last week, and as today is my first day off since then I have spent the morning stacking it. There's about 2.5 cubic metres there in the middle (today's effort) which, according to my sources, weighs a little over a ton. The wood on the right is the previous load, which is now about 2/3 used. In the left, hidden behind the tarpaulin and wheelbarrow, is the miserable amount that I have managed to cut, split and stack all by myself. It's not even worth photographing. The goal of energy self-sufficiency is still a long way off.
The green Safeway boxes, by the way, are brilliant for carrying wood from the store to the utility room, where they sit for 24 hrs next to the boiler before being brought into the living room for use. Each box will carry almost exactly one evening's worth.
Jeeeeeeezus! That puts my pitiful effort to shame. It holds about three evenings worth. Dammit!
ReplyDeleteThat shed makes me green with envy. It is a perfect wood store. My logs lie in a soggy heap outside the front door. In mitigation I turned the real log store into a chicken house. But you cannot get chickens to burn like logs, I find.
ReplyDeleteThere's a bit of a story behind it, originally told here. We needed a new logburner, and decided to go 100% wood, as the coal we were using killed the old stove over 10 years. My calculations showed that to have enough log capacity to be sustainable (i.e. enough for one part being filled, one seasoning and one in use) I would have to build something the size of Wembley, so I just went for 'as big as possible'. It was great fun to build, and cost about £250 in materials. The idea was that I would buy seasoned wood to start me off, and would then cut my own as time went by. I am still buying the stuff, which tells you how energetic I am. When at full throttle, it heats the main room and all the hot water for the house.
ReplyDeleteWW - penguins burn well. It's all the oil.
Another thing I miscalculated was the strength of the thing. I screwed it together with wide timbers and big FO screws, but bthe first time I put a ton in, the floor collapsed. The weight had sheared the screws off. I had thought that the screws would be enough, but next time I will build it cabinet-quality with fully rebated joints throughout, so the timbers take the load, not the fasteners. Every time I empty one of the bays, I take it apart and reinforce it with sections of telegraph pole. Woodworking 101, but I never learn.
ReplyDeleteThat is a seriously cool woodshed. Impressed.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice having one end almost empty, because then I can duck into it and sit and watch the rain. It's a thing of mine.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to have a place to watch the rain out of the rain where you can still hear it like you're in it. I sometimes open the windows when it's raining.
ReplyDeleteYou too? I love to watch rain from somewhere dry - an open window if I am indoors, or under cover in the outdoors. It's a very deep feeling. I think it's why I like camping. My very first memory is of being in my pram being pushed along a street in York in the rain, so maybe that's why.
ReplyDeleteI got a new tent this summer and put it up on the lawn for a try-out. I left it there a week, and every time it rained I used to dive outside and get in. Anna thinks I'm crackers.
Fantastic woodshed. When the shed goes into the woodburning stove then I think we will have reached rockbottom. I reckon 2013
ReplyDeleteNever! If the wood runs out, I'll be moving in.
ReplyDelete