Winter Warmth

 After the 24+ hours without electric in February when I got so cold my brain froze and another several hours without heat in April I decided I never wanted to be that cold again.

So.............................

I've assured the neighbours that I don't intend to have a fire all the time - the oil boiler and the radiators are usually enough...........and without dust............... so hopefully won't cause them too many problems .       

 

But for emergencies and extra cold evenings it will be handy to light a fire now and again.

No such thing as free wood now and wood prices follow other energy prices - sadly - but I've bought a big bag of kiln dried logs that came with free kindling wood so I'm ready for any winter power cuts or boiler breakdown.

I got the log basket from a car-boot sale last month for £5 because my log basket and all the fire tools were left at Clay Cottage - stupid woman! Haven't found a poker or small shovel yet but I'll keep looking.

Back Soon

Sue

Winter Wood + End of August Ins, Outs and Frugal Bits

When Brother-in-Law Andrew comes to cut wood for me I know I'm in for a day of hard work with a wheelbarrow. On Saturday he brought the log splitter and chainsaw and was determined to get as much as possible cut. When Col and I used to cut wood we would do an hour or two and then stop for a coffee..........Andrew hardly stops at all.......probably because he knows that if he stops he'll seize up and won't be able to get started again.............. the results of spending 40+ years repairing machinery on the concrete floor of cold farm workshops............one reason he's packing up the job before the end of the year.
 Anyway I'm always grateful he's willing to come and get me ready for winter -  but Sunday morning I could hardly move! It's a good thing it was raining so I didn't go to the car-boot sale, I'd have hobbled round like a much older woman.
 

A shed full of free heat!

Now the Finances....................

 Looking back at what I said about August on the last day of July post

"How will August pan out? Well, in theory I don't need to buy any more books now the library van will be round each month  and they've let people reserve books again - at last,  BUT the Furrowed Middlebrow NEW SELECTION of reprints is out on the 3rd August and I might be tempted.
The half year water bill is due - that might be a bit more than usual. Sometimes the electric bill comes right at the end of August and it looks as if one of the cooker gas cylinders will run out  during the month too and I've just emptied the last of the petrol into the mower so that will need refilling.
Other than that it should be a lowish spend month..........I hope."



The up to date list of what 'one old woman' can produce from a garden..................

All these are finished now

• Lettuces (I tried to get some going but they just ran to seed - too hot I think)
• Rocket and small beetroot leaves as salad leaves
• A few asparagus spears -
• lots of rhubarb-
• A surprising amount of strawberries from 6 new plants and a few from the old bed.
• 3lb of gooseberries
• Lots of raspberries and 3lb put in the freezer
• 2lb Redcurrants
• Few mange-tout peas  - put in the freezer
• Green beans  - some put in the freezer
• 2 small Calabrese heads.
• 2 small cauliflowers 
• Figs

 Still eating

• last Courgettes.
• A few potatoes left
• Lots of tomatoes from greenhouse
• Just a few aubergines left
• The last cucumber is now in the fridge
• A few runner beans - but not doing very well due to wind damage again 
• Beetroot
• Onions 

New for August

• Huge peppers
• Plums
• Apples
• Pears

Looking at September...............
I guess the electric bill will arrive eventually. They keep pestering me by email and letter to get a smart meter - I'm ignoring until it's forced upon me.
The cooker gas cylinder ran out over the weekend and I need to decide what to do about bird feeding this winter. I gave up in early spring because it was only attracting magpies.


Back Tomorrow
Sue

Last Week and it Seems Like Summer Has Gone

The week just ending felt like the beginning of Autumn already. Tuesday night with Storm Francis which woke me several times and then chillier evenings. The lights are on before 8pm for reading now but still two months before the clocks change - thankfully.

Swimming on Wednesday morning was good again and more people there but still not busy as they are limiting numbers. During the summer holidays they would normally be running canoeing or snorkeling classes and inflatable play times but all those things aren't happening so there's actually more opportunity to swim than a normal August. I probably need to go more often to make up for lost time as 25 minutes was enough to get me out of breathe and aching. I'd only just bought a new 20 swim ticket just before Lockdown so can go lots of times before needing to pay again.

When it was fine I shifted all the logs from one builders bag that had been standing outside by the woodshed into an empty bag inside the shed, something I've been meaning to do since spring. Now there's  a gap to reach all the logs that still need splitting.  BiL Andrew will be round later today, weather permitting with either the log splitter or chainsaw or both to split or cut some of the stuff that's been waiting 3 years. Although if he doesn't make it now he's talking about retiring at the end of October so will have a bit more time then.

Also got a batch of roasted onion/pepper/tomato sauce made (as per instructions from Sue in Wales/England!) 1 portion to eat and 4 in the freezer.  When I said the peppers from the 3 Thompson and Morgan plants were huge - this is what I mean.........

Huge pepper beside a £1 coin

Rainy afternoons have been spent watching the earlier series of Strike on BBC i-player (see below) ready for a new series starting tomorrow and there's actually some live cricket on BBC this weekend. Colin would have enjoyed that a lot, after all the years of only being able to see the highlights of test matches at the end of the day.


This week I'm grateful for

• Swimming again
• Not watching Strike when it was on TV first time so I can enjoy it now!
• Lots of fruit from the garden 
• A good collection of library books

The weather forecast for the weekend is fine but lowish temperatures. That's OK for wood cutting and boot-sale visit and a probable meet up for coffee with Rachel.

Hope you have a good weekend, a Bank Holiday long weekend for some people.
Back Monday
Sue

It's Saturday Once More

Another week in Suffolk..................

No swimming again - I rang to check and the lady there told me the electrical surge had done more damage than first thought and parts for the pool heating were having to come from Belgium! They're hoping to be open next week but not definite, have to ring again.

The very windy weather 2 weeks ago had pushed over a small pollarded willow. It couldn't fall further because it was in the ditch but it was sticking out over the footpath that goes down the meadow. I texted BiL to see if he had a spare half hour and he had (that was a surprise!) so once again I cooked him dinner in return for chainsaw work......thank goodness he's not too far away. Hardly any useful wood from it as the biggest bits were only a couple of inches across.

I thought about going to the cinema to see the film 1917 (it was on in the afternoons in Stowmarket) but the temptation to stay at home and light the wood-burner was much greater!  I'll add it to my list of DVDs to borrow from the library when it's available.

All the logs that came from the trees cut down nearly two weeks ago are now stacked up on some pallets to dry and season reading for splitting sometime in the future. I couldn't get the ride on mower to start to use the trailer even after putting the battery on charge, so ended up using a wheelbarrow and carrying the rest one or two at a time - good exercise!

Got the mower to start in the end - so just hope it's the battery getting old and taking longer to charge up. It would take a VERY long time to cut all the grass here without it.

Tried out the car seat with eldest granddaughter - it's so blinkin' complicated, push this, pull that - they were simpler back when my lot were little - probably safer now but certainly more expensive. Anyway Florence and I went to see the sea at Aldeburgh - it was flat calm but grey and misty, we threw some stones in, looked at the huge seagulls, spoke to a fisherman ............the one who owns this boat below, although this picture is from Internet and obviously taken in summer - yesterday it was as damp and grey and foggy as everywhere else in Suffolk! He showed me what damage seals do to his nets.

Photo Borrowed From Beach website

 There are now so many seals coming to breed on the Norfolk coast  they are having to move south to find food. He said there will soon be no fish for him and the others who fish from these small boats.  Once there were about 300 young seals born around Norfolk coast each year, last year there were 5,000, because they are so protected............... but they are ruining the livelihood of local fishermen.

And Finally.....................
Anyone else been watching the Indoor bowls championship on TV last week? I was half watching on Friday afternoon but ended up turning off as there were so many people in the audience cough, cough coughing.  It sounded like a wonderful place for catching something nasty!

(plus a P.S. to my penfriend W on a windy Scottish Island, many thanks for the gift for grandchild number 4, it's beautiful- hope baby arrives soon, DiL is getting quite fed up)


This week I'm grateful for

• Stacked wood for the future
• The warmth from the wood burner on foggy damp days.
• Seeing the sea on a grey day

Have a good weekend
Back Monday
Sue

And Yet More Firewood

I tracked down the phone number of the tree-cutting couple and contacted them about taking down a few trees and branches. D popped round to see what needed doing and then rang the next day to say they had a cancellation and had a free day. So that job is done already.....much sooner than I thought .............just waiting for the bill!

They cut down two thin poplars and branches off the sides off all the big poplars where they were overhanging the meadow and footpath. Then logged everything up and chipped the small bits. Now I have a big job to move and stack all the cut logs into one heap - I can use the ride on mower and trailer to help. They can sit and season for a year until BiL returns with the log-splitter next year.

There's an Ash tree in the back garden boundary hedge with a branch over-hanging next door neighbour's hot tub (brrrrrrr!, never actually heard them in it!) and D had a look at it and say's it really needs pollarding as it's showing signs of Ash tree die-back disease. That will have to be done after the field at the back is harvested. It will be sad to see it disappearing but better done now than when the disease sets in and makes it difficult to fell safely. Next door neighbours have offered to chip in with the cost of it's removal although then I'll feel obliged to let them have some of the wood, now that they too have a wood-burner and I'd quite like to keep it as Ash is much better for burning!

The Firewood poem

Beechwood fires are bright and clear

If the logs are kept a year,
Chestnut's only good they say,
If for logs 'tis laid away.
Make a fire of Elder tree,
Death within your house will be;
But ash new or ash old,
Is fit for a queen with crown of gold
Birch and fir logs burn too fast
Blaze up bright and do not last,
it is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
Elm wood burns like churchyard mould,
E'en the very flames are cold
But ash green or ash brown
Is fit for a queen with golden crown
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke,
Apple wood will scent your room
Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom
Oaken logs, if dry and old
keep away the winter's cold
But ash wet or ash dry
a king shall warm his slippers by.

This version is by  Celia Congreve, believed to be first published in THE TIMES newspaper on March 2nd 1930. Although that's disputed because there are many versions and given how important wood for burning was long before this date, I think it's probably a much older rhyme.

I prefer this poem which covers more types  of wood

                                                        Logs to burn, logs to burn
                                                        logs to save the coal a turn
                                                     here's a word to make you wise
                                                 when you hear the woodsman's cries
                                                          never heed his usual tale
                                                     that he has good logs for sale
                                               but read these lines and really learn
                                                        the proper kind of logs to burn
                                                  Beechwood fires burn bright and clear
                                                             Hornbeam blazes too
                                                          if the logs are kept a year
                                                  and seasoned through and through
                                                            Oak logs will warm you well
                                                                if they're old and dry
                                                        larch logs of pinewood smell
                                                                but the sparks will fly
                                                              Pine is good and so is Yew
                                                         for warmth through wintry days
                                                             but Poplar and willow too
                                                             take long to dry and blaze
                                                             Birch logs will burn too fast
                                                                   Alder scarce at all
                                                            Chestnut logs are good to last
                                                                        if cut in the fall
                                                                Holly logs burn like wax
                                                              you should burn them green
                                                            Elm logs like smouldering flax
                                                                      no flame to be seen
                                                                 Pear logs and Apple logs
                                                                 they will scent your room
                                                               Cherry logs across the dogs
                                                                smell like flowers in bloom
                                                         But Ash logs all smooth and grey
                                                                burn them green or old
                                                         burn up all that come your way
                                                       they're worth their weight in gold.

BiL is very dismissive of the lightweight quick burning  Poplar I have as the wood he cuts and sells is more likely Oak and Ash, but as I said "beggars can't be choosers".


Back Tomorrow
Sue

Log splitting

BiL Andrew came back last Sunday, as promised, with the log splitter, to start on the logs from the poplars and willows which the tree people felled from behind the workshop in October 2017.

I didn't take a photo this year but found one from last time he brought it round, which turned out to be longer ago than we thought....... 12th March 2017, not long after moving in.
The log splitter - which is a converted dumper with a hydraulic bit on top,  is still going despite looking like it was on it's last legs nearly three years ago. It's in regular use in BiL's  wood supply business. He and a friend pay to take fallen wood from a woodland in summer then in winter they split and bag it to sell. He says they've been very busy this winter so far.

 Back in March 2017 Colin was relatively OK, although he didn't look very well. The doctor had put him back on steroids so he had a bit more energy, you can see him pushing a wheelbarrow in the background, we were waiting to see what would happen next after finding that his own bone marrow transplant hadn't worked.

It seems an age ago now.

Anyway, thanks to Andrew two thirds of the logs are now split and added to what he cut the other week to make two giant heaps, taller than me, in the wood shed. They are very wet from sitting outside for 2 years but I won't need to use them until  spring 2021 so will have dried although they are poor wood and burn too quickly.

 Once I've emptied two out of the four builders bags full of wood that I'm using this year.I think Andrew will come back with the chainsaw to finish the few logs that he didn't do last time and there's also lots of odd small bits in the workshop that need cutting ready for splitting for kindling.

I've contacted the tree cutting people who are coming to look at what can be cut down and left to season. Brother in Law reckoned I might have moved by the time I need more wood but I said if I'm still here it will be no good waiting 'til it's run out as I doubt he'll give me mates rates if I have to buy it off him!.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

For Warm Winter Evenings

The Monday before Christmas was a busy day as Col's brother Andrew came over with his chainsaw to cut some of the logs from the trees that were felled in the first year we were here. He cut and I barrowed and chucked on the heap in the wood shed.

The lengths of logs to cut were heaped in front of these bigger logs and sometime this winter he will come again with the log-splitter to split these.

I still have plenty of logs in builders bags for this winter but before Andrew came this section of the shed was completely bare

 The Ash section is nearly empty and no more Ash to cut which is sad

And this section is going down

I'm wondering if I should get the Tree Cutting people to come and fell some branches and top out the poplars so they can be seasoning ready for cutting in winter 2021/2. Could be a plan.

Have a good weekend. I need to do a bit of prepping ready for the Suffolk children and Grandchildren who are visiting on Monday.

I think there is a post in drafts ready so I can be back on Monday.

Sue

The Tree Feller................

..................................... and his wife!
came  last week to cut down 4 trees.

 This is the (foggy Thursday morning) before work photo, with the trees.....Willow and Poplar overhanging and some branches actually sitting on the roof of the workshop, with their roots probably damaging the floor underneath.

 This is the lady up a tree, one down already, 3 more to come down.

And afterwards

Looks like complete devastation, but the stumps remain and the willows will regrow from the bottom to make a hedge rather than huge trees. There's now nothing to fall on the workshop or the farmers field and the roots can't damage the floor.

 and there is a huge pile of logs. The ones above Col will cut up when he can borrow a big chainsaw and the ones below he will cut  with his own chainsaw sometime. They are not in the way where they are so can lay for a year.

I really don't like seeing big trees cut down but sometimes it makes sense and of course we've planted lots of trees to replace them at the bottom of the meadow where they can do no harm.

The young couple will be back in a couple of weeks to do something to the Ash trees overhanging the garden behind the house, and SHOCK next door neighbours have offered to go halves on the cost of one tree which is in the boundary hedge close to their house.

Thank you for all the comments and reminiscences on the Guy Fawkes post. I watched the first of the 3 part drama -informative but pretty gruesome.

Back Tomorrow
Sue






Back Soon
Sue

Michaelmas and Free Heat

Whosoever eats goose on Michaelmas Day

Shall never lack money his debts for to pay.

29th September is one of the Quarter days when farm tenants would pay their rent and farm workers could change jobs.

The traditional meal for the feast on this day was a roast goose, fattened on the stubble fields after harvest.

Another saying  for the 29th is

If St Michael brings acorns down, snow will cover the fields at Christmas.

We've already had a lot of windy weather this month and some chilly evenings  too

I thought we had plenty of wood in the shed to last us through, but we've already had the woodburner alight a few evenings. Luckily, since this photo was taken Col has cut up more of the logs that were taken down last March  and we have tree surgeons due to cut down more Ash later in the autumn so plenty of wood.

This is the well known poem to remember what to burn...................

The Firewood Poem

Beechwood fires are bright and clear

If the logs are kept a year,

Chestnut's only good they say,

If for logs 'tis laid away.

Make a fire of Elder tree,

Death within your house will be;

But ash new or ash old,

Is fit for a queen with crown of gold

Birch and fir logs burn too fast

Blaze up bright and do not last,

it is by the Irish said

Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.

Elm wood burns like churchyard mould,

E'en the very flames are cold

But ash green or ash brown

Is fit for a queen with golden crown

Poplar gives a bitter smoke,

Fills your eyes and makes you choke,

Apple wood will scent your room

Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom

Oaken logs, if dry and old

keep away the winter's cold

But ash wet or ash dry

a king shall warm his slippers by.

No mention of Willow which we have a lot of, but stored at the back of the shed for next winter.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

24th August - St Bartholomew's Day and The Job List

 

One of my favourite books to look in for folklore information is Cattern Cakes and Lace.
It's an old book now, published in 1987 but I like it  because of the pictures and the old traditional recipes

One of the recipes under August is Saffron Cakes now traditionally made in Cornwall. And that's when I realised that somewhere between the smallholding and the cottage, my little box of Saffron had vanished. It was brought back from India (or maybe Egypt or perhaps Spain) for me by a neighbour many years ago but I'd kept it and used a few strands now and again. I wonder where it was lost? I'd always thought it was quite exotic but seems you can get some for £2.50 in Tesco!

According to this book, as well as being the patron saint of Beekeepers. St Bartholomew is patron saint of butchers and tanners because he was reputedly flayed alive. Those Saints certainly had a rough time of things back in the day!

One of the weather rhymes I mentioned at the beginning of the month said  "Dry August and warm doth harvest no harm". It wasn't very dry or warm at first but last week the weather was good enough for the wheat field beside us to be combined and baled. Col noticed that in the corner right by our garden was a large pile of straw the baler had missed so he collected it up in the wheelbarrow and it's now in a bag in the shed ready for putting round the strawberries next summer. Useful.

Thank you all for comments yesterday, we don't see the Long-Tailed Tits every day on the feeders but they are around in the hedges quite a lot. What we do have here  that we rarely saw in Knodishall are Sparrows - by the dozen. House sparrows mainly and Tree sparrows too. The House sparrows live in next door's roof and congregate noisily in our hedges.

Three more jobs from the to-do list have been organised...........  both the new oil tank installation and pumping out of septic tank will be done in the next week. Then we've had someone round to look at the huge Ash trees at the end of the garden. There are several big branches over our veg. patch and fruit trees which need taking down plus the willows behind the workshop need cutting back so they don't sit on the workshop roof. That's going to be a big job that will be done sometime during the Autumn. We are using a local company but they are behind on work due to having a lot of their machinery stolen recently. It will be expensive but will give us enough wood  for the wood-burner for a couple of years, let more light into the garden and make everywhere safer.


Back Tomorrow
Sue

Very Useful

During the week Col's brother A mends machinery for a big farming company but sometimes at weekends he helps a friend cut wood to sell. Most of their wood is hauled out from old woodland but his friend also has deliveries of off-cuts from a company that builds roofing trusses and the like.
His friend has a machine that cuts this new wood into kindling sticks but then they are left with all the odd shaped bits that won't fit in the kindling machine. Sometimes they've bagged them up to sell but not a good seller so he asked if we wanted them.
Last week he brought them over.

I had no idea there would be so much!

Thank you A, very useful.

Back Shortly
Sue

Firewood

Seems odd to be talking about cutting down trees a few days after blogging about planting a mini wood but cutting down trees is what we were doing on Saturday.
When Mr and Mrs F bought the additional bit of land in the 1980s they planted Poplars down one side and Willow and Ash down the other.

The Ash were specially planted to provide firewood as they can be coppiced and will regrow from the base(and burn green too of course) although most of them hadn't been cut at all. Several of the willows had branches sticking out into the field and they can break easily so needed tidying. Colin wanted to make sure I would be OK for firewood next winter just in case, so organised an old friend from his council days to come with Big chainsaw and Giant wood chipper and he took down 6 small Ash trees and several willow branches. Luckily my sister and brother-in-law had said they would help so we were able to tackle the clearing and sorting of logs and brushwood while L did the cutting down.
 I'd intended to take a photo but of course we were too busy to remember!
After  5 hours work we were left with heaps of willow and Ash,wood chips and a big heap of twiggy bits for kindling.

Lunchtime Sunday after a lot had already been shifted and split

Then on Sunday Cols brother came with the log splitter, which looks a Heath Robinson affair but is very effective, and I forgot photos again until after lunchtime.

 By lunch time Sunday we had a good heap stored and even more by the time we finished  at half past two.
There are still several piles of smaller logs on the field which only need cutting - not splitting, and we hope to get them done early in the week. We are just glad that the doctor put Colin back on steroids again which has given him a bit more energy!
 It was very satisfying to be able to get outside and do some "proper" work.

Thank you to lots of new visitors commenting, sorry I didn't get round to replying.......slightly busy!

Back in a jiffy
Sue