Day: November 3, 2020

The supplier from whom I’ve obtained my wood for the past two or three years let me down again this year, as they did last, by leaving their wood out into the autumn so it got wet. I had problems last year getting my woodburner up and running, for the first few weeks anyway, and I didn’t want to have to face the same difficulties all over again, so I had to look for another source this year.

I came across someone from over near the Chateau de l’Herme in Rouffignac and after making contact last week, took my trailer over yesterday morning to pick up 4 stères, 2 of ‘chêne’ (oak) and 2 of ‘chataignier’ (chestnut, so called, or just general wood really). Four stères weighs about 3 tonnes and although he gave me a hand getting it loaded, I had to unload and stack it outside my wood store all by myself, so it was a tiring business. But I was all finished by not long after 1.00 pm, as I wanted to be, as I had to get over to Périgueux for a routine follow-up medical check later in the afternoon.

Here’s the stack as at yesterday before I went off. That’s my neighbour’s cat who always comes to spend time with me when I go outside.

This year once again, I’ve got to cut it down from the standard 1 metre lengths that it’s come in and split it as necessary down to sizes to fit into my woodburner. Plus I also like to make some ‘smalls’ that I can use when I initially start it up. The wood man assured me that the wood could be left out as no rain was expected but I didn’t trust the forecast and felt sure that we were going to get a bit, so I used my one and only large waterproof plastic tarp to cover the wood pile up with. And lucky I did, because sure enough we had enough drizzle overnight to create small pools of water on the plastic but the wood remained safe and dry underneath.

I got cracking this morning to cut and split it down to size. I’ve still got my electric saw that I could use to cut the lengths down but I’ve decided this year to use my chainsaw instead as it’s quicker and less trouble. The Stihl saw that I bought from LeBonCoin a year or so ago has turned out not to be one of my better buys and is more trouble than it’s worth but luckily the cheap-as-chips saw that I bought at Brico Depot to clear my garden with shortly after I arrived in France is still going like a bomb with a new chain and guard, so I’m using that.

I’d hoped to get half of the wood done today but I think that might be optimistic as I’m now a bit tired for starters. Here’s how things looked when I came in to grab some lunch a short while ago.

I’m now going back out to get going again. Who knows, I might make it…