Winter preparations

I’m just getting things sorted out and ready for Winter now, really. One of my main concerns was properly finishing off my new wood store, by which I mean weather-proofing all of the new wood in readiness for the coming Winter weather. Well, I finally did that today, after buying the material I needed yesterday at Brico Depot. This came in the form of a creosote-like liquid which was brown in colour, unlike most (all?) of the creosote I’ve used in the UK, which has been black.

It was quite cold and misty this morning, but dry, when I started work and I set to with a wide brush with the aim of giving all of the exposed parts of the wood store a good soaking with the stuff. I also wanted to treat the new treads that I’d made for the stairs to my grenier and I was happy when I eventually finished the whole job after just a couple of hours or so. And I was quite pleased with the results, as shown below.

I can now rest easy knowing that when it eventually begins to rain hard, which I’m sure it will do quite soon, all the work I’ve done on the store will come to no harm. I also like the look of the store with its new darker colour, which I think makes it look more in harmony with the rest of the house.

After a quick lunch-break, I got out my trusty chain saw to see how well it would cut a few lengths of the oak I’ve got in store for burning. The answer was ‘could do better’, which did not really come as a surprise. It was ‘as cheap as chips’ when I bought it at Brico Depot and has more than paid back what it cost, really, in the work that I’ve used it for, taking down and cutting up old trees and stuff like that. I’ve recently been mulling over the idea of getting hold of a second-hand electric ‘scie à bûches’ (log saw) and have been scanning the ads on Le Bon Coin for the past few days.

I contacted the sellers from a couple of recent old ads and theirs had already gone, so these saws are obviously selling quite quickly now that Winter is approaching. I then spotted one that would have perfectly met my needs for only 100€, but it was over three hours drive away (over 150 miles) in the Landes, and in the time that I took thinking about whether it would be worth going all that way (it would have cost about another 75€ in fuel, but still leaving it quite competitive against others on offer, many of which I didn’t like), that went as well.

So now it’s just a question of waiting for the right one. It makes sense having one now that I have the wood store to keep it in because with it and my ‘fendeuse’ (log splitter), I’ll never have to pay top-price for the wood I get in and will always be able to take long (1 metre) large diameter logs, that are cheaper. The last ‘big’ job to do with the wood store will be knocking a hole through the wall from my kitchen for an electricity cable. That’ll have to wait for a few more days because tomorrow I want to make some weather-boards for the bottoms of my two doors to prevent rain (and insects) coming in, as happens with my rear door especially whenever rain beats against it from the west. That’s the main job tomorrow, as I already have the wood, the primer and the paint all ready and waiting 😉