Firewood from my own trees now

dinners

dinners

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Got the old chainsaw fired up this week and took down a few trees to fill the wood store. Nothing unusual in that but this year they were trees i planted myself.

When I bought this house in the early 90's we got a wee adjoining field and because i wanted a quick growing windbreak i opted for fast growing Eucalyptus and went for a frost / wind hardy variety. Each year I added a few more followed years later by Silver Birch.

It's taken a while but this year I've taken the largest ones down which should be enough to get us through the winter after which the next ones will be ready etc etc.

It will always need to be suplemented by other stock and (for photographing birds) there will be trees I want to keep but it's very satisfying to know that a % of what i burn is my own wood.

I've no central heating (just electric storage) so I may want to pick people's brains about replacing one of the downstairs open fires for a burner / stove system rather than oil at some point.

I'm just enjoying the smell for now.
 
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dinners said:
Got the old chainsaw fired up this week and took down a few trees to fill the wood store. Nothing unusual in that but this year they were trees i planted myself.

When I bought this house in the early 90's we got a wee adjoining field and because i wanted a quick growing windbreak i opted for fast growing Eucalyptus and went for a frost / wind hardy variety. Each year I added a few more followed years later by Silver Birch.

It's taken a while but this year I've taken the largest ones down which should be enough to get us through the winter after which the next ones will be ready etc etc.

It will always need to be suplemented by other stock and (for photographing birds) there will be trees I want to keep but it's very satisfying to know that a % of what i burn is my own wood.

I've no central heating (just electric storage) so I may want to pick people's brains about replacing one of the downstairs open fires for a burner / stove system rather than oil at some point.

I'm just enjoying the smell for now.
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Nice one Phil, I got the next best thing I suppose. We have a Batch right by the side of the house and just across from the bottom of our garden is a woodland as well. Always plenty of seasoned stuff to gather up and burn. Keep it up :thumbs: Or should that be down? :D
 
Phil, Eucolyptus will burn like crazy,as it is a very oily wood,as a result it may leave deposits in the flue. I would be tempted to season it for a good few years before burning it mate.
 
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.
 
Cheers folks

Good poem Rich - not seen that before.

You're not wrong Nigel - The Eucolyptus logs are in the log store and won't be for this year.

The wood we're burning this year was from last year although one of the Eucolyptus trees (cut down in the summer) was more or less dead after last years winter so is pretty dry. The odd 'green' log is nice to burn though.

Funny things though Eucolyptus. Fell them to leave a stump with a 45 dgree top facing South and the spores under the bark shoot again to become a bush.
 
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Well done! I'd love to be self sufficient in wood. We've been in this house for a couple of years ad have done some fairly harsh pruning each year which has helped with the wood supply, but it's really sustainable for many more years without being more reliant on the oil-fired central heating.
Have you planted it in a grid like a coppice, or is it wilder than that? What sort of area do you have and think you'd need to be your only supply?
 
Cheers TopBanana

It's only small - what we bought what was a field (about footy pitch sized) that backed onto our back garden. We then kept about a third of it and sold the rest off to some neighbours who also wanted to increase their garden size.

The trees were planted fairly randomly and whilst I could probably manage with those alone for a year or so - in the long run the volume and growing time simply wouldn't match the rate I'd be burning it.

I still buy coal and source logs from elsewhere but there is something nice (and a bit sad) about burning big logs from a tree I planted when it was as thick as a pencil and no taller tham my welly boot.
 
You do a bit.

If you burn a freshly cut 'green' log you do get some of the scent in the room as the oil boils out but depending on the draw of the fireplace, most of the scent goes up tp the chimney. If you lift a log out of the fire for a few seconds to allow some woodsmoke into the room you can certainly smell it.

The older logs that I'm burning now have less scent but that's because they've dried out a lot.

To be honest, the best way to get that Eucalyptus scent is to stack a few freshly split logs somewhere indoors.
 
you get quite a good smell from the bark if you dry it and use it as kindling ;)
 
Just reading ths thread alone is enough to heat up my hobby room and make me feel all snug and cosy.
 
Its a dream to own your own bit of woodland no matter how big or small, and to grow your own fuel even better. Next time we meet Phil, I expect a cuppa sitting next to your fire :)
 
dinners said:
To be honest, the best way to get that Eucalyptus scent is to stack a few freshly split logs somewhere indoors.
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big soft moose said:
you get quite a good smell from the bark if you dry it and use it as kindling ;)
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Mmmmmmm yummy . . . just need somebody a little bit closer to donate a few bits of Eucalyptus now :lol:
 
pm me your address and i'll send you a jiffy bag full of bark ;)
 
Cheers folks - yes the bark is good.

One of the big trees has bark that peels and drops off on it's own.

Trev - always welcome but it's hard to get near the fires for the dogs lol
 
dinners said:
One of the big trees has bark that peels and drops off on it's own.
l
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Yep - that's what ive got loads of for kindling - there are three such trees near me and I collect it all year for kindling in the winter months, it smells great when burnt
 
super thread ,you gotta love this forum:ty:
 
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