After the driest year and a half recorded the heavens finally, as they were bound to, opened. We did not merely get the traditional april showers but a fully fledged watery onslaught. It was our privilege to endure the wettest april on record and this continued remorselessly into May. As I write on the last day of the month 2 weeks of heatwave appear to be coming to an end. I am not unduly conned into believing that every meteorological anomaly is due to global warming but the advocates do seem to be ahead at the moment.
Anyway the conditions have evidently tested the resolve of some of our trees. The shallow rooted ones in particular have struggled to hang on as their terra firma turned to slop and a well aimed gust of wind did the rest. As I have explained before, hung up trees are a bit hazardous to fell so I will leave this one till it is needed or in the way. It is straight and will be useful lumber and would deteriorate fast if cut but is still rooted and alive so will be left for now.
The soakaway for the barn rainwater has been well tested and works well. The barn is drier than before and the extension perfect. Some water did come in at the front of the barn but it was extreme rainfall after all.
Spring can be the loveliest time too. Here is an early purple orchid. These grow in abundance amongst the bluebells and although I am not a huge flower enthusiast or even vaguely knowledgeable about them, I do wander down for a glimpse at this time of year before the rushes, grass, nettles and burdocks take over.
I finally enlisted Paulie’s muscle power to help put up the barn owl box. So it is up there if they are out there so hopefully I will get my resident hooter who may well keep the squirrels out who have done significant damage to the sawmill.
As the regulars to this blog will have gathered, firewooding never really ends. As long as a demand for domestic heat continues it will remain a valuable commodity. In this case there were a few piles of small diameter spruce and some “past their best” lumps of ash which will make up some of my own supply for 2013/14. This will give it 2 summers to crisp up and allow it to give off more heat per ton. Any dampness in firewood gets burned off in the fire. This takes heat away from the combustion and also puts more vapour and soot into the stove and flue. If you have the space and inclination to have a years firewood in hand it is well worth it. In my experience this applies to about 1 in 100 users! Even getting your supply stacked in the spring before you burn it is nearly as good. I have pushed a few clients this way with aggressive marketing but it continues to surprise me how the firewood burner in this country fails to plan ahead. My firewood business has now pretty much shut down due to a failed back but the 10 tons of oak I have for sale will hopefully disappear by the time I leave for Scotland in July and be burnable if not 100% dry for this winter.
At home I store my firewood in a horse box which I recommend. It holds about 4 or 5 loads which would last many people a winter but not me. Until recently my re-fill would have been stacked outside and as a result be not as dry and a little disappointing. But not now. I will now be able to practice what I preach and approaching my half century will, in theory, be able to have a continuous supply of dry firewood.
The last 2 weekends of May are taken up by Oxfordshire Artweeks. A celebration of professional as well as amateur artists in the county who are invited to open their workshops and studios and display their work. It is also an opportunity to sell their wares. The wooders have demonstrated our skills outside this lovely 13th century barn for the last 3 years and have always drawn an appreciative audience and sold enough to make it worthwhile too.
Paulie was busy on his bowl lathe, pedalling in the heat.
Gerry, an ex student of Paulie, joined in for both weekends and is seen here preparing a bowl blank for his lathe.
Sophie and Helen manned the table during a freezing first weekend and boiling second one. Its not hard to see the appeal.
The bee boxes were a good seller and more had to be made between weekends.
Meanwhile I was cast off to my old workshop to make some little woodies to display rings for local Jeweller and close friend Margaret Townsend. I spun my lathe up with some old pieces of olive ash and in no time has the finished article delivered.
Despite the odd worm hole filled with wax they finished up fine with a bit of oil. The hardest part was cutting them off at an angle. There was not much to hold onto and what there was was angled away from the grip. I made the mistake of turning 2 at at time so off the lathe it tapered to a point in either direction. I will know better next time.
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Here lie the remains of jazz, Sophie’s lovely dalmation. His physical being will now be perpetuated in the birch tree planted above him.
And here lies the beginnings of a young Roe. A menace to our crops and trees but even the most hard hearted can’t fail to admire it’s innocence and perhaps it deserves to eat what we plant ourselves and maybe it impacts its environment less than we do.
And here are the wooden fragments put to use.
Old Tractor small Wood 