[MAK]

Mmm a bit dum of me - I just did not put Truck and home together. The idiot I am I thought he had one in the dash board to heat the truck when out for the day.. ha ha.
never been on a travellers truck but I do remember that when the repaired roads in London the nightwatchman had a brazer outside We would help him fill oil lamps inside his wooden "truck" in front of his fire. Health and Safety - nah 

[Donald]

Hello,


Free wood would mean to me something like this:
Cut, split, dried, delivered and stacked near where I was going to burn it.
Other than that there are costs involved and when it comes to a wood say like mature horse chestnut and I have to split it, the cost outweighs the return - to get overly bogged down in the language of economics.


But I do also revel in burning particular woods in particular form, lets say split cherry, oak, pseudo acacia, apple, birch as our Swedish and Finish friends know all to well. And because of being something of a thrill seeker I even like burning some of the conifers we sometimes have available. I dream and then wake to the cruelty of still having 15 m3 of poplar out back to get through....


Greetings,


Don Wagstaff


Even more astonishing than a wood burner in a truck is a truck with a computer, but that is just me.

[deepinthewoods]

collie womans, got both!

[Donald]

 Yeah, I gathered that much. Impressive.

[colliewoman]

We're very posh here you know
Free to me means not paying any cash. I don't mind being out all day wooding and working a sweat up. That is good for me and I can have my dogs with me etc.
What I do resesnt is having to work more than strictly needed in babylon for the man, just to be given some cash to spend on something to set fire to
I 'work' the very bare minimum I need to to bring in the small amount of money I need, spending the rest of my time outside with my animals or walking through nature will, no matter how tiring, seem like work to me
Though I must admit I do now need to do a few extra hours, cos someone has nicked my bow saw

[Donald]

But horse chestnut now. It is gnarly, it is twisted, it is sloppy and once you have overcome all that 'n the rest of it, you will put it in the fire, it will flair up and be gone before you can roast your marshmallow with it. It's not a description of fun to me, that one.


Greetings,


Don Wagstaff

[MAK]

Horse Chestnut are the conkers right 
The sweet chestnut trees must be a very different wood. The poles ( new wood that has shot skywood when the main tree has been cut) often die back but remain standing a few years - they are dry and so easy to harvest. A long pole can be cut into log size bits with the thin bits used to restart the fire. The trunks of the couple of very old trees ( that had fallen some yearsback) could be split into 6 or 8. They burn really well. I have been given a large sweet chestnut that fell down a bank in "1997" - virtually all of it is off the ground as the bank and a few large branches has held it up. Should be fun cutting it and moving bits to the track - think I'll take a picnic.

I have time but no money so I consider this free fuel. The first year here we bought 1000 Euros of wood - now I harvest my neighbours wood and split it 50-50 with her. I thus earn 1000 Euros a year ( I get a years supply of wood). It is like going to work for me.

[MikeM]

yup, horse and sweet are completely different trees.
Horse:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesculus_hippocastanum
Sweet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_chestnut
 
Sweet chestnut is a great tree, fantastic timber useful for a wide range of situations (really good for fence posts) whereas horse is... less useful.

[Donald]

Hello,


Sweet chestnut that was out back there for a number of years which I sort of  inherited from a neighbor who passed on before he ever got to use.






It is a shame to burn sweet chestnut but in a different way than burning horse chestnut.


Greetings,


Don Wagstaff

[Wendy@blueborage]

I agree sweet chestnut is a great wood.  It's our favourite firewood for burning (with hornbeam) although it can spit a bit.  We have a log burner so that's not a problem.  We've also cut down sweet chestnut trunks for the frames of our new barn.

Wendy@blueborage

blueborage.blogspot.com

[MAK]

Donald - my other half wants some of those boards to make her jig saw puzzels. 
I can not split them that thin by hand.
We have a place down the road that sells them for roofs and for buldings like you show in your great photos. But they are cut in a wedge shape ( uneven thickness) to aid roof laying. I have 10 that I have to plane down for her - yuck job. 

Have the cranes left northern NL yet ? They have not flown over us yet on their way south. 

[deepinthewoods]

use a froe mak.

[FiB]

. But they are cut in a wedge shape ( uneven thickness) to aid roof laying. I have 10 that I have to plane down for her - yuck job. 

radial cut, not bastard shingles then .  Not often you can use that word legitimately!!!  Spent a hard weekend making hundreds (felt like thousands), and a large pile of fireood  ,  for a Viking longhouse once.  Those look fab Donald.  Shingle envy.

[colliewoman]

I am in love with those shingles
I don't recall ever having burned horse chestnut, so can't comment on the effort to heat factor 
But I have been out with my mate this morning and we have collected a WHOLE Elm tree, lots of Hazel, a van full of 5 inch diameter ASH!!!!!   Some Sycamore and a dozen or so 8 foot lengths of Holly about 4 inch diameter
All for free no pennies    and a day laughing so hard my ribs hurt!


I gots me some Ash!!!! Going back out in a bit for some more

[deepinthewoods]

holly will burn green, and stays in for ages, takes quite a bit of heat to get it going tho, then it glows like coal.