Singing Christmas Carols is good for the lungs and heart and, for those who trudge the lanes visiting old cottages, good for the legs. It is also good for battery manufacturers whose products light the bulbs that shine on our carol sheets, and for sherry producers because carollers drink copiously to prevent cold throats on winter evenings.
Thinking of December, conjures up images of dark chilly nights when there is nothing nicer than huddling up to a hot fire. Many men get satisfaction preparing for such evenings, by cutting wood and building huge log stores in anticipation of blasts of icy wind emanating deep within the freezing forests of Siberia.
Much is made nowadays about the need to save energy, and for menfolk in these parishes, there is no finer example of sustainability than being able to plant and grow trees. A rich energy harvest can then be obtained by felling, pollarding, coppicing or simply pruning.
As well as being home to a myriad of creatures, trees give us food to eat and oxygen to breathe. Locally they also provide employment to nursery men, tree surgeons and landscape gardeners. Leaves can be excellent compost and the wood itself is the most useful raw material known. Interestingly, I am told that if wood were to be invented today, it would not pass the rules which govern the introduction of new products.
In the middle ages, big houses had huge fireplaces with chimneys that went straight up and were open to the sky, but this meant that rain and snow fell directly onto the burning fire and so a bend was introduced. Despite burning large logs most of the heat went right up the chimney and the fire needed constant attention so as not to burn the house down.
Nowadays wood burning is more efficient, and the Ludlow based company Clearview say their multi-fuel unit will burn 98.2% of combustible material. This makes it far more efficient than electricity because, depending on whom you read, between 30% and 60 % of the output of a power station is simply ‘lost’ in transmission before it gets to our homes.
Many local shops sell dry logs and, depending on quantity, the price is between £250 and £1000 per tonne which gives a keen incentive to harvest local resources. This involves planting two or three trees for every one felled and a lot of sawing. Chainsaw work is usually hard on the back but saw-horses can ease the pain. I particularly like one from Stihl that clamps a long branch in steel teeth so that the length required can be more readily cut. However, as with much else in life, a variety of ‘horses’ can make jobs easier.
For those of us fortunate enough to have tractors, envious eyes are often cast on one of its key implements the log splitter. These come in two main types; the axe head dropped from height using the hydraulics on the back of the tractor, and the tapered corkscrew method driven directly from the rear power take off. (PTO)
Either method makes splitting a pleasure for the operator, as he quickly turns the cross-cuts from the tree into split logs of the size required. Splitting the log also exposes more surface area to the atmosphere and so aids the drying process. This is more sustainable than wood sold in shops which is usually dried in solar or gas fired kilns.
Many folks store their wood outside on pallets. The stack is covered to keep off the rain, but open enough to allow drying winds to pass through. Others are able to create piles in open buildings. In the latter case there is great pleasure to be had from creating the face of the stack behind which most of the wood is thrown. One of the secrets of a good face, like dry stone walling, is to maximise the contact between the logs, this means few gaps thus reducing the likelihood of slippage. A face with a tendency to lean inwards is also a useful attribute of a good log pile.
Different woods have different splitting characteristics, lime for example is very difficult, but poplar is much easier. Drying and burning characteristics also differ: On an open fire, Willow will sparkle whereas Poplar is smokey. Ash will burn green or dry but Elm has little heat in it. On the older type wood burners some woods will gum up the glass which can take time to clean. But for those readers who, like me, burn the odd old railway sleeper or telegraph pole, it is something we have learned to cope with.
Maybe, there are some readers who are not excited by the simple pleasures of handling wooden logs and operating chain saws, tractors and log splitters, and so for them I return to the subject of Christmas carolling, with a reminder that the throats of carol singers may dry out and be in need of lubrication.
Sherry may warm the throats of carollers, but for the Basingstoke mother of a reader from Brand Green, her problem with dryness was not so easily solved. After installing gas central heating she was horrified to see cracks appear in the furniture.
Her daughter was however alert to the problem, and so popped into a local ironmonger to explain that cracks had appeared in the piano and so she wanted an electric humidifier. The eager but inexperienced assistant rolled his eyes and replied, “I am sorry madam, I can’t help as we don’t sell musical instruments”.
View from the Pew 