Saturday, 21 June 2014

Home Made Chainsaw Horse For The Smallholding.

 It's the longest day today.  Number one son made me an homemade saw horse yesterday for cutting up the logs.  Hurricane Darwin provided many people with lots of fallen trees and firewood for the new few years.  I bought the trailer loads of Leylandi trees from a tree surgeon a few months a go really cheap.  We left them to dry out and now we are busy making them into firewood to heat the Stanley range for us.  Even on an hot day like today.  It's lit and providing hot water and heat to cook (beef curry) our supper.
Number one son made (welded) the saw horse for thirty Euros.  You spend longer filling the saw horse than it takes to cut the logs.  I reckon you get 2 wheelbarrows of logs at a time.  




We made the old 'cart house' into a wood store earlier this year.  We bricked up (built a stone wall and put a window in) the gap and fitted a smaller door made form box iron and corrugated iron.  It's great to collect dry logs in winter instead of having to chop them.  Must see if I can source some dry 'Turf' (Peat) for the range.  That sounds like a trip to County Kerry some time.  Are you stocking up your fuel supplies for Winter?  
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8 comments:

  1. Kev Alviti22 June 2014 at 15:15

    I need to get looking for some more wood. We've probably got enough for this winter but I need to start think a little further ahead! I like the saw horse, beats me cutting mine on the ground, which takes ages and does your back in.

    ReplyDelete
  2. northsider 23 June 2014 at 03:40

    Hi Kev. I have picked up driftwood from the beach and rivers and left it to dry on the smallholding. Tree surgeons will sell you wood and so will saw mills. When I lived in England a lot of wood went into skips (free source?) and landfill sites because of 'smokeless zones' in the towns.

    We also have a log-splitter connected to the tractor or digger for the thicker trunks. The saw horse is very good because you are not doing your back in.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Vera23 June 2014 at 12:52

    That looks like a good idea. We bought in some ready cut wood to start us off this winter (when the Rayburn is fitted), and have not yet cleared our small woodland, which we shall do when we have time, probably next year though, because house renovation and maintaining our smallholding is taking up most of our time at the moment.

    ReplyDelete
  4. cumbrian23 June 2014 at 13:33

    Fantastic idea, a gifted young man; wish I'd had one when I was keeping the log fire going. Usually managed to collect enough driftwood from our local beaches, not many people seemed to bother with it, but it was a great source of seasoned firewood, good exercise as well. Always needed somebody to hold the logs though, one of these would have been a boon.
    It was very satisfying to see a big heap of logs ready for winter.

    Really miss the open fire, hardly used to put anything in the bin, only tins and bones, and they went through the fire as well, they hold the heat for a long time.

    ReplyDelete
  5. northsider 24 June 2014 at 01:25

    Hi Vera. We are trying to get the firewood cut and stored while the weather is still dry. There's nothing worse than damp logs smouldering in the range all day.

    I am going to plant some more trees (Black Alder) in the winter so that we have a constant supply in the future. I look forward to reading your blog about the Rayburn being fitted, the house renovations and your smallholding.

    ReplyDelete
  6. northsider 24 June 2014 at 01:33

    Hi Cumbrian. He saw the log horse at a tree surgeons house and he took a mental picture and made us a copy and decided on our own measurements. It works really efficient and you could make a wider one for thicker trunks. Ours is about 5 foot high and ten inches wide.

    Never understood why so many councils banned open fires. They don't ban cars and they must give off enough pollution as the fires. Land fill is such a waste and John Seymour said they would be the mines of the future. Just been reading that the the Irish Government is going to spend 40 million making a park out of a land fill tip just outside of Cork.

    Thanks!


    ReplyDelete
  7. cumbrian24 June 2014 at 06:16

    No, I never really understood it either. The local iron & steel works blasted out tons of nameless pollution daily, from blast furnaces, Bessemer converters, coke ovens, etc, for over 100 years with nothing said; yet as soon as the steelworks shut (along with the coal mines courtesy of Maggie Thatcher) it was decided that open fires were a health hazard, and a programme of smokeless zones was implemented.

    And I suppose people lazy, it was easier to press a switch and fire up a gas fire than to clean, set and light a proper one. But I still believe an open fire is the best sort to sit in front of.

    ReplyDelete
  8. northsider 24 June 2014 at 07:08

    Yes its madness that people can't enjoy an open fire. I read recently that the reason why post war governments electrified the railway lines was because of the cheap British coal. There is said to be 200 years of it left underground. Yet we are totally dependent on oil and the search goes on for fracking gas. Don't suppose we will ever see a totally electric car. We are not allowed to smoke in the pub or have an open fire if you live in a town. Yet you can have 33 million cars in the UK polluting the environment.

    I find with instant heat like like central heating. The room goes cold when the thermostat clicks off. Yet a good open fire with a back boiler or a range gives you heat all the time. Perhaps people don't have the time to set fires and two people going out to pay the mortgage?

    I love looking into an open fire. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

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