Sunday 7 October 2012

Biggest Firewood Pile Yet

Another sign of approaching winter -- the firewood has been delivered. This year we ordered 7 steres (cubic metres) as an opening gambit. This should take us halfway through the winter or maybe more. The price has gone up a bit, to €48 per stere, but our firewood supplier, a father and son team, are terrific. Most people's firewood is delivered by dumping it in a big pile on the lawn and the firewood merchant then drives merrily away while the customer spends several hours stacking the wood neatly out of the weather. Because we only order relatively small quantities at a time, ours comes in several trailer or van loads and they help us stack it before they go off for more. Ours is also cut to the size our stove takes and this year we got a quantity of kindling material for free too.

8 comments:

HuubToussaint said...

Simon lost some weight!!!

Abbé Henri Proust said...

We paid 53€/stère delivered and stacked - all oak - from our new friend Maurice and his Citroen 15D with 470,000 km on the clock.

Susan said...

Sorry Huub -- don't get your hopes up -- he's just sucking it in!

Ken Broadhurst said...

We burn less wood -- 4 steres or less over the course of the winter. We paid 45 euros per stere a year ago, but ours is in 1 meter lengths. Delivered, but not stacked. All oak. We didn't need to buy any this year. We also go through about 1000 liters of heating oil for the boiler and radiators.

wcs said...

I have woodpile envy! :)

Harry Dickinson said...

We pay about $300 AUD for two cubic meters of "hardwood", we think it is ironbark, dumped in front of our garage which then has to be carted down three stairs and about 100 meters to stack on our verandah. This is in about 800 mm pieces. Kindling is extra, and we have gone through maybe 20 bags since the fire season started in April. We are still having fires each night as it is still cold, by local standards. This is in the upper Blue Mountains west of Sydney. So I think you've got a good deal. No oil bills however, but very expensive electricity, which rises every year by 15%.
we were at Amboise this time last year and had a flat tire in Onzain. No circus trucks that day. Just the Renault breakdown service from Blois.

Susan said...

Walt: but think how much fitter you will be than us :-)

Harry: Good to hear from you again. Australia has got so expensive in the last few years, hasn't it? The wood is our primary fuel. We only use electric heaters in the bathrooms and in other rooms only when it is exceptionally cold. We don't have oil at all.

Niall & Antoinette said...

We're paying 50 euros a stere cut into 50cm logs. Don't get it stacked *sigh* and have had to order 15 stere to last us the winter; like you it is our primary fuel.

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