Yes it’s that time of year. The cold snap has indeed snapped in the Waikato to the tune of a discordant F#7 on a detuned guitar.
It’s a beautiful scene, frosted farmland as far as the eye can see. The days (generally) turn into a blue sky day, but it’s pretty chilly. Oh, a mild understatement ‘pretty chilly’ that’s a Kiwi thing. Time to get warm.
Log Splitting
This is our first winter at our new house. We have enjoyed the summer, but now our attention turns to heat.
We had 10 cubic metres of firewood delivered the other weekend. 80% of it needed splitting, so after many hours of axe swinging (which I enjoyed to be honest) I discovered while it’s a great workout, it’s not going to cut the mustard with dried hardwood, so we invested in an entry level Log Splitter.
A trip to the local Tool Shed (keen to buy local and nice friendly chaps) sorted us out with a manageable, electric solution. It’s so amazing, we are churning through 2-3 cubic metres in a few hours, cutting some wood like a knife through butter, shredding others – but the result is very burnable sized wood. It has the pressure of four tonnes bearing onto on a piece of wood, it’s safe and very effective, more-so that me whacking it with an axe!
…and fun to discover the number of huhu grubs nuzzled between rotting wood and bark!
Mobile Workspace
With some backbreaking work ahead, even with a log splitter, I suggested that a mobile benchtop could be a saving grace, to (a) sit the Log Splitter on (weighing in at 46kg) at waist height, and (b) creating Y frame to feed through branches for chainsawing without crouching down at precarious angles.
My wish was granted and my clever Englishman knocked together such a bench top when I wasn’t looking! He upcycled it from old fence palings that were destined for the bonfire, added some wheels so we could trundle it into any outside position, and even painted a logo of our band painted on top. Too cute!
Kindling
Kindling is too easy around here. We have many trees which result in many fallen branches (or pruned branches) over the seasons that are hauled along the boundary fence for drying. Months later, after it’s had time to dry, it’s a matter of sizing them up, cracking them into smaller lengths, and Bob’s your Uncle. I find it very therapeutic collecting kindling (although log splitting is a close second).
As you may appreciate, kindling needs to come in all sizes. Finger-width branches may start a fire, but you do need to gather chunkier dry branches to keep the fire brewing. So what I can’t break with my bare hands (grrrrr) there’s nothing like a sturdy gumboot to snap the rest…hmmm, or a chainsaw.
Oh joy ….and I’m not even being sarcastic! I think I’m a winter kind-of-girl.
Cleaning fireplace window doors: Tip
A few months ago we got prepared and have the wood fire a right-royal clean. How do you clean the windows of your wood burner fire without buying expensive chemicals? Simply scrunched up newspaper dipped in water then dipped in ash, a jolly good Karate Kid ‘wipe on, wipe off’ action, had the glassware looking absolutely stonking.
