Chopping Area - how to make it look better.

Chopping Area - how to make it look better.

Yes. How?

We got a wood-burning stove this winter. Lovely it is. I feel so sorry for people who haven't got one. What dull lives they must have: not being able to snuggle up in the evenings in front of glowing woody flames. And I even love all the stuff that goes with it; stacking the wood, setting the fire, some parts of the downstairs cold, other parts nice and toasty, lots of lovely ashes to go on the compost.... and of course the best bit of all: chopping.

On chopping.

There is something very fulfilling about chopping for a man - especially if you're dealing with mature, unseasoned 1 x 1 1 x 2 x 2ft chain-sawed chunks of hardwood trunk the size of chopping blocks you can hardly lift, which can easily shrug off or swallow a timorously-wielded axe. Yet it's not brawn; you have to think and plan: attacking these large heart-of-wood sections with accuracy just at the drier edge so that the full force of the blow makes a split that goes all the way down the vulnerable bark to the block, knowing if you miss the wood then the axe will be heading for the ground. And to chop at the longest side, giving the split the chance to extend in as far as possible through the middle of the wood, undermining its inner defences.

There's also dealing with huge sections of slightly damp, sappish wood which require an almost Zen moment. You can't play about chopping away at the periphery of such wood. Your muscles will get tired and you'll make a fatal mistake: hit the wood too far off centre and most of it will stay on the block, turning the axe-head to one side while an edge shears off with the axe heading straight for one of your feet. Hit a damp heart of the tree and the head could even bounce back. So you aim at a point near the middle, because you can still split the wood and overcome the cloying damp if you hit it true with enough force that the inner fibre, from the top of the wood to the base is, all of it, so shocked that it resonates at the some moment overcoming it's molecular bonds; there is no wood left to 'give' and splitting becomes its release. The best way to do that is to picture the force from your arms flowing through the swing, through the metal right through the wood to the ground; to breath in, aim at the earth itself, to let all your worries about the axe being turned turn to dust in the air, to think of nothing else but the sky and the birdsong, to relax, breath out and let go...

The huge trunk splits in two with a sigh.

And afterwards you feel light, like you've done nothing. Like you could chop for days.

But the chopping area's becoming more and more scraggy. The wood has to be at the front of the house under the roof edge 'cos the lorry can only dump it there and it's asking a lot for me to have to carry up to 1 x 1 1 x 2 x 2ft lumps of hardwood all around the back. At the edge of the house I've got two larger pieces of wood which are my chopping block. But it's where I stand in the front garden to chop looks all scraggy. I'm wearing away the grass, making the soil uneven by chopping when it's muddy or standing on bits of wood when it's icy and the area is filling up with wood chips which make it look rubbishy when visitors come. I'm also not too sure how I'm going to cut the grass there now there are chips all over.

So how can I improve the way it looks? I can't stand on paving or bricks because with the best will in the world, occasionally the axe-head hits the ground and would get damaged.

 

MIL bought wood burner and central heating off it, very cosy and warm
The problem was sourcing wood
The wood delivered outfit it was dearer than Coal
Other wood delivered was "green" which you are not supposed to use, but we did
and suffered the conequences, ie Glass front now thick with carbon so you can not see the flame and worse still, the Flue blocked with gunge, which cost even more to have cleaned
All water under the bridge now as one year after purchase she crossed the bar, house sold, and the new owner ditched the wood burner in the Skip

I really do miss a real fire though

Aunty after many years change her kitchen to Gas, the kind man took the four year old AGA away for free :-)

Jack McH

 

For me, wood burning stoves, with all that paraphenalia that goes with them, is a bit like cuddling a wee babbie. Lovely to see and hold until it starts demanding attention at one end or another.
Then, being able to pass back.....
Jenny

 

Spend more time sharping the axe, the sharper it is the easyer in cuts the wood

 

I agree with JWK, bark or wood chips would keep the area looking less messy, with the added advantage that all the debris from your chopping activities would simply blend in.

Like you Shiney, for me this thread brings back many memories of chopping firewood from my younger days.

As a teenager, I loved the challenge presented by a large, knotty piece of oak or elm. These were capable of absorbing some serious axe blows before even a hint of a crack appeared.
If a piece of wood was proving particularly stubborn, the axe would be put to one side and the heavy artillery would come out, in the form of large iron wedges and a sledgehammer. This was usually enough to split asunder even the most recalcitrant chunk of timber.

All this mighty wielding of axes and sledgehammers also had the added benefit of providing a productive outlet for all that teenage anger and stroppiness.

Then of course, there would sometimes be a log which, while appearing to be solid from the outside, would in fact be quite rotten in the middle. As the axe came into contact with the wood, it would sink effortlessly and unexpectedly through the rotten wood, to make bone jarring contact with the chopping block below.

My dad always said you got three 'warms' with firewood: first when sawing the logs (always done with a bow saw), second when chopping up the logs, and of course thirdly when they were burnt.

Ah, such fond memories...

 

Skip? Well, that's a great shame. None of the problems you outline are without an easy solution, and we've only just got ours so we've not been able to dry the wood ourselves. Two years is apparently a good drying time length, three is better. Chop in the spring so it's got half a year to dry out before you use it is one way. By drying out, it means to dry the resins inside; rainwater's not such a problem. And the chopped wood is bought inside three days in advance of burning it. We put tomorrow's chopped wood on top of the stove so it can dry out even more.

Did she use hardwood or softwood? It's the softwood resins that really block up the flue. As for cleaning the glass front, the resins do that but it only takes me a minute to get it off by scaping it with a razor blade. Once we've worked out how much we use I'll get two or three years worth so the resins dry out and we should get no grunge.

Sounds like the gas man got a good deal.

 

Tsche! Chopping and fire setting are two of the great pleasures of life. Just like having a babba!

 

Why not just put some heavy duty rubber matting down while you are chopping the wood, or even a couple of layers of old carpet. You can then just put it away again afterwards.

As for firewood, you can't beat cutting and stacking firewood.

 

My axe is not a philosophy, it is poetry.
5lbs and 14 inches, it does not propose, it simply persuades.
It does not argue.


It simply sings its own song.

 

I should have added that this was the mess that greated me when I took this garden on, and it was the driving force behind making log stacks look neat.


From the above to this.

 

I'll be careful of the scary thing!

Yes, I'm edging towards putting a plank edge around the area as a start at least to help define what's mowed and what's not. Good point about wandering chips: so the planks should stand a few inches above the surface. No need to put chips down: they're flying there as it is and I guess I could suppliment with straw in the interim.

But chips can be slick in the wet so I'll still need something to brace my feet against when it's wet through. And it's still in the front garden - the planks will tilt... I feel I need something to make it prettier.

I'm sorry I can't show photos of the area yet but my internet connection is too poor to upload my pics at the mo'.

 

You are a perfectionist indeed Eddie - even when it comes to storing wood,
Jenny