Chopping Area - how to make it look better.

Discussion in 'Gardening Discussions' started by Cacadores, Feb 10, 2013.

  1. Cacadores

    Cacadores ember

    Joined:
    Jul 29, 2012
    Messages:
    319
    Ratings:
    +250
    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.
     
  2. Jack McHammocklashing

    Jack McHammocklashing Sludgemariner

    Joined:
    May 29, 2011
    Messages:
    4,392
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Ex Civil Serpent
    Location:
    Fife Scotland
    Ratings:
    +7,278
    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
     
  3. Jenny namaste

    Jenny namaste Total Gardener

    Joined:
    Mar 11, 2012
    Messages:
    18,324
    Gender:
    Female
    Occupation:
    retired- blissfully retired......
    Location:
    Battle, East Sussex
    Ratings:
    +31,022
    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.....:doggieshmooze:
    Jenny
     
    • Like Like x 1
    • Jiffy

      Jiffy The Match is on Fire

      Joined:
      Aug 25, 2011
      Messages:
      11,168
      Occupation:
      Pyro
      Location:
      Retired Next To The Bonfire in UK
      Ratings:
      +31,466
      Spend more time sharping the axe, the sharper it is the easyer in cuts the wood
       
    • JWK

      JWK Gardener Staff Member

      Joined:
      Jun 3, 2008
      Messages:
      30,685
      Gender:
      Male
      Location:
      Surrey
      Ratings:
      +45,635
      Perhaps you could get rid of the grass in that area, skim it off and put down bark chippings. You might have to edge it to prevent them wandering. Maybe make it look rustic with a wooden shelter overhead too. It's difficult to envisage without knowing what your area looks like or how big it is.

      Wood can look quite decorative when nicely stacked, I tried searching for @EddieJ's threads showing lovely wood piles, look past the scary thing :)

      http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/putting-the-extra-effort-in-for-xmas.48794/
       
      • Agree Agree x 1
      • shiney

        shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

        Joined:
        Jul 3, 2006
        Messages:
        61,000
        Gender:
        Male
        Occupation:
        Retired - Last Century!!!
        Location:
        Herts/Essex border. Zone 8b
        Ratings:
        +117,298
        Chopping wood for the fire takes me back over 60 years! Dad had a large chopping block, which sat on the ground alongside where he stacked the wood, and was 3ft long, 2ft wide and 3ft high. This was at the back of the house on the concrete by the house wall. We were in a terraced house so all the logs had to be brought through the house.

        My job was to sweep up after him and bring wood in when needed. I was very pleased when he stopped using so much wood and started using coal. :blue thumb:

        There's no need for you to feel sorry for me that I don't have a wood burner :heehee:. We have central heating and all the house is nice and warm all the time. We not only don't have dull lives but we have more time to enjoy all the exciting things we do :snork:.

        When we moved in here we used to have a fire where we burned logs. Now we don't have to lug the logs around, chop them, stack them, carry them indoors during all kinds of weather (except during the times when it's hot and just the right time for going in and out of the house :heehee:), get the fire lit, clear out the ash etc and not have to worry about the mess that is being made of the ground! :roflol:
         
      • Trunky

        Trunky ...who nose about gardening

        Joined:
        Apr 23, 2011
        Messages:
        2,926
        Gender:
        Male
        Occupation:
        Professional Gardener (retired)
        Location:
        East Suffolk
        Ratings:
        +10,739
        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. :blue thumb:

        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. :whistle:

        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. :yikes:

        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...
         
      • Cacadores

        Cacadores ember

        Joined:
        Jul 29, 2012
        Messages:
        319
        Ratings:
        +250
        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.
         
      • Cacadores

        Cacadores ember

        Joined:
        Jul 29, 2012
        Messages:
        319
        Ratings:
        +250
        Tsche! Chopping and fire setting are two of the great pleasures of life. Just like having a babba!
         
      • shiney

        shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

        Joined:
        Jul 3, 2006
        Messages:
        61,000
        Gender:
        Male
        Occupation:
        Retired - Last Century!!!
        Location:
        Herts/Essex border. Zone 8b
        Ratings:
        +117,298
        Chopping, carrying and bending to make the fire are things I'm happy to do without, nowadays :old: :heehee:
         
        • Funny Funny x 1
        • EddieJ

          EddieJ gardener & Sculptor

          Joined:
          Feb 21, 2010
          Messages:
          666
          Gender:
          Male
          Occupation:
          Oak timber framer
          Ratings:
          +1,089
          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. :blue thumb:

          [​IMG]
          [​IMG]
          [​IMG]
          [​IMG]
           
          • Like Like x 6
          • Cacadores

            Cacadores ember

            Joined:
            Jul 29, 2012
            Messages:
            319
            Ratings:
            +250
            My axe is not a philosophy, it is poetry.
            5lbs and 14 inches, it does not propose, it simply persuades.
            It does not argue.

            [​IMG]
            It simply sings its own song.
             
            • Like Like x 1
            • EddieJ

              EddieJ gardener & Sculptor

              Joined:
              Feb 21, 2010
              Messages:
              666
              Gender:
              Male
              Occupation:
              Oak timber framer
              Ratings:
              +1,089
              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. :)

              [​IMG]
              From the above to this.

              [​IMG]

              [​IMG]

              [​IMG]

              [​IMG]
               
              • Like Like x 2
              • Cacadores

                Cacadores ember

                Joined:
                Jul 29, 2012
                Messages:
                319
                Ratings:
                +250
                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'.
                 
              • Jenny namaste

                Jenny namaste Total Gardener

                Joined:
                Mar 11, 2012
                Messages:
                18,324
                Gender:
                Female
                Occupation:
                retired- blissfully retired......
                Location:
                Battle, East Sussex
                Ratings:
                +31,022
                You are a perfectionist indeed Eddie - even when it comes to storing wood,
                Jenny
                 
                • Like Like x 1
                Loading...

                Share This Page

                1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
                  By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
                  Dismiss Notice