My woodburning stove had its annual maintenance this morning and my chimney was swept at the same time.
This is a little earlier than last year as Mark* said last time he was less busy in August and gets very busy afterwards.
He could tell from my soot that I had been burning dry wood.
He knows from the messy soot stuck to his brushes when people have been burning wet wood. They always deny it! Other people use their fires as an incinerator and burn all sorts of things on it. They often try to burn dog or cat hair, but this doesn't burn easily, so that is brought down all sooty by the brush.
Every time I am arranging for my logs to be delivered I have wondered whether coppicing and pollarding is increasing to keep up with demand as more and more people get wood burning stoves. Mark says we could become like Germany where wood is becoming scarce and expensive.
On Wednesday coming back from kayaking I passed a skip up the road with a large piece of wood in it that looked clean and brought it home, but it wasn't until I saw it properly in the morning that I could see that it didn't have the greenish tinge that showed it had had wood preservative put on it. It should be 2 evening's burning once I've sawn it up.
*Mark Killick 07914 041813 (lives in Enfield)
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