Axe - an important piece of kit.

An axe, why so usefull? Well there have been a few posts about wood on this blog over the past 18 months, deliveries, cost, type etc but what happens after its all stacked outside and your ready to light the fire?

Last year we bought Olive in smaller peices, with a big stove it didnt last as long as the previous years lorry full of big Almond so this year we bought Almond again and some of it is huge. We are lucky in the fact that we can nip up to the wood and get pine which is easier to get a fire going but even with that a 5kg lump of fresh almond holding moisture takes time to get a hold, sometimes the fire even goes out.



So an axe it was, there are various types available, Ferosan in Huescar is where we bought ours - 26 euros for the biggest and heaviest, you can also pick up a good axe in Galera but they are 38e +

It makes life easier splitting the big rounds because once this is done you can set about the smaller peices with a hand axe to chop up a bundle of kindling. When its wet we tie the smaller sticks into bundles with string and leave them by the fire all night so its easier to light the next day with drier wood.

When the wood is delivered we sort out the rounds that can be split and stack them in a different place to the oddities - a good percentage cant be split due to shape and knots. Its a far cry from the north east of England where outside my 3 bed semi we had a wheelie bin and recycle boxes, now its a stacked pile of deep orange coloured almond wood outside the door (a nice winter feature I think) its a shame some of it has to be burned, its nice wood....but we must keep warm.