Logs to burn.

How I love an open fire, I no longer have one but in the past I would have found this useful to know what to burn!

I have to agree with all that, d. We mostly heat with a woodburning stove now. This is more efficient than the open fire but we occaisionally light one in the dining room.
I see that my neighbour had a load of logs delivered this afternoon. He is home all day whilst she goes out to work. When she came home he pointed out the pile of logs in the field behind the fence then jumped in the car and went off. She is now in the field throwing the logs over the fence! Cute, or am missing a trick here?

hes a cheeky one then!!
My in laws have an open fire I always seem to doze off when watching it.
would love one also

xx x

I too love the open fires and have had them for years until I moved to this house though I must say I am not so far missing all the work they create.

So a log isn't just a log then. - interesting.

We have a woodburning stove too, but it doesnt heat the water or anything, which means we only light it for a 'treat', It brings out the caveman in hubby, he takes great pleasure in stocking the garage full of logs. No idea what tree they're from though.

Our woodburner doesn't heat water because of the difficult layout of the house. However, it does provide 'central' heating because it s in the sitting room with the bedroom to one side and kitchen area to the other. It will now be burning for most of the winter.

Lovely - nothing nicer. Do you find you have to open the sitting room door sometimes because it gets too hot in the room?

Our house is one that has 'grown' in all sorts of directions. We do not normally have the doors closed except in severe cold weather but if we did, it would definitely get much too warm.

For 30+ years I had three open fires a day and must have shoveled a few tons of coal in my time...LOL
So - now I am on my own I am more than happy to flip a switch!! However - there is absolutely no way I would ever do away with the ability to have open fires ...I adore them...but didn't know all that about logs....I just burn what comes my way and always keep a "log pile" at the ready. Usually friends who have fallen trees remember me...;..)))

We lost an ash, 2 oaks and 3 silver birch (oaks about 70-100 years old) in the hurricane we had no shortage of villagers offering help with chainsaws for the logs. As you say Alzheimer fires are still very popular.

Yes indeed and these new stoves that burn wood pellets are fantastic and pay for themselves in a very short time I hear....and are SO easy to clean and stoke.
I was tempted I must say as we have an agent very close...but as my house is over 150 years old - the re-routing of the pipes to take advantage of heating the water too - would mean a monumental upheaval!! I am too long in the tooth to do it I fear!! I will just continue to enjoy the occasional open fire treat - or - when the lights go out as they well might today - we have such a gale blowing..the lights have been flickering already....I had better go and get the old paraffin lamps at the ready!

That sounds cosy but I suppose the novelty wears off when the fridge warms up?

Spot on Drc !!! I am all electric too...as I am allergic to gas fumes ....so not much hot grub around either....eeek!
Fingers crossed the power holds...at least until I get a plate of broth down me!

Can be miserable do you fill your thermos with soup?

Good idea Drc... thanks - I had forgotten about that as we haven't had such a bad day for ages....plenty flasks in the pantry...on my way!!

I just love my open fire burn logs but mostly "turf"nothing comes near the smell of it am sitting now at fire with rain lashing against window Magicial.......:~))))

Do you cut your own turf (peats) Mobee. We used to, years ago, but there are no productive mosses near us now.

Peat turf was used a lot for fires at one time, what turf do you use Mobee is it your own didnt know it smelt nice though?

"Peat reek"...Mobee..... I AM jealous... there is nothing quite like it is there. Particularly on a horrid night like this....with a glass of the "Critter" at your elbow...not mine - I'm TT :<<((
We used to use peat a lot but are frowned on for doing so. We even dug our own on a friend's moor and it gave you twice the heat that way!!!! Grand stuff indeed LOL

Great walking home through the village from the bar on a driech winters night and the smell of burning peats is just hanging in the air. Unfortunately more of a memory now, Alzheimer.

I know what you mean...I remember it well. Not everybody liked the smell mind you!!! I loved it ...but the ash was dreadfully fine and if there was a back draught in the chimney - OMG what a mess it made!! Memories are made of such...eh!!

Very interesting, last time i had a open fire was when i was small living with mum & dad and thats a lot of years ago.

Clarice did your mums legs go mottled where she sat to near?

Yes thinking about them they did, also my older sisters use to stand at front of fire with their backs to it, dresses pulled up to keep warm when i use to coppy got told off, because i might get burnt.

Well it was very cold away from the fire.

True abit like gasfires sit at front of them and your warm at front and cold at the back of you.

Lovely blog! I DO miss my fire!

Drc, Alzheimer , Bulbaholic, few years back my sister&hubby owned "turf field"she used to bring me bags of it not so much now as she lives in Co. Antrim i buy it locally as here in N.Ireland it is plentiful. So true Bulbaholic nothing like comming in on a winters nite and turf fire blazing, and yes Alzheimer gives out some heat pity you all didn`t live closer i would give you all some Lol (those withopen fires).The smell is great Drc pity there isn`t laptop smelly vision Lol :~))))

Stop it! You're making me jealous!

Sorry Mad Lol Have you no wee fire at all?

Nope! I'm in a wee cottage, but its in town, in a smoke-free zone!

I dont Madperth our previous house had solid fuel central heating I hated the mess and if it had been off took a while to get the house and water warm again so we switched to oil. This village has gas which is the easiest of all.

It WAS hard to heat my wee cottage, which ONLY had fires, but I loved it! Collecting the firewood was a pain at times though!