Fun in the snow?

My arse.
Spent all morning shovelling 12" of snow to get the Seat for an MOT.
Nearly back up the lane when I had to stop for a trudging ped'.
Another half and hour of shovelling to get some traction.
Finally get it back home.
Then the bloody cherry tree had fallen over and taken out the back
fence.
Spent till now chopping the thing up so that's 2012's firewood taken
care of. Just need to fix the bloody fence now.

The XT's tyres are shite in snow anyway....

 

@martem.demon.co.uk:

Don't bank on it. Cherry wood, like most prunus, is hopeless as firewood,
even well seasoned. It burns in a stove with some help from coal or
apple/ash to get the temperature up, but won't get going on its own.

 

Have you actually tried?

 

I'd have turned out and taken it away - I've always got space for some
nice big lumps of attractive wood in the seasoning bunker. Then I'd
make something nice out of it in a couple of years.

 

yes - see reply to Pip

 

the trunk of the cherry tree we fell was about 3ft diameter at the base
and a nice straight jobby. We fell it, dad on the saw me on the Fergie
T20 pulling it away from the house. Trunk cut into 2x 12ft lengths which
we sold for a nominal fee to some hippy artisans who replied to the ad
in the Hereford Times.

What was left was made into logs. Waste of time really. They were
useless on the lounge open fire, just charring and going out. On the
Rayburn they burnt but only if you had a good fire going already with
some coal or apple/ash logs.

 

I've had no bother with it at all. We do tend to start the log burner of
anthracite and then chuck the wood on though.
It seems to burn nice and hot too.

 

Oi'd 'ave 'ad yer arm off fer that, maister.

 

At the same time we were thinning out a woodland that had been let go for
30 years. Mostly ash & sycamore from there. Loads of dead elms from the
hedgerows & unproductive apple & pear trees from the neglected orchard. So,
we were spoilt for choice for the first decade and the cherry was slow to
be used up: mum wouldn't put it in the log basket and moaned at me if I put
more than a couple of the logs in the basket (I was still in school and so
fetched most of the logs into the house as one of my chores).

 

I see. With that much wood to hand I don't suppose you were going to buy
any fossil fuel. So I guess you were splitting logs for kindling then?
Hence the lack of enthusiasm for any cherry...

 

smaller branches used for kindling - dad & I dealt with the big stuff using
a chainsaw & axe. Mum did the kindling using a bow saw or lopper. She was
also in charge of the fires: she'd put Packer to shame...

 

I went over to Cheltenham to get a present for aged parent at 4:30. I didn't
get home until 7:30. Two and a half bleeding hours to get out of Cheltenham.
Gridlock everywhere, not aided by a complete absence of gritting lorries.
Not a one has passed since this morning. To add insult to injury some
pillock of a copper was driving round and round, not actually doing
anything, mind you, just driving round with his blue lights flashing.

 

We used to spend many hours building up a stash of logs for the winter. It
didn't take very long after my dad snuffed it for mum to decide she didn't
want the faff of solid fuel. She cashed in the "buy to let" cottage and had
oil fired central heating installed. Hence my chainsaw becoming the UKRM
tart...

 

The question I have to ask is this:

If you know it's going to be utter fucking chaos on the roads, why
venture out in a car *at all*?

I took the bike because I knew the pavements were ice rinks, the buses
weren't running and the roads would be gridlocked. Check, check, check.

OK, so I never got in a gear higher than second, but I got into town,
did my shopping, and got home, and the same bloody people were still
waiting at the bus stop I'd passed an hour previously.

There's a lovely poster campaign right now, advertising I-forget-what:

"You aren't stuck in traffic. You are traffic."

 

I was meant to be going up to Manchester with K for the weekend this
morning.

Checked out the traffic cameras on the M5 / M6 and decided it really
wasn't a good idea.

Managed to cancel the hotel (had booked a room at the Portland as a
treat), but lost 75 quid on a pair of gig tickets for James at the
M.E.N.

Gutted, not at the loss of money, but because there's something magical
about James playing Manchester in the winter - my first ever gig was 20
years ago this month, which was also James in Manchester.

 

<Curious>

Got a url for this? And other motorways, come to that? Didn't know you
could do that.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/travelnews

 

Doh. Should have thought of that. Ta.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, The Older

http://www.trafficengland.com/motorwayflow.aspx?ct=true#mtf

Select the motorway, click on a junction, select "Traffic Cameras On"
and you can see the image from any of the cameras on the network.

Very, very handy.

 

wrote in :

Sophia Gdns, Cardiff, Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon tour, 1973/74
academic year, aged 11