I was so pleased with myself yesterday. I finished the UK tax form and my friend Ann popped it in the post box on her way home. But what should arrive in the post today but my French tax form. This has to be in by March so I’d better get cracking on it.
Very little got done today, last night was ‘one of those nights’. Although physically tired from shifting the straw my brain was all over the place. Eventually I got up a bit before 2 am and decided to put together a budget spreadsheet for this year before finally getting to sleep at a little past 5am.
I’d been reading a thread on MoneySavingExpert.com where a group of people are aiming to live on £4000 for the year. The £4000 is for things you have control over so something like your council tax isn’t included in the target but things you can cut down on are. I think it will be a very interesting shop smarter thread, but it got me thinking that despite being here for nearly a year I have no real idea of my outgoings, hence the spreadsheet.
I spent a couple of hours round at Ann’s while we talked about budget figures I had no idea about; I still haven’t had the equivalent of the council tax bill as it was paid by the vendors last year. She also tried contacting a nurseryman who is reasonably local and sells oak saplings with the truffle fungus. Sadly he wasn’t at home but hopefully he will telephone back some time. I spent a little time on the Internet last night looking at coppice planting. The consensus I came up with is that a planting distance of 2 meters is sufficient which means 100 trees per 20 metre square (roughly 1/10 of an acre). My current planting plan is:-
| Q | Qt | Q | Q | Qt | Qt | Q | Q | Qt | Q |
| Q | = Oak |
| Quercus |
| 18 |
| Q | CA | CA | CA | CA | CA | CA | CA | CA | Q |
| Qt | = Truffle Oak |
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| 10 |
| Qt | CO | F | F | F | CO | F | F | F | Qt |
| CA | = Chestnut |
| Castanea sativa | 8 |
| Q | CO | F | F | F | CO | F | F | F | Q |
| CO | = Hazel |
| Corylus avellana | 20 |
| Q | F | F | CO | CO | F | F | CO | CO | Q |
| F | = Ash |
| Fraxinus excelsior | 44 |
| Qt | F | F | CO | CO | F | F | CO | CO | Qt |
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| 100 |
| Q | CO | F | F | F | CO | F | F | F | Q |
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| Q | CO | F | F | F | CO | F | F | F | Q |
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| Qt | F | F | CO | F | F | F | F | CO | Qt |
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| Q | F | F | CO | F | F | F | F | CO | Q |
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| 20 m |
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I think could plant 200 trees this year if I get on with it and that would give me the start of two stands and I can build modularly over the next few years. With a planting distance of 2 metres I think I will need far less space overall than I first planned but I need to keep researching that. The mix is to give a predominance of burning wood, Ash, with all but 2 of the sweet chestnuts per block coppiced to give fencing posts. The un-coppiced ones will provide bigger timber and nuts while the hazel can be used both for burning and for making hurdles etc. I’m hoping that my willow cutting takes as well, I will be coppicing that too so that I can make frames for beans, sweet peas and the like in the garden.
The Firewood Rhyme
Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year
Chestnut only good they say
If for long it's laid away
Make a fire of elder tree
Death within your house will be
But ash new or ash old
Is fit for a Queen with a crown of gold
Birch and Fir logs burn too fast
Blaze up bright and do not last
It is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread
Elmwood burns like churchyard mould
Even the very flames are cold
But ash green or ash brown
Is fit for a Queen with a golden crown
Poplar gives a bitter smoke
Fills your eyes and makes you choke
Apple wood will scent your room
With an incense-like perfume
Oaken logs, if dry and old
Keep away the winters cold
But ash wet or ash dry
A king shall warm his slippers by.
