In our new house we have opted for two lovely multi fuel stoves as part of our heating system and this last time we visited it was time to stock up on fuel.
After talking to local friends and neighbours hubby had tracked down the man to supply it and had ordered half a lorry load of wood and half a lorry load of turf (peat).
"Peat is commonly known by the Irish as 'turf' and has been harvested for centuries by a method known as 'cutting.' Peat has been an invaluable source of heat and energy throughout history in Ireland. It was found to be a useful alternative to firewood for cooking and heating throughout Ireland and other parts of the European continent. Harvested from the bogs scattered throughout the Irish landscape, peat forms over time from decaying vegetation"(Irishfirelogs.com)
Given that we didn't know how big the lorry was so didn't really have an idea how much fuel we would be expecting!
Luckily on the day it arrived I was there and my parents were also over visiting us too.
First the wood arrived and was dumped by the garage and the man kindly and probably quite wisely said "I won't come straight back with the turf".
We started a chain of log throwing from pile to garage and in no time at all (probably an hour or two) we had piled the logs neatly in the garage and so we rang the man to come back with the turf.
I had seen turf before but when its delivered in such a large volume it is quite daunting. We set about moving it but it seemed to take ages to feel like we were making any sort of progress.
Finally it was all stacked neatly with the logs in the garage. One project for next year is to build a proper wood/turf store at the side of the garage so that it can be covered but also get sufficient air to it to dry it out for burning.
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| Even Maisie dog is in in awe of the fuel mountain |
It was very nice to sit down in front of a real fire that evening
