11781 Things you need to know about Wood

Gianda,

That's interesting, thank you. As you are obviously 'in the know' about Lunigiana, can you tell me what a 'circola' is please? Is it where classes are held? We have one down the road from us but I have never quite known what it is.

We had been talking about wood yesterday as there is a lot being cut at the moment. Our neighbours will cur their own I am sure apart from thse who are not able to because of age etc but will they all have their own land or is there such a thing as 'common land'? We saw some reference to Consorzio Bonifica Montana and wondered if this was a sort of cooperative?.

Sorry to bombard you with questions.

Not true -every day I learn that there is more to know than have time left to learn it.:yes:

Re Circolo check this thread [URL]http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/food-drink/11728-community-bars.html[/URL] it may that yours runs classes.

Like I said, wood is currency if you spend the winters here. This winter in particular has been wet, so the stufa and wood-stack has taken a hammering. When we bought 5 years + ago I had no idea of the importance of owning a piece of bosco (which sadly we don't) or of have having easy to access cantina type storage.

There will be areas of communale land around you where you could go and either collect fallen trees or even fell green wood for future years. Check it out with a local or you may end up with a detonator in your stufa:bigergrin: And if you do fell trees, make sure you cut low to the ground or you (alledgedly) can be fined by the Corpo Forrestale or Comunita Montana della Lunigiana or some other fine body of men, for leaving a casino behind you.

Julie, check with the locals before touching anything that may be on communale land. They have their own rules and there are some people who distribute fruit or wood from these lands amongst the neighbours. I remember that we were given some beautiful cherries by these people while we were renting a house in Boveglio. They told us to eat them as it was the share for the house we were occupying and that there was no way for the owners to get them.
As for "circoli", these can cover a variety of activities, both leisure and cultural ones, so it is a wise idea to check what they do.
Also check with local council and the parish church as they also run classes in some places.

1. It is illegal to fell tress, even your own, after the end of March

But when to start felling again???

I have just spent the morning stacking wood. We had our own version of the Texas chain saw massacre earlier this month and since then it has snowed or rained almost continuously.

Anyway we got a nice pile all stacked pretty and were dealing with the next load when we heard a huge rumbling sound and round the corner of the house came one of the dogs with a nice stick in it’s mouth. She had managed to loose the game and had pulled out the one stick, which was obviously holding up the entire stack!

The Italians round here make their wood stacks look like modern art, but no matter how much care we put in ours just looks like a pile of sticks.

We have so much wood that it should last us next winter, which will be quite a saving on fuel bills.

The wood we have is larch, apple, plum, sycamore, olive and fig. I know some of it is not ‘good’ wood but we will be burning it on an open fire so it won’t be a problem.

Does anyone have the statistics of how many Italians are buried under wood piles every spring?

[quote=julielunigiana;112174]Gianda,

That's interesting, thank you. As you are obviously 'in the know' about Lunigiana, can you tell me what a 'circola' is please? Is it where classes are held? We have one down the road from us but I have never quite known what it is.

We had been talking about wood yesterday as there is a lot being cut at the moment. Our neighbours will cur their own I am sure apart from thse who are not able to because of age etc but will they all have their own land or is there such a thing as 'common land'? We saw some reference to Consorzio Bonifica Montana and wondered if this was a sort of cooperative?.

Sorry to bombard you with questions.[/quote]
all those people either have their own bit of wood OR are doing it for someone who has a bit of wood who doesn't or can't cut it,they're paid in the wood they cut of course,or have bought/rented rights to woodcutting on a piece of land.there is no common land as such although depending on where you live sometimes it possible to get rights to cut roadside wood or riverside wood this is ultra controlled, of course.wood cutting is extremely controlled anyway and you have to get formal permission to do so from the forestale (police) who want to see you're right of ownership to the land where you want to cut,often they visit beforehand to indicate trees they don't want you to cut down,those you must cut down etc they may also come during and/or after the cutting if you've left "high stumps" you can be heavily fined,if you haven't cleaned up properly idem,if after a certain period you haven't shifted the wood away idem.if you cut down any trees they particularly like or whatever,idemcouple of years ago i was fined for an oak tree 1.200 euro but at least it ended there.if you feel up to the very hard work it's not too difficult to find a piece of bosco to buy ,but ensure that it is not classed as alto fusto,otherwise they won't let you cut anything on it,so check the quality of the wood/trees beforehand not forgetting you'll have to get the wood out too some places are really impervious ie you can'tget a vehicle near enough to get the stuff out.if all this sounds too much these days wood of mediocre to reasonable quality is sold fairly cheaply at around euro 11-12 x quintale from shops/woodyards etc.

Stacking wood is an artform in Italy - here's a few things to remember when stacking.

1. Orient the stacks so that end grain (think cut ends) are facing the wind crosswise to help draw moisture out of the firewood. Leave spaces between rows for good airflow.

2. Splitting size plays a role in the speed at which the firewood will dry. Large pieces will not dry out as quickly as smaller pieces, remember this will vary depending on species and when harvested.

3. Keep it off the ground or at least put starter pieces bark down to help protect against ground moisture.

4. Use lots of salt and pepper - the more seasoned your wood is - the better it will burn! :bigergrin:

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Not cutting wood after early spring may be against the law but it also makes sense. You need to cut the wood before the sap starts to rise otherwise it will take longer to dry. In our area of Lunigiana they are out with their chainsaws throughout March and early April felling the trees, then they cut them into more managable lengths and lop off all the brash and then through the summer come and collect it in for storage for the winter. You do not see much activity during the winter - they are all sitting by their stufas keeping nice and warm :laughs: [/FONT]

Thanks for all the information re wood collection etc. We don't have any land but I wasn't planning to go and cut some down, just wondered how it was all organised. I usually manage to find someone(with a bit of a struggle sometimes) who has some wood for sale and we have plenty of room for storage. My wood pile it not like an italian one either no matter how carefully I try to stack it! Sebastiano's advice re buying a piece of woodland was worth knowing, quite an art all this..... We burn wood in the Uk too and you may be interested to know tha this is catching on- my usual source of wood in the UK had run out early on as the English try to keep their central heating off and go back to sitting by the fire!

Thanks also for information re Circolos.

[CENTER]Most people stack their wood like this
[attach]2514[/attach]

How neat is this?
[attach]2516[/attach]

Pretty as a picture.
[attach]2517[/attach]

And this - is how I stack mine! :bigergrin:
[attach]2515[/attach][/CENTER]

Can you come and stack mine?:bigergrin:

[quote=juliancoll;112234][CENTER]Most people stack their wood like this[/CENTER]

[CENTER][attach]2514[/attach][/CENTER]

[CENTER]How neat is this?
[attach]2516[/attach][/CENTER]

[CENTER]Pretty as a picture.
[attach]2517[/attach][/CENTER]

[CENTER]And this - is how I stack mine! :bigergrin:[/CENTER]

[CENTER][attach]2515[/attach][/CENTER]
[/quote]

Great fotos, but all looking a bit "Trentino Alto Adige" for my liking. :bigergrin:

My first wood stack fell over just after Francesco (a vicino) wandered past and told me it was rubbish. My second woodstack fell over just after Lino (a vicino) wandered past and told me that was not the way to do it.

Nearly 4 years on, and my stacks are built to survive gales and eartquakes and have graduated to receiving sage nods and even praise as the neighbours (now friends) amble past. Just another rite of passage really, transfer of knowledge and pride.

Still prefer picking Olives and having a glass in the circolo after though:yes:

[quote=Ghianda;112239]. Just another rite of passage really, transfer of knowledge and pride.[/quote]

And aint that just exactly the way it's supposed to be! Well done Gander on sorting out yer piles! :bigergrin:

This thread is very timely because when we were in Italy a few weeks ago, a neighbour pointed out that someone had been cutting down wood from our bosco. He took us up to a section of our land and showed us where the wood had been cut and then showed us where it had been stacked for drying (unfortunately not as artistically as above).

We were only on a flying visit and had other problems to attend to so didn't say anything about it, but I'd love some advice about what to do. We have a fair amount of land and not that much has been cut, but I am worried that if we do nothing people will think that it is something thay can freely do.

I wonder whether I should have gone to see the neighbours and done a kind of mezzadria deal with them. After all, they have the saws and we have the wood.

It's raining hard, or I'd be out there "doing" it, not sat on the sofa "posting" about it.

IMO certainly chat to neighbours and ask for their input/advice. The info you get will help shape your response. Theft is theft and you should do something. I,m not suggesting the use of detonators, but to do nothing, risks sending a message that you are a soft touch. If you can hit a win:win with a local that would be brilliant and could add to your bella figura.

Hopefully Sebastiano may also be able to steer you too.

Well all I can say is thank goodness I had my my 5 overgrown trees whipped down last year before the new law comes in. :smile:

Thing is though, the guy that whipped them down whipped all the wood as well!!!!! :eeeek::bigergrin:

Here are my musings on wood.

Out here, in my part of Italy, they use their trees as a resource and prune them heavily. I am not used to doing this so my trees got quite out of hand.

This year our Italian neighbour has helped us.

First he has really severely cut back the trees. We had two sycamore trees, which were over 40 foot tall and close enough to the house to block a lot of light.

Then we had a garden full of cut branches. He showed us how to trim off the small branches with a ronchi (local dialect word for a sort of machete) all the small stuff went on to the bonfire *huge, but burnt in stages by another good friend who can be trusted with matches.

All the decent sized branches we then cut into fairly regular lengths with a chain saw.

Then it was all stacked undercover to dry and season ready to keep us warm next winter.

We now have a huge stockpile of wood and aching backs!

The wood is a mixture of fig, cherry, larch, apple, sycamore and olive.

Some of this wood is no good for burning in an enclosed fire but as ours is an open fire it should be OK.

Our views are much improved and there is light getting to plants that have been shaded before, The trees themselves look a bit sad but I have seen the trees in his garden, which thrive and throw out loads of new healthy growth.

February is the month to harvest wood but everyone is a bit late this year because it has been too wet to get on the land.

I reckon we have enough wood from our own trees to keep us in firewood all next winter, which will certainly save on fuel bills. All this wood has come from our garden, which is about 1300m2.

I never thought that I would be learning to live the ‘Good Life’ when I retired out here. Its hard work but very satisfying.

Re land ownership - every bit of scruffy land is owned by someone and even if the trees are falling down, only take wood off your own land!

Nielo

I too have learned to love everything to do with wood and nothing now goes to waste. The machete round here is called a Falcino and it's my favourite tool. i wear it clipped to a belt around my waist behind me. That way you can avoid a lot of bending down and back ache. It's a great tool also for picking up logs, dragging and occasionally embedding into your kneecap. Now that one did hurt:yes: Hurty "man-knee" for days.

Elliven - as to every bit of land being owned, that is not the case around here. All the locals refer to Comunale land and there is also something known as "demaniale" (state owned) which often borders canale, fiume etc. I agree with what you say though about sticking to your own patch.

I have seen tree felling in the National Park, where horses are still used to drag the timber. No way you could get a vehicle in to some places.

I also believe that it is possible to buy the rights to the wood in some areas, but I’m not sure if it is regulated by the Forestale or another body. It is a cheap way of getting wood if you have the proper equipment.

The wood we have is larch, apple, plum, sycamore, olive and fig. I know some of it is not ‘good’ wood but we will be burning it on an open fire so it won’t be a problem.
[/QUOTE]

Fig tree wood - I did cut some branches of a couple of fig trees, let them dry to be used for wood. However, all the fig-wood was attacked by insects, turning the wood into sawdust. Luckily I had not stacked this wood together with my ordinary wood, god knows what would have happened to the fruit of my labour if the insects had gone out of fig tree.

I don't know what kind of insects this was. but I did not dare to take the rest of the fig wood into the house to test if the insects liked furniture and other stuff inside. It all went on a bonfire.

That’s useful to know and as luck would have it the fig wood is at the top of the stack.

The smell from burning the small fig branches was lovely.

My wood is stored in an open room downstairs, where there is no other wood or furnishings and only comes into the house as it is burnt, but I have heard of other people having trouble with woodworm.

I am beginning to understand more and more why elderly Italians are so keen to sell their rural properties and move to a nice apartment with gas central heating!

[quote=Nielo;112358].

I am beginning to understand more and more why elderly Italians are so keen to sell their rural properties and move to a nice apartment with gas central heating![/quote]

I showed an Italian woman round my house whilst it was still in its unconverted state. She raved about how it was just like how her Nonna's house had been. When we came to the one room with a fireplace in it, she declared that she remembered her Nonna always kept her flour and sugar on the mantelpiece. Why? Because it was the only room in the house that wasn't damp.

It's nice we can bring these houses back to life, but I've never liked the romanticising of rural poverty. Life was sh*t compared to now, and it doesn't do to forget it.

That said, I've always thought there's a coffee table book to be made out of photos of Italian wood piles. Or perhaps, JC, it's already been done?

...and don't forget the little baby sticks!

They're not sticks - they are little bundles of joy Percy. I will include them in my new coffee table book to be published shortly. The first 50 copies are free to bonafide subscribers of Italian Woodpile Weekly.

I think you will find the Italian Woodpile Weekly is 'in jeopardy of a closure'.

May I please have a copy of the book anyway, I have a very nice coffee table you know.

I'll do ya a swap - one of your paintings for a years free subscription to Italian Woodpile Weekly.

Oi - you two got a problem with coffee tables?

I had one that kept me awake so I had to change it for a decaffeinated coffee table.:laughs::laughs: