Iris is crying again. She drops thick tears onto the ground and I let our a sigh. I thought I’d managed to cheer her up but I guess I have to try again. Iris is our pneumatic log splitter that has had a small leak for a while now which means viscous pneumatic oil drips, creating a small pool on the wood store floor.. She still does a good job and can be relied on to put in a shift all afternoon.

As the clocks go back and the chill comes off the sea, log splitting becomes increasingly important. A good stock of dry logs is essential. The fires in the lounge rooms heat the immersion tanks in the attics, so, if you want a hot shower in the morning you have to have a decent fire the previous evening. 

Being fairly new here, I’m still learning how to rotate the logs so that the oldest are being used first. We are running low at the moment because nobody has got a chainsaw license but there are a few people coming soon that have. We are also booked in for a training next month so that should solve that issue. A huge ‘THANK YOU’ to Glen, former member and neighbour, for giving his spare time so generously and keeping us topped up with logs.