Big J

Your new Prime Minister! 😆

Is it not a case of society wanting to have it's cake and eat it? We all want massive state support in the bad times but aren't prepared to pay the higher taxes required to allow this in the good times. I have no problem with state support, but you just can't have it both ways. It's a given in Sweden that you pay more tax. But equally, everyone I've spoken to about the coming winter (and high electricity prices) just expects that the government will refund the difference back. So you pay it out initially, but get it back again after. How does society see this ending? With just the interest on UK national debt expected to reach £100,000,000,000 (that's £100 billion) this year, is it any wonder that there is nothing left in the pot for essential services? How can the individual be expected to practice financial prudence when so many successive governments have failed so very badly in this regard?

The building companies use their undue and unfair influence on politicians to ensure that they aren't mandated to build anything more than the minimum. They'll claim that there isn't market demand for green technologies, but it's bollocks. They don't offer them, so what choice does the consumer have? The house industry in the UK is something akin to having the technology to build Teslas but offering nothing more than Morris Minors. It's utterly ridiculous. I'll state again - our 1957 house in Sweden (with original, albeit fair sophisticated for the time, windows) uses 10 times less heat per square metre than our 1860s/1930s farm cottage in Devon. And that's despite a Devon winter averaging 9-11c warmer than here. There's a house four doors away that with it's rooftop solar array and extra insulation costs £800 a year to run, combined heat and power. For 210 square metres.

It all comes down to cost and profit for the building companies. 90% plus of all houses built in the UK are built are constructed to the absolute lowest possible standard. Building companies have historically heavily lobbied successive governments to keep building regs to the lowest possible standard. Not only is it ridiculous that all new houses don't have solar panels, but the fact that we're still building homes with only double glazing defies logic. The average garage here in Sweden is better insulated. What we're seeing in the UK now is the consequence of decades of inadequate regulation of the house building industry. We've had the technology for years to build houses that require virtually no heating and yet we still accept the little shitty rabbit hutches that Persimmon and the like throw up and expect us to get excited about. If summers of 40c plus become common place, a great many people are going to suffer horrendously, especially if electricity is so expensive that AC is uneconomical.

A couple of photos from my peat bog forwarding. Almost nothing but blueberries, lingonberries and moss growing on the ground. It's really pretty.

No, we're in the south, but the house doesn't use much electricity and we're on about 14p/kwh at the moment. It'll go up in winter (it reached about 30p/kwh last winter, but it'll be more than that this year) but our house is extremely well insulated, so hoping that with a woodburner too, it'll not be too expensive to heat.

That's absolutely bonkers. Our electricity bill here in Sweden is currently running at about £80/month, and that's with us using the AC too.

Haha! You and your one track mind Wallis! Not sure about the prices as I'm just contracting in on the machine on an hourly basis. I think from memory that the lowest price is for the massaved (wood for paper pulp) which is something like £28/cubic metre roadside. That would I guess translate to about £32/t. I'm not certain what sawlog is going for, but it won't be much more than £50/t. The productivity you can achieve here can be quite good. I pulled 16 loads on a 10hr shift yesterday on a soft peat bog. That's around about 80 cubic metres. The machine is still fairly new to me and that's as much as I ever did in one day on the Vimek in over 1000hrs of operation. All the long lengths certainly help. No fannying around with 2.5m chip. This site is about 50% pine, 35% norway and 15% birch.

I have, yes, though apart from a few jacks, I haven't had anything. It's mainly due to lack of time. Also, it's the sheer choice. Where do I start? There are 59 lakes within 5 miles of the house....

I have swum year round in Scotland, so will do the same here. You don't stay in long when it's 1c in the water, but it's invigorating. I can't skate, but I very much want to learn.

It read 20.7c. That's down a bit from 23 a week or so ago, but we've had a few cooler nights and days where it's only made 22-23c through the day. Should recover a bit by the weekend as we've 31c forecast on Saturday. I'm swimming at first and last light at the moment and it's comfortably warm throughout.

I'm away at work at the moment but my wife took the girls swimming last night down to the beach at the holiday village. It's quite stunning there at sunset. My daughters started school and kindergarten this week and it's gone really well. My older one has made some friends and been to a birthday party. Several kids speak perfect English (aged 7-8) including one who taught herself in a year through YouTube. 3 of the 4 children on her table speak some English. I accompanied my older daughter to school on the first morning but wasn't needed past 11am. Her class has 14 pupils with a teacher and a teaching assistant shared with the other half of the year group.

The forest industry just doesn't have the costs that we have. Grant funding is minimal to non-existent, as far as I'm aware. Birch grows like a weed here, truly. That's what we're picking out of our paths behind the house. It's all mechanically harvestable, and the contractors here are very productive. Birch firewood at roadside is only about £28-30/cubic metre. So raw materials for a split cube if you produce it yourself are about £15. Then, given that it's super straight, it processes easily, and you add £20-30 a cube by running it through a processor. You're only offering collection, so no delivery costs. Everyone has masses of space so storage costs aren't a factor and it's very easy to dry as the climate is extremely hot and dry in summer. I know I could do a couple of cube an hour through a very modest processor without breaking a sweat. £40-60/hr doesn't seem so bad.....

It's largely small woodland owners processing their own timber. It doesn't exist, as far as I'm aware.

Apparently the expected hike in electricity prices in Sweden over winter is causing a boom in stoves being installed. Wood prices are still quite steady and firewood prices are incredibly low compared to the UK, so it's being seen as an economical option for emergency heating. As an example, this local firewood seller is selling mixed timber (pine, spruce, mixed hardwood) at £36/stacked cube and pure birch is £44 (collected). It's not worth me cutting it myself at that price.

Epic thunderstorm here yesterday on the way home from work. You could see it coming in, almost from two directions. The kind of rain followed that reduces your driving to an absolute crawl, lightning flashes every 20 seconds. Awesome. This was this evenings sunset (not my photo, borrowed from the village Facebook page) after a relatively cool 24c day. The week in prospect is hot, averaging 26-27c every day.

You are probably right! 😄

From a work perspective? The forest is much cleaner - no invasive species. It's just conifers, blueberries, lingonberries, heather and moss on the ground really. Lakes everywhere means I can swim on every site, every day (if I choose). The ground is hard, for the most part, and even the soft bits aren't muddy. They're just boggy. No issues with public access and angry walkers. Everyone understands that forestry is important. No access issues for lorries, no traffic to deal with, no narrow roads, no hedge rows. The weather is a lot better. 50% more sunshine annually than Devon. Bloody hot in summer (average daily high since we've been here has been a smidge under 30) but frozen winters. But that's just work. It's much, much better for the kids here. My daughter starts school on Monday in a class of 14. Everything is free at school - snacks, meals, equipment, everything. She has opportunities to learn skills and sports I never did, and that makes me happy. She and her sister be trilingual by the time they leave school, and their education will have been free. They'll be able to afford to buy a comfortable and spacious house easily and whilst they're young. I love the access to nature here too. I've been swimming twice today (well the second one was me just sitting in the lake for 10 minutes to cool down after a cycle ride) and I did 42km on the mountain bike with a local MTB group. Hardly touched tarmac in that time, and straight from our village. Lots to do and lots to explore. We're looking forward to the future

Yeah, like Andy says, blueberries here too (blåbär). Couple more photos from this morning. Getting to grips with the new machine now.

I was just this minute discussing that with my friend. Loads of lingonberries here too.

First day at work yesterday, driving a friend's Malwa. It's all subtly different to home from a work perspective, but the ability to take lunchtime and evening swims in different lakes whilst snacking on blueberries is new!

Epic little thunderstorm here this morning in SE Sweden, that was completely missed by the weather forecasting services. It was preceded by a sudden increase in wind speed, with violent gusting. The thunder and lightning only lasted about 30 minutes or so, but 12mm of rain fell. My inlaws arrived late last night from Northampton, so I have joked that they're just 'rain tourists' here to remind themselves what it looks, sounds, feels and smells like, and to see some grass that's actually green! 😁

Our favourite local spot for peace and quiet. The kids love it here. Plus the largest crayfish I've found so far. Twas a monster!