Big J

Minus ten and falling fast here 😊

Nice. The winters in Strathspey are the best in the UK, IMO

It's just started snowing again, albeit gently. This was from the drive to Vetlanda this morning, just before the snow started. No problems at all, even with the 5m box trailer I have on the back. VID_20221212_091756.3gp

The Beast from the East in 2018 would be the last time there was snow like this for most of the UK. Still, it all seems faintly comical to folk here when the UK grinds to a halt on 2 inches of the white stuff. Nothing really changes here much except that the Swedes spend more time outside when it's snowy. There is a real sense of excitement about the ski slope opening, and I haven't met a single person here that prefers a plus degrees winter.

I feel that this is a good point at which to bring up my old pet campaign for all season tyres. They're the difference between not being able to move or control your car and being able to go about your daily life, albeit a touch more slowly. All season tyres for the win 😁

Bargain!

Per roadside tonne. Not per dried tonne. But then, that does depend a bit on species. My understanding is that conifer is 10% higher in calories per dry tonne, on account of the resin content.

Eucalyptus has a similar calorie content to oak, if it's over 7yrs old (trees younger than that are mainly sapwood, which is less calorific). Conifer does have fewer calories, but the difference (species dependent) isn't massive. To buy it in isn't very much cheaper than hardwood (on the whole) but the processing and drying time is so much less that I'd always try to steer customers that way. Sawlog prices are still depressed in the UK (though I'm a bit out of touch now) so it's possible to find sawlog at a similar or even lower price than hardwood. I'd be on the lookout for sawlog that's been left roadside for too long (especially pine, which has a very limited shelf life at roadside). It might be possible to pick it up cheaper. On our processor set up that we had in Scotland, you could process 30cm larch at about 4 times the speed of similar sized hardwood. The hardwood quality up there isn't great, which was part of it, but I really can't see too many advantages to hardwood. At £120 a cube, hardwood is about £0.10/kwh, not accounting for efficiency losses. It's a bit more expensive than gas and oil with none of the convenience.

Crazy prices throughout. A sign of the times though. It was only about 5 years ago really that I was charging £55-65/cubic metre (plus delivery charge) for soft and hardwood out of the sawmill. You raise a good point. Broadleaves are not an efficient method of producing firewood. You are far better off with conifer or eucalyptus. Much shorter production cycles and mechanical harvesting vastly reduce production to roadside costs. Then, the actual firewood processing is much faster too (straight logs). These savings can then be passed on to the eventual customer whilst maintaining the same profit margin for all in the production line. Prices for firewood here in Sweden have risen a bit too, but you can still pick up very cheap firewood. Mixed or purely spruce is around about £40-50 a cube (collected) and pure birch about 50% more.

5 inches of lovely fluffy snow has fallen today on 3 inches of very frozen snow. It's bordering on an impractical amount. Certainly made cycling a little challenging. The kids are greatly enjoying their new intra-village transport solution though

There is something about snow and frost that sends dogs into an excited frenzy.

Interesting thread. I can't say much about the gas, as we're not had mains gas for almost 15 years and now live in a country where it doesn't seem to exist. I agree though that the way it's charged for is unnecessarily complicated. We're principally electric heating. A ground source heat pump that does the central heating. An air/air source heat pump, which does the main living space. And a stove for the kitchen/dining and upstairs. We're trying to be super economical with the electricity as the price has shot right back up again here. I think it's averaging about £0.40 per KWH this month, up from about £0.21 a month ago. So geothermal is set to 15c, stove is on continuously and the air source in the living room is set to 16c, but temperature is actually about 18.5c. Kitchen is warmer. It's cooler than I'd like, but until I start working in January, we have to watch the pennies. We have a lot of wood that hasn't cost anything. We're using on average 23-26 KWH a day, so it's costing £9-10 a day to heat and power our house. But for context, the high temperature outside today was minus 5c and it was minus 11c at 09:00 this morning.

Only a minute really. It's just to maintain that cold water tolerance. You do get a bit of a buzz from it when combined with sauna. Did 35km on the bike in minus 10 this morning. It was really very pretty. Some beard ice issues though!

It does. I took my younger daughter to nursery by bike, and whilst it felt like my beard froze in about 20 seconds, it was beautiful. The Swedes hate plus temperatures in winter. They just want snow.

First double digit minus temp since moving here ☺️

Light snow and minus 1 overnight. Made for a nice bike ride

The electricity prices have gone back up again, so now resolved to using the stove more again. One basket lasts us one day of constant burning and it's 17 baskets to the cube. I anticipate at this rate I'll burn about 7 cube up to the end of March, which is fortunate, as I only have 9 cube for this winter! We've got minus 18 on our long range forecast though, so I suspect the fire will be fairly well cranked for that.

The 16 day forecast is looking pretty epic for us here. Just in time for when my wife's parents arrive for Christmas too

I think it goes both ways in the North. We're a fairly long way from Norway here in the South.

The snow is all but gone now, but due to return in a big way at the weekend. Dropping temperatures with snow most days, with minus 13 on the forecast for the middle of December. Fingers crossed for a white Christmas for the kids.

I agree. It's just a question magnitude.

In real terms, everyone is worse off at the moment compared to just about any recent time period, and Brits are about to see the worst ever reduction in living standards. Worst fall in UK living standards since records began, says OBR | Economics | The Guardian WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM Spending watchdog says Britain is in recession and unemployment will rise by 500,000

It contributes to overall inflation: 1) the building work becomes more expensive, so the end product is more expensive 2) the brickies have more spending power, so will put more cash into the economy, so will thus cause more inflation. If everyone is paid more and everything costs more and the bank keeps printing new money, inflation rapidly becomes a serious problem. The UK's problem at the moment is 'stagflation', where the cost of everything is going up against the backdrop of reduced GDP. This is the worst scenario of all.