Elephant helps make firewood
nergy prices are steadily rising. Our electricity bills are getting paunchier each year. It makes good sense, seeing as we’re living in a large forest, to make use of the natural, sustainable energy that surrounds us.
In 2007, we invested in a super-efficient log boiler. It runs on wood from our own forest, burning logs at a very high temperature to provide all the heating and hot water for the main shower block. All the trees we fell are then replanted with native broadleaves, thus preserving the beauty of our valley and encouraging greater biodiversity.
The new system has been such a great success that we are installing log boilers in Valli’s new barn, the nun’s new home, and pretty much everywhere else. Wood power provides a neat solution to our energy requirements, but it does mean that we have to chop a lot of firewood.
To make our firewood processing quicker and safer, a few weeks ago we bought a wonderful new log splitting machine. You put a tree trunk in one end, pull the levers, and seconds later, big piles of logs pop out the other end. It means community members don’t suffer slipped discs and severed limbs, so we think it’s a worthwhile investment!
Last saturday, Valli the Temple Elephant came to help us load logs onto the machine. She played along with us for a while, then lost interest and started sniffing around for chocolates and peanuts. Bless her.
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