What's Mine is Mine, Not Yours
Many people here carry on the tradition of warming their houses with the cocina económica, or wood stove. Some, like us, can only warm the kitchen really well. Others have adapted it to carry heat to other rooms in the house, much like a boiler does. However it is used, it needs wood for fuel.
Cut up logs can be bought and delivered to your door. You simply have to chop them further if they're too big, and stack them in your place of choice. But some people think that at over a hundred euros for a badly filled tractor, it's expensive. So they, like we, go roaming the woods for firewood. We're lucky. My mother-in-law has a few large patches of woods where firewood can be harvested and then the patch replanted. Sometimes the trees just grow on their own. We also tend to go out after storms, to see if any dying tree has been blown over. We do not go into private property uninvited because there are eyes in the woods.
There are also large swathes of common woods, owned by the local parishes or villages, that have been let to forestry companies, for the companies to plant and harvest wood. Every so often, workers from those companies come by the rented properties to cut and stack logs. Sometimes, driving through the little lanes that lead to hill villages, it's normal to come across stacks of logs in lonely spots, all awaiting the truck to come load them.
Someone in a neighboring village, out foraging for wood, must have thought one of those piles looked very lonely. He must also not have had luck in finding any firewood. So, he stopped his tractor, and, helped by his wife who was accompanying him, loaded a few of the smaller logs. The place was very lonely; cars didn't pass by with any regularity, and there were no houses anywhere nearby. No one would see them, nor would anyone notice a few missing logs. Besides, they were just claiming their part of the rent for the common woods that belonged to their village. As they were pulling away, a white 4x4 that they had never seen before drove up and stopped them. The couple was given a choice: either put the logs back or have the Guardia Civil pick them up for robbery. They decided to put the logs back neatly in their place.
The moral of the story? Big Brother is watching you, even in the middle of the seemingly solitary woods.
Cut up logs can be bought and delivered to your door. You simply have to chop them further if they're too big, and stack them in your place of choice. But some people think that at over a hundred euros for a badly filled tractor, it's expensive. So they, like we, go roaming the woods for firewood. We're lucky. My mother-in-law has a few large patches of woods where firewood can be harvested and then the patch replanted. Sometimes the trees just grow on their own. We also tend to go out after storms, to see if any dying tree has been blown over. We do not go into private property uninvited because there are eyes in the woods.
There are also large swathes of common woods, owned by the local parishes or villages, that have been let to forestry companies, for the companies to plant and harvest wood. Every so often, workers from those companies come by the rented properties to cut and stack logs. Sometimes, driving through the little lanes that lead to hill villages, it's normal to come across stacks of logs in lonely spots, all awaiting the truck to come load them.
Someone in a neighboring village, out foraging for wood, must have thought one of those piles looked very lonely. He must also not have had luck in finding any firewood. So, he stopped his tractor, and, helped by his wife who was accompanying him, loaded a few of the smaller logs. The place was very lonely; cars didn't pass by with any regularity, and there were no houses anywhere nearby. No one would see them, nor would anyone notice a few missing logs. Besides, they were just claiming their part of the rent for the common woods that belonged to their village. As they were pulling away, a white 4x4 that they had never seen before drove up and stopped them. The couple was given a choice: either put the logs back or have the Guardia Civil pick them up for robbery. They decided to put the logs back neatly in their place.
The moral of the story? Big Brother is watching you, even in the middle of the seemingly solitary woods.
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