Preparing for winter : collecting firewood in the forest

This week was the penultimate week of August, and we could feel autumn gradually approaching. The sun was rising slightly later, the days were a bit more humid, and we could feel that the days would soon become cooler. Thus, we have undertaken a major task : cutting, transporting and storing wood for the winter. The wood cut here is pine : it is not ideal for burning as it contains a lot of resin, but it is abundant in the surrounding area and destined to die anyway. Indeed, imported to the Balkans during the Soviet era, it is not adapted to the local ecosystem at all and the trees are gradually dying, collapsing on the mountainsides and leaving behind a ravaged landscape.

So, Filip started this activity with Stefan, our neighbour ; they shared the work of cutting down trees in the woodland between our two houses, with the aim of dividing up the wood harvested for the winter. With two more volunteers and two friends who came to lend us a helping hand, we then had to go through this part of the forest, collecting all the logs on the ground and gradually transporting them to the road below. Starting from the highest point, we slowly slid the logs down the mountain, either throwing them or rolling them. It was a long and tiring job, but having lots of people and working in a cheerful atmosphere made it fun. After several hours of work, we were able to load the wood onto the tractor trailer to take it to Stefan’s house.

We then took care of the wood for ourselves, which this time had to be carried by hand to the edge of the forest, so that we could load the trailer and transport it to our home high up in the mountain. After a few days of work, we managed to gather enough wood to keep us warm this winter !

Maya