Page 42 - It's a Rum Life Book 3 "Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984"

Trailer load of small straw bales, one like this was parked in our drive all the time to feed
the boiler!

Fallen trees were sourced from within a reasonable travelling distance and a chainsaw
also became part of my life! Eventually when better organised I spent most Saturdays in
fine weather sourcing and transporting the timber to ensure good supplies to cover the
time when weather was bad. Of course firewood for the three open fires in the house was
always consequently plentiful!

THE STRAW FOG
It was the straw that was to cause an unforeseen problem, although in hindsight I suppose
it was obvious!
At the end of harvest one year I had bought two complete trailer loads of straw from
Herbert Epton the local haulage contractor who also supplied many of our early second
hand lorries. The straw was collected direct from one of his fields and parked in our yard
close to the garage for easy access.
Old lorry sheets were spread to keep it dry and my plans for quick supplementary heat in
the coming winter were complete, or so I thought.
The only real problem with burning straw is the smoke, I believe it was the smoke that
eventually brought about the national ban on burning stubble fields at the end of harvest. It
was the smoke that caused my problem too!
I did realise that to prevent annoyance to my neighbours and in fact the whole village, I
would have to contain the straw fired heating output to the hours when most folk were still
asleep.
The result of stuffing three whole bales of straw into the boiler and opening all the air inlets
was perhaps similar to that splendid wartime epic ‘the Battle of the River Plate’. I think is
was perhaps the cruiser ‘Exeter’ that carried out a heroic attack on that famous German
battleship under cover of an enormous totally engulfing smoke screen.
My smoke though was yellow and somewhat acrid; it was certainly thick and dense. It only
lasted for a few minutes until sufficient flame was built up to consume the straw more
quickly, but in those minutes the amount of smoke was astounding. If the wind was from
the west I was safe as behind the house to the east were open fields for simply miles.

It was one morning before daylight when I unintentionally created something of an
incident, it was very cold and damp, so cold the house needed a boost of heat. I opened

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