Had my parents round today. At one point, Junior Reader took Granny Ro off to the post office to post some letters and came back…with a log.
Now I’ve already posted about the many and various items that kids pick up and bring home. But I wasn’t particularly expecting a log. On the way back from the post office.
Yes, there are trees on either side of the road, but…it’s not an overly outdoorsy road, if you know what I mean.
There is a family history to log collection. It comes from the days when we would have a fire at home, and Mum would be able to exercise her skills in constructing fires. They would often involve coal, but you never passed up a good bit of wood when you saw it.
Junior Reader, inducted into the arcana of the family on both sides, has understood the importance of claiming your Useful Bit of Log, when one has been spotted, and has clearly done so today.
Mum and Dad, after some time without a proper fire to play with, recently got themselves a wood burning stove. So there’s much thinking about wood, and the prospect of fires to warm them through the winter.
They did also get a log delivery recently. But that doesn’t limit the log collecting, you see. It just means you don’t have to panic at the notion of collecting ALL your logs for the winter.
In the past, log collecting tied in nicely with dog walking. Fire needed wood, dog needed walked – and both things could be accomplished together, if you planned where to go for your walk.
I feel I should say at this point that log collecting is not about nicking wood from other people, hacking down trees, or anything like that. It’s spotting smaller branches that have come down and are already on the ground. And it’s typically done around public footpath areas where you can reasonably pick up a log and bring it home.
You should also be aware that there is a specialist term for this activity. It’s chumping. I have no idea where the term originated, and whether it is a publicly acknowledged word or just a family one that was made up for the occasion. (I suspect the latter.)
There is the longer phrase, chumping for firewood. I have to say, it’s a bit unnecessary, since the whole point of chumping is for firewood, but there you are. I aim to please when considering additions to your vocabulary.
The additional fun of chumping, of course, is the individual item of wood you bring back. It’s one thing to have some nicely split logs delivered, but finding your own piece is even nicer. The contours, the placement of twigs and branches, all add to the beauty of the log.
Unlike some of the other found items that might accumulate, a log has its hour on the fire, and then is gone. Collecting and usefulness combined.