Monday 26 November 2007

One Year On


November 2007

This month saw work start on returning the wood to coppice rotation. We are hoping to fell approx half an acre this winter, if we can do that every year then that will work out as roughly a 10 year coppice rotation. The first area to be done is, obviously and sensibly, next to the track; because it is easier for us to access, easier to get the logs to the trackside, and also means that there is more room to fell into without getting (too many) trees hung up in their neighbours. So far so good; we’ve spent a couple of days felling and only had 2 trees hung up (yes, I know that should have been zero, but we are still learning). The answer in both cases was a rope around the base attached by a karabiner to a ratchet strap around a nearby tree. This solution is not as effective as a strong winch (or avoiding getting the tree hung up in the first place!) but it works if you have patience.

There’s always something new and this month we saw for the first time in the wood; fly agaric, ink cap and a woodcock (it did seem odd seeing a wading bird in woodland). Most of the trees’ leaves have turned and fallen, but there is still some green in the wood from the ferns (and brambles). It’s now a whole year since we bought the wood and looking back it’s been even better than we expected. The wood is lovely; whether it’s the colours of autumn, a warm winter fire, spring bluebells, moth spotting, camping in the summer, sharing the wood with friends or just chilling out on our own. Owning this wood has added another dimension to life and is the best investment ever.