Monday 27 October 2008

Back to Work


With leaves and chestnuts falling around us, we started this winter’s coppicing. The plan is to do half an acre next to last winter’s coppiced area, this will then be open between the glade we are expanding and the ride/track until the new growth fills in again. I still need to pull my finger out regarding what to do with the wood that is felled, including much of last years which is still stacked up waiting to go off for firewood (did have someone collect some, but we never really got it organised properly). To open up the glade a little more a couple of oaks have been cut, one very young one coppiced and the other (30 years old, I counted the rings) pollarded at only about 4’ because it felt unsafe chainsawing above that. A length of this one has been cut, split and roughly hewn into a paddle for the coracle. I thought it would be nice to have something made from this oak, but not sure a paddle was the right choice because it’s bloody heavy. Hopefully it will be light enough once the wood has seasoned and I’ve shaved more off it. The only flowers we saw were ragwort, but there are still some interesting fungi around.