Spring is Sprung

February 2008

This month we finished felling all the trees we wanted to coppice this season and most have been processed into logs and will later be cut and split for firewood. But there are still enough felled trees to keep us busy logging for at least a couple more days. Some of the birch has been stacked to intentionally start decaying, so that the fungi ‘spalt’ the wood and it can then be turned (see photo from previous month). While we have been working, Tom has been lending a hand and also taking time out to make bows and arrows, ride his bike around the wood and been plinking with the air rifle. Despite the frosty mornings, it feels that spring is here with the woods starting to green; the bluebells are spiking into the light and honeysuckle is in fresh leaf. We have heard and seen woodpeckers and by chance there was a standing dead tree in the area being coppiced so we have left this standing.

A New Year, A New Lesson

January has seen a lot of trees coppiced / felled and the half an acre target has been achieved. My focus has been on felling, while the rest of the family has been doing some felling and a lot of clearing up processing the felled trees. About 60% of the trees felled are birch, with the rest being chestnut (all the oak standards have been left standing). The birch are generally single trees, with close twiggy branches and straight vertical trunks; so they are relatively easy to fell in a convenient direction. The chestnut, being from coppice stools, are generally leaning in all directions and more liable to get hung up; so it’s often a case of felling the birch around them to create a clearer space to fell into. Now the felling is (almost) complete, the next few visits will focus on clearing up and logging those felled trees that have not yet been processed and there will no doubt be a few more bonfires too. The heavy rains and wind have resulted in a couple more leaning trees, reminding us of the benefits of returning the wood to coppice rotation. The heavy rains also resulted in a temporary stream springing from an old rabbit hole; giving Che some new water to play in. We noticed that some birch wood has spalted and this makes great material for my dad’s woodturning, as can be seen in the bowl pictured above.

The lesson learnt this month is: wheelbarrows do not like having trees felled on top of them!

December 2007

This month saw more visits to the wood, all focussed on coppicing while the season and weather allowed. The felled trees have been piling up and aren’t all logged yet so the area looks a bit of a mess, but we are getting there. There is a lot more birch than originally thought and the plan is to control this when the coppice regrows and encourage more chestnut and/or maybe add some indigenous species. That’s a decision for next winter; for now the main aim is to get the area coppiced and the felled trees logged and stacked ready for sale for firewood. To counteract the cold, there have been some fires (also to get rid of the thin branches etc), and local chippies have seen our business too (not very Ray Mears, but very welcome on a frosty day). We are often joined by a Robin who hops and flits about the felled trees while we work. On one occasion while we were taking a well earned break, a Sparrowhawk flew through the wood and then locked talons with another. They spiralled around briefly (just like on TV!) before going their separate ways. With the trees now bare of leaves there is less colour in the wood, but this bareness moves your focus to the form of the trees such as the Alder pictured above.

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.

Ready for Winter

The past month has seen the weather turn away from the mild quiet of late summer towards the refreshing season of turning leaves and the season of nature’s rest. The tree camp has had its tops lopped; we pollarded the trees so they wouldn’t catch the gales and bring the whole lot down. My 1st experience of working with a chainsaw at height and although there were no injuries it wasn’t all plain sailing as a misjudgement of a tree’s lean ended up with the saw firmly held tight in the cut. Lots of rope pulling, hand sawing and muttered expletives were required to free the chainsaw. The tree camp now looks a bit bare (see before/after photo's below) but by next summer it will have grown some mop-tops to soften the starkness. We have also spent a day widening the glade a little and the fire pit area now seems linked to the glade rather than separate from it.

Saturday 27th October saw us gather with family and friends to mark the season. The afternoon was spent chilling out and cooking on the fire; roasting chestnuts, charring sausages and even roasting a whole chicken. The evening was lit by loads of fireworks; everyone brought some along and the display lasted about 1¾ hours! We finished the day off with a bonfire (which also had the benefit of getting rid of the branches and smaller wood from the trees felled or pollarded in the preceding weeks).

July to September 2007

Late summer saw fewer visits to the wood as the rest of life took over (DIY at home plus a fantastic holiday in Ecuador). During the few days spent in the wood, most time was spent chilling out; although there was always some work getting done, typically bracken bashing and keeping the path clear through the wayleave. The tree camp now has its floorboards complete and rails all round – next job will be to pollard the trees so they and the camp don’t come down in the autumn gales. The 1st weekend in September we camped in our wonderful new pop-up tents (Eurohike Flash) which take just a few seconds to put up and take down; so much easier than the cumbersome but palatial ‘umbrella’ tent we have been using, but if staying for more than a couple of nights we’ll probably still use the big old tent. Also that weekend one of Tom’s friends stayed over and they had fun exploring the wood, whittling staffs and making use of the air rifle to put holes in their old primary school’s fleece before they start secondary school. The wood feels subdued in late summer, the energy and new life of spring seems a long time behind us, while the glory of autumn colours is yet to appear. But we know that it’s only a few weeks until the leaves will be changing and it will be time to get the chainsaw back into action.

Summertime, and the living is easy

Sunday 17th June 2007

A wonderfully laidback day. A bit more work done on the upper platform of the tree camp, adding a few more split chestnut ‘floorboards’. Bashing bracken in the glade and a gentle wander down the gill and up the wayleave, where we found a beautiful orchid in full flower (Heath Spotted Orchid?). During the wander we collect some hazel for staffs and then back by the clearing to sit whittling for a while or chilling out in the hammock. The birdsong is periodically outcompeted by our attempts at drumming. With the leaves now in full leaf the woods are much darker and the glade seems quite small again, but we plan to widen it when winter returns.