A More Convenient Convenience

Unfortunately only managed to visit once this month, but it was constructive as we took down the failed rope and tarpaulin contrivance that housed the loo last year and built a more elegant ‘bender’ structure in a fresh location. Digging the hole was easy in our sandy soil and even Che leant a helping paw. Initially the plan was to use chestnut for the main supports as this would be the most rot resistant; however chestnut’s often useful splitability meant it didn’t have enough bendability. So the plan changed slightly and the bender frame was made completely from hazel. Then it was simply a matter of securing a couple of tarps over the frame and hey presto we’ve got a loo. It hasn’t got a door and next visit we’ll decide how much of a door/flap to put on to balance providing privacy with having a loo with a view.

A walk around the wood saw violets in flower and we spotted a single solitary primrose on the bank of the seasonal stream, surrounded by bluebells and ferns. Whilst in the wood I did the last(?) chainsawing of the season tidying up the stools where we’ve been coppicing (yep, we should have done them as we went along, but felling is more satisfying). Bill the woodsman paid us a visit giving some advice on felling awkward trees and he also gave my saw a ‘proper’ sharpening, which demonstrated why I need to give as much focus to the guides as I give to the teeth.

Woody the Forester

Well we’ve just about got all the felled trees logged up now and burnt all the branches etc that were too thin for firewood, so the coppiced area is now clear and we can see what we’ve achieved. All that’s left to do now is tidy up all the stools and stumps (many are still a bit tall having had the felling cuts but not yet been taken down lower) and arrange for someone to collect all the logs. Every visit over the past months has felt like it has been work work work, so now we are looking forward to visiting the wood just to relax and chill out, although I know I won’t be able to rest for long before I get to work again. But the next jobs will be more constructive; the loo needs rebuilding (the old tarpaulin construction wasn’t strong enough to survive the weather), and there’s rails to be put around the tree camp. We spotted our 1st bluebells last weekend; there are a few starting to flower at the southern edge of the wood. March also saw us say goodbye to our old car (Toyota Celica GT), which has been replaced with a more practical Subaru Forester which I call ‘Woody’ although the boss reckons it should be called Scooby. Although I miss the fun of the Celica, the Forester is no slouch and combines practicality with performance (4x4, but with a 2 litre turbo charged engine).

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).