Coppicing this week

We had Monday and Thursday working in the wood this week, again focusing on the footpath. Here's an example of the progress we've made, with a picture from the start of the week: and at the end of today:
Here's the view from inside, before:
and after, with much more light coming in.
With the birch already felled and logged, it's been pretty easy where I've been working to get some chestnut down. I cleared a section near the stile:and was then able to set up some racks to store the chestnut logs:
After today these are now filling up, with large non-straight logs for fuel, and small straighter logs for other uses, such as stakes and garden furniture:
There's a third pile too, of all the smaller twisty bits and offcuts, probably just for us to use in the wood for cooking on, or anything else that comes to mind. If they don't get use they can just rot (slowly, being chestnut) and provide food for fungi and beetles.
Tracy's also been busy, working further along the path. You can see a pool of light in the distance, looking from where I've been working:
She's been felling birch so far at that end, and has a few nice piles of logs building up, and more light coming down to the ground.
Once we get along to this point with the chestnut we should be able to make fast progress, as with the birch out of the way they won't get hung up very often.

One highlight of the day was a cooked lunch, consisting of chilli con carne reheated in our adapted fondue burner:
and rice cooked on a wood fire in the cast iron BBQ:
Tracy took a quick trip to the pond at the end of the day. The plant growing in it is continuing to spread:
but a new one (which we will try and ID) has joined it:
Our next trip to the wood is on Saturday, as we have a journalist and photographer from BBC Countryfile magazine coming to visit us. Apparently they're doing an article on why people are buying woodland.... we'll be sure to give them some interesting answers ;-)

Mike