Romney Marsh wind farm and a woodland update

The Little Cheyne Court wind farm, on Romney Marsh, is now being commissioned. Apparently it'll be finished by February, and until then the turbines will be operating intermittently as they are tested. Here's a video taken from an upstairs window in our house:

I'm pleased to see them working. Not everyone likes the view, but if we're going to tackle climate change and also get back to the UK being self-sufficient in energy, then this is the kind of thing we need.

We drove up to the wood today, as we were bringing back a load of logs for a customer, so it was nice to find the track frozen solid:After processing some chestnut logs and loading the trailer, we got back to coppicing near the junction of the footpath and our main ride. We're trying to focus on a particular section at the moment, for no reason other than it would be nice to have it done! So, we've been working together rather than in different areas. The normal pattern is that I'll fell a tree, then Tracy will sned it while I'm measuring it into 2m lengths. Then she'll move the brash while I move the logs. Works well, and it's quick. Here's the area we're working on, it's just around the curve from the long straight stretch we did first:We had one frustrating moment today. We'd been carefully avoiding felling trees onto any of the small oaks, but the last birch I felled had a branch sticking out sideways that caught one of them as it came down, snapping it off about 2m up. This was a shame, but it's the kind of thing that happens sometimes. We made the best of it by pollarding the tree a few feet up. It'll be interesting to see if it regrows, and if the shoots are eaten by deer (they'll be too high for rabbits, which is why we cut it at this height).Here's a before and after shot at the junction. You can see the area we were working today down the right hand side of the fork.

Last week:
Today:
We're up again tomorrow, and there's no firewood deliveries to make so we can focus on the coppicing. We're hoping to cut all the way up to the junction on the right hand side...

Mike