Cath in the woods

This is a guest post by my sister Cath, who was helping us in the woods today...
We travelled to the wood in the land rover. It made me and Tracy laugh because it was bouncing around on the bumps.
It even blurred the pictures sometimes!
First, I loaded logs into the trailer with Tracy, for Mike to sell to a customer later on.
While I did that, Mike and Dad fixed the pond. It started like this:
They built a dam from logs:
Then they dug out the pond, and put the mud on the dam:
Here it is finished - now it needs to rain!After filling the trailer, Tracy and I set up some tree guards for small oak trees:
We used old milk bottles to make the guards:
The guards will stop rabbits and deer from eating the little trees.

Then it was lunchtime.
After lunch we went to Mum and Dad's bit of the wood, where Mike and Tracy are going to work this autumn. We did coppicing, cutting down trees so that they will grow back again next year.
Tracy's friend Penny helped as well:
Dad cut the stems on this Hazel:
then Mike helped finish it with the chainsaw:
Mike also had to chainsaw an Ash tree that fell over last year, to bring it down to the ground:
While Mike was doing this he found part of an old bike!
The last job was to collect some poles for making stakes. Tracy and I collected them and sawed them to make the right length:
Mike sharpened them with the chainsaw:
and I helped carry them up the hill:
I was pleased to have worked hard in the wood, and I'm looking forward to going there again on Wednesday. Finally, a quick message to Emma, Katie, Pippa and the staff: "Look forward to seeing you on Thursday"

Cath