Coppicing Hazel

We went to the wood for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon, and I've decided that Hazel is a bit of a pain to coppice! During the time we were there, I felled about 25 stems - the problem is that they were all on one overstood Hazel stool!
Some of them were small, others larger, and a few needed roping to make sure they didn't fall on the neighbour's garage or phone line.
In the meantime, there's a nice clearing opening up, and the last of this years butterflies turned up to enjoy the autumn sunshine, such as this Red Admiral and Speckled Wood:
Eventually I finished the Hazel stool...
...producing a stack of oversized wood that we'll either use for charcoal or firewood:
and a selection of smaller poles that we're keeping for potential use in weaving, to make hurdles and stuff like that. You can see them leaning on the building at the back here:
The last job was to cover the Hazel stool with the brash that came off the top of the tree:
The shoots will grow though OK, but the rabbits will find it harder to get to them, giving them the chance they need to get going.

Tracy was down the hill removing small Sycamore to clear the path for the next stage in the work.

We're going to the wood again today, but getting a few jobs done at home first as it's raining right now...

Mike