Three ropes, three anchor straps, three figure-of eights, five carabiners, a pulley and a winch

That's what it took to fell an awkward tree without damaging a telephone line and a garage...

But more on that in a short while. Before we started coppicing we went to fill the trailer with firewood. This time we tried driving in forwards, unhitching the trailer and then turning round in the junction near the pond. It worked nicely, and was much quicker than reversing in...
I had a quick look at the re-dug pond, and the recent rain has started to fill it already:
With the trailer loaded we went back over to Sweep Wood to get on with the coppicing. We were pleased to find that there were plenty of hot embers left from yesterday's fire, under an insulating blanket of ash. We added a few sticks...
then some more...
and before long...
Keeping the fire lit overnight saves at least half an hour every morning...

It was pretty wet again today, which slowed us down somewhat, but Tracy felled a whole Hazel stool and processed a good pile of poles from it, which we're going to sort into different diameters tomorrow:
We also felled a couple of Ash stems that needed roping to bring them into the clear area. The roping takes time, but not as long as trying to deal with a hung up tree and move lots of wood around after felling.

I also worked on a Hazel stool, but a very awkward one as several stems were overhanging a neighbouring property. Here's the final stem, which was the most awkward. Not only was it leaning over a garage, but the top was also through a telephone line, and the tree to the right is a part-dead Cherry that we want to leave standing as a dead-wood habitat...
So, out came the ropes and various other bits of second-hand climbing gear I bought over the summer - not for climbing, but for roping trees. An important thing with ropes is not getting them tangled. A trick we learned on the coppice harvesting course last year was to keep the ropes in bags - you just feed the rope in and out, and it doesn't tangle!The red rope was fastened to the tree, and the other end connected to the pulley, which the white rope went through:
The red rope is locked off in the figure-of-eight, which is fastened to the pulley using a carabiner. The two ends of the white rope were securely anchored to trees, again using figure-of-eights and carabiners. Figure-of-eights allow you to easily take in slack in the rope, and then lock the rope off securely.
Next, I took out the slack in the red rope, then the white ropes:
leaving the tree already being pulled in the desired direction:
Using the pulley increased the force you can exert, although not quite double in this case as there's a substantial angle between the two sections of the white rope. Tracy kept an eye on the rope (and took pictures!) while I put the felling cuts in:
We then both heaved on the rope and the tree came over, but hung up (as expected) in the Cheery we want to leave there.I put in a second set of felling cuts higher up the stem to allow the tree to now move sideways:
and we fastened another rope on:
We tried pulling it by hand...
but this wasn't enough, so we used the winch..
and after a bit of faffing around the tree was finally down safely:
just leaving the stump for me to clean up...
It was a lot of trouble to go to, but we did get it down safely, and left the Cherry tree intact, which were the main goals. It was also a good chance to practice with with all the rope kit I'd bought.

One interesting bit of wildlife to report, which the guys at Wild About Britain tell me is the caterpillar of the Pale Tussock moth:
And last of all, a picture of Tracy all muddy after a wet day in the woods!
Mike