Saturday 26 February 2011

Getting the logs ready for next winter

This winter's not even over, but with sufficient logs back at home to take us through until spring, it was time to start refilling the shelter ready for next winter.

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These logs are from trees that we felled in Oct-Dec 2009, and have been split and stacked since then, under tarpaulins for the past few months. Now they're cut up and in the shelter, they'll get a chance to really dry out before we burn them in winter 2011/12.

Because we won't be using the saws so much for a few months, I used both of our 346xp's to cut the stacks up, in order to drain the fuel tanks. A bit more awkward than using the 570, as you have to work from both sides, but better than leaving fuel in the tanks to go off.
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Although it was sunny while we were there, the wood is pretty wet in general at the moment.
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However, the combination of sunshine, water and rising temperatures is getting things going in the plant world. Buds are developing on the fruit trees:
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and various other small plants are getting a head start ready for the summer:
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Up at the top of Sweep Wood there are Primroses flowering:
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and the view from the bottom, of the area we coppiced this winter, shows a gradual greening of the woodland floor:
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Can't wait for the first flowers to appear...

Mike

2 comments:

ChrisJS said...

I wish we were as well organised and on top or the work as you seem to be!
Thanks for the posts
Chris

Mike Pepler said...

Oh, there's plenty of stuff we've not done! Like paint over the plaster where the woodburner was installed...