Saturday 5 January 2013

Digging in the mud

2012 was the wettest year on record for England, and one of the effects in our woodland is mud, in this case in the wayleave in front of our entrance:

DSC_5482 mud

It's caused by water draining through the very point we have to drive over most often. This hasn't been a problem until this year, but now we're having to do something about it. So I bought a drainage pipe:
DSC_5481 drainage pipe
and made a start today on digging a trench for it to go in across the track, uphill from the muddy area:
DSC_5483 drainage pipe in ditch

The ditch needs to be a bit longer on the far side, and there'll need to be a trench parallel to the track on that side too, to funnel the water draining from there through the pipe. It won't deliver results overnight, but it should start making a difference over the coming weeks....

I cut up some logs while I was there too:
DSC_5478 logs in a trailer

We've still got a fair amount left that's just over two years old now, and it's ripe for burning, so we've been selling a few loads to one-off customers, and restocking our firewood store back at home.
DSC_5480 log pile

Today I found that I was in a part of the log pile where a bit of water had got between the tarps, so some of the logs had got a bit damp. Not wanting to give these to a customer, or use them myself, I've piled them up at the side:
DSC_5479 logs left to rot

It's annoying, having gone to the work of preparing and moving the logs, but at least they'll make a nice pile of wood for bugs to live in, so that's some compensation.

If I could have one wish for the next couple of months, it would be for some frost, to get rid of the mud!

Mike

UPDATE: more pics of the finished drainage system here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello, Mike
Going way back to your 19 Apr 2011 post, specifically about Yellow Archangel... I would like to refer you to the current Wikipedia entry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_archangel
I believe the true native plant exhibits no variegation whatsoever, whereas your photo shows it distinctly, suggesting it to be garden escapee.
Don't know why I'm banging on about it now - just the pedant in me I guess.
Carry on blogging
John

Mike Pepler said...

That's a part of the wood that DOES have garden escapees in it, as there are houses nearby and garden waste has been dumped over the years, so I expect you are right!