Tame pheasants and a new shelter roof

I've posted photos of the tame pheasants in our woodland before:

But recently I also made a video of them so you can see how they behave - I took this using my mobile phone, so that gives you an idea of how close they are, no zoom lens involved:

The coppicing is generally proceeding according to plan, at least on the few days with nice weather! Here's a couple of shots of the progress so far:

As we've progressed through this area, we've discovered a new wallow the wild boar are using:

I gather from people who've lived here longer than us that there has been a spring here for some time, so it seems the boar have located it and turned it into bathing facilities!

Meanwhile, on a day when it was too windy to fell trees safely, I decided it was finally time to repair the roof of a shelter we built back in 2008. Although it's not used to actually store anything, and only has a roof, not walls, it's still useful on camping trips and when Tracy has her class up there, to shelter stuff from the rain or the sun. The sticks I'd nailed on to make a roof in 2008 had started to rot, so the first step was to get all of them off:

The new roof was going to be made using sweet chestnut offcuts from Rich's sawmill:

First though, I peeled the bark off them to improve durability, and used a chainsaw to cut them to length and taper the ends a bit where necessary:

Then it was a case of drilling holes and nailing the offcuts onto the frame to form a new roof:

I think you'll agree that this finished product:

looks a lot better than the original one did in 2008:

The final step was to reinstall the tarp to keep the rain out:

Now it's ready to serve campers and schoolchildren alike next summer!

Mike