Firewood and stuff

Tracy's out on her chainsaw training today, but yesterday we went up to the wood to give her a little big of logging practice ready for the course - only very simple stuff though, as she'll be learning how to do it properly on the course.

There's plenty of birch to convert to firewood, such as these logs left over from clearing one of the rides last summer:
We'd striped or chipped the bark on the logs to help them dry a bit, and stacked them off the ground, so they're actually quite dry - but they'll get a lot drier now they're split:
There's plenty left cut but not split, so I have something to do if I cycle up there later in the week...
Time for an update on the pond.... animals have been trampling the dam, but that's OK, the water's there for them to drink, as well as for soaking willow:
The lower dam is getting a decent amount of vegetation on it now:
and the plant in the upper (main) pond is getting on well too:
and there are strange little black things coming up from the floor, no idea what they are:
and a few assorted pictures from the walk back to the car. A coppiced birch (not in the cant we cut last winter, but from last summer) which is being eaten by rabbits or deer:
an interesting fungus on the base of an oak:
and berries beginning to ripen on the honeysuckle - the wood is getting ready for autumn already...
Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

Charcoal results, and selling logs

Well, it worked! Here's the proof:
When we had a look in the kiln most of the wood around the edge had burned up:
I carefully tipped the drum over and slid out the smaller one with the charcoal in it:
Certainly made enough for a BBQ next weekend, and it'll be nice to cook on fuel made from our own sustainably grown wood, with zero transport distance, rather than imported charcoal made from a faraway rainforest...

The big job today though was meeting our latest customer. They turned up with a tractor and trailer, and took two 3-tonne loads away:
It'll be used to heat a nearby pub and a couple of homes in the coming winter. There's one more load to go some time in the next week or so.

Back to growing things.... grass has started to sprout in the rides inside the wood!
and the pond is almost luminous, it's so green:
lots of bubbles again, trapped by the film on the surface of the pond:
The film is thick enough for insects to walk on, and loads of flies have moved in. That's good, they can be food for dragonflies and other things.
There's also a plant growing under the water - not sure yet if this is by accident, or if it really is an aquatic plant that got here somehow, perhaps on the foot of a deer or boar?
I'm in London a lot this week, so no more posts till Sunday now, when there will be lots of news from camping up there with my mates (hope the weather holds...)

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

Charcoal kiln test, and stuff that's growing

In an earlier post I was making a traditional charcoal kiln, but I also had a second oil drum, and today made that into a different kind of kiln I'd been told about.

Step 1: cut the top off an oil drum, and make slots in the side near the bottom (I did four, equally spaced):
Step 2: burn out any remaining oil (this wasn't smoky this time, as there was plenty of air getting in through the slots at the base)
Step 3: cut the top off a smaller drum, and pack it tightly with dry wood. I'm using a 20 litre veg oil drum for now, but I hope to get something larger, as I won't get an awful lot of charcoal out of this one: Step 4: put the small drum inside the big one, open end down, and make a fire around it. You can see several "hot spots" from the air being drawn in rapidly through the slots:
Step 5: Let it all cool down, and get your charcoal out of the small drum - I've not done this yet, it's cooling down right now, so I'll find out in the morning if it worked....

It should work better than a normal oil drum kiln (whole drum full of wood, lit and then sealed once the smoke turns blue), because the wood in the small drum will be heated and the volatile gases driven off, leaving the charcoal behind. There'll be no oxygen in the small drum, so the charcoal should not get burned up at all. Another advantage is that the fire in the larger drum can be made of twigs that aren't suitable for making charcoal, and the highly flammable volatiles driven off from the wood in the small drum will help feed the fire.

Tracy wasn't there with me today, so while the kiln was burning, I set about sharpening my chainsaw - this is much more pleasurable in the wood, rather than at the kitchen table! I mounted the saw on our chopping bock, using a neat little clamp:
I also took the opportunity to tidy up the camp fire area, arranging the log benches and rebuilding the stove:
I cleared an area for a tent too - I've got four mates visiting next weekend and we're going to camp there, hopefully cooking with my own sustainable produced charcoal!

And finally, here's some pictures of stuff that's growing. First, the biggest fungi I've seen in a long time. No idea what it is (so we won't be eating it...), but it was growing on the base of an ash tree in Sweep Wood:
Then the pond, which is decidedly green:
When you look closely, there are actually a lot of bubbles on the surface. Not sure if these are methane from decomposing matter in the pond, or oxygen from photosynthesis. Next time I'll take a match to find out! ;-) There's also a few random plants taking root on the banks of the pond - there's plenty of light there as we coppiced some of the nearby chestnut. We're really excited to see the pond slowly coming to life, as we have done absolutely nothing to introduce any species - this is all happening by itself.
Out in the wayleave, beside our entrance, the grass seed we put down on the track is beginning to yield results:
And in the wood, one of the oak stumps has decided to try and grow again. The only problem is that every single shoot is getting nibbled - I assume by rabbits or squirrels. Perhaps we could try using some closely spaced sticks to make a kind of fence to keep the rabbits off, though I'm not sure how well it would work...We're up again tomorrow, early in the morning, as we have some customers coming with a tractor and trailer to collect several tonnes of chestnut logs for using in their stoves - one of which is in a local pub.

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

Pond life and first go using the basha

We went up the wood for lunch and the afternoon yesterday, and as it was drizzling, it was a good opportunity to try out our basha! A basha is basically a tarpaulin with loops sewn in along the centre and eyelets to fasten guy ropes to. This was the first time I tried setting one up - next time I think I'll use two more guy ropes and also change the way I strung the rope through at the top:
I made the pegs for the guy ropes from offcuts left over from when I made the stools, using a side axe to sharpen them:
More follows in the rest of the post, including new life in our pond and our latest sale of produce...

The wood's getting much darker now the chestnut leaves are out, especially on cloudy days:
I found this caterpillar eating a chestnut leaf, which was surprising as they're loaded with tannins and so aren't very palatable. Maybe it was desperate? Plenty of leaves to go round anyway...
The most exciting thing we saw was the pond - the scum has cleared off the top, and there's something green growing in it!
We're pleased, as we'd followed advice to not introduce anything to the pond, but to leave it and see what came to live there - so it's nice to see something happening. Of course, it is still used as a watering hole by deer and other animals:
We did a bit of work too while we were there, cutting up the last few chestnut trees that were still lying on the ground:
It was a good job we did it then, as a contact we made in a local pub last Thursday called, and came up to look at our produce. They're going to buy several tonnes of offcuts and bits of chestnut we have no other use for from us for themselves and their friends to use in their log-burning stoves. It's very satisfying to find uses for the produce! :-)

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.