Starting 2021 in the woods

2021 has been fairly wet so far around here, but we did get some sunny days and made the most of them in the woods.

Although Spring is some way off, especially with a snowy week about to hit our part of the UK, the plants in the woods know that change is coming. Dog's Mercury is getting going:

Lords and Ladies plants are pushing up leaves that are gradually unfurling:

And the Bluebells are poking out of the ground again:

While we've been coppicing we've saved quite a few chunks of wood like this to pass on to Dengate's Farm Shop, where David is drying them and then turning them into beautiful wooden bowls.

Here's David with a bowl made from some Ash we passed on to him a few months ago:

We have of course been coppicing too - we went back to the top of the hill to fell a few small trees we'd left earlier, which needed a rope to stop them falling into the yard next door:

And yes, I ended up working in a water-filled ditch again...

Further down the hill, here's a few views of how things look now, we're not far from the end of this winter's work:

Just beyond the point where we'll be stopping this year's cutting are a couple of trees that we didn't fell last time round, and they've grown on nicely. First is an Ash:

And then a Sweet Chestnut:

Both are taller than the surrounding coppice now, and I hope to leave them to grow into large trees. Here's the Chestnut just over 10 years ago, when it was looking much more slender:

And finally, a friend was asking how to make stakes using a chainsaw, so I made this short video to show how it's done:

That's all for now!

Mike

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EWB students build us a firewood shelter

Last weekend we had a group of students from Engineers Without Borders UK (Imperial College branch) come to camp in the wood and also build us an additional firewood drying shelter.

We started off with a walk round the wood to admire the Wood Anemones:

and also the bridge that EWB built last year in Sweep Wood:

Then the first part of the shelter building started - carrying back some of the Sweet Chestnut stakes we'd made during this winter's coppicing:

Before starting on the new shelter, we all had a good look at the old one, to see how it could be improved:

Then an area was measured out so that the tarps we have would cover the roof:

and work started on peeling the stakes, so they'll last longer in the ground:

The stakes were put in with the post driver:

and then the rest of their length was peeled - this was easier to do once they were in the ground, which is why we'd only done the first bit earlier:

While all this was going on, some of the group was off felling small trees to use for stakes in the walls and also for roof slats:

Before long the outline of the shelter was taking shape:

Because the ground was slightly sloped, but we wanted the roof to be level, we used an old plastic pipe with water in it to check the relative height of thet corner stakes:

After all that work it was time for a break, and the rope swing was put into use...

The trees that had been felled earlier were cut to length and sharpened with a side axe:

then these were used to create posts that Hazel rods could be woven in between to form the walls:

The longer poles to form the ridge and edges of the roof were flattened using a draw knife until they sat neatly on the posts, then they were bolted down:

By the end of Saturday the shelter was really taking shape:

Sunday saw work start on using a froe to cleave the freshly felled chestnut poles to make slats for the roof:

Each of these then had to be smoothed with a draw knife or billhook to make sure it wouldn't tear the tarp later on:

The slats were then put on the roof:

with each being nailed in at the top to secure it:

near the end the drill battery ran out, but fortunately I'd come prepared!

And finally, on went the tarps, fixed down with zip ties and paracord, just in time for a team photo before it was time to pack up camp:

In case you were wondering, there was also some time for food, camp fires and beer!

Tracy and I are very grateful for all the help we received over the weekend - it would have taken us at least a week to get it done ourselves! Looking forward to another visit next year...

Mike

p.s. there are more photos than the ones in this blog, visit the set on my Flickr page to see the rest.

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Trees into products

We had a productive day on Wednesday, felling a line of coppice stools across the width of the strip we are working. You can see the fresh stumps on two of the stools below:

Obviously our main product is wood to heat our home, and the stacks of logs are filling up nicely now:

But we've also been making stakes. Some of these are for making more log racks, some have gone to a friend's local allotment patch, and some are for another friend, to help keep their pigs in the right place, and also build a firewood store:

In the middle of the strip we're working, there's one strange tree...

It is of course the tree for attaching straps to, to make felling benches. Although we've finished with it for now, I'm not cutting it down to ground level yet, as we'll use it again when we fell these edge trees in a week or two:

I've already picked another one higher up to leave for making benches, but this time we're leaving a whole tree, to grow into a large chestnut, hopefully:

Here's the current state of progress:

Quite a change compared to when we started!

And don't worry, the trees will all grow back, and it will look amazing by July 2011!

Mike

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