OK, maybe not these actual benches, which I've just made ready for the school visit on Thursday, but some more like them:
I don't know if anybody would like one, but if you live reasonably near Rye and like the look of them then drop me an email (click on my name at the top right of the page), and I'll see what I can do. Being chestnut they are durable and can be left outdoors without preservative - they'll get a "weathered" look, but won't disintergrate.
Mike
Monday, 22 September 2008
Benches for sale!
Visitors
Last week my parents were visiting, and also my brother Andy, along with his wife Rachel and their son Joshua, who's just learning to talk, and thought the wood was great fun! He quickly learned to help clean up some old bits of coppice stool, ready for sand blasting and selling to flower arrangers:
He also liked pushing the wheelbarrow, though Grandma had to help a little, as he can only just see over it!
We had a couple of meals up in the wood during the week, including a stew with rice, and a BBQ, when Rachel's brother Andrew joined us too. 
Fortunately we were blessed with a week of dray weather with some sunshine, which is in stark contrast to most of August!
Mike
New "facilities"
We've got a class from a school Tracy sometimes teaches at coming to visit the wood on Thursday, to learn about wildlife, coppicing, etc. With 30 nine-year-olds and supervising adults, we though it was probably time we built a toilet...
So, I ordered a "toilet tent" from ebay, and bought a cheap toilet seat from a plumbing supplies shop just down the road. With the help of my brother Andy (who was visiting with his family last week), I made a frame from some chestnut and fixed the toilet seat to it:
The frame was then bolted onto a couple of short poles, which themselves rest in grooves cut into two large logs, which are flattened on the bottom to stop them rolling:
After trimming the large logs to size, the whole thing fitted neatly inside the tent, along with a bucket of sawdust for covering up after each visit:
I'm sure the whole set-up will be much appreciated by visitors who've had to squat behind trees up until now! ;-)
Mike
Sunday, 21 September 2008
Bridge building
In Sweep Wood there's a substantial winter stream, formed largely by water draining from an adjacent stream. As my Dad has marked out a path through the wood which crossed it, he wanted a bridge of some sort for use in the winter.
Here's the stream, which is dry at present on the surface, though if you dig down just a short distance you quickly find water:
Having picked the crossing place we staked a couple of large logs in place, one on the flat side:
and the other on a steep bank:
Here's my Dad and his friend Brian putting the stakes in:
One that was done we used some chestnut rails I'd cleaved to bridge the gap, using the side axe to make notches in the logs at each end for them to sit in.
The rails were then screwed down to hold them in place. We could still do with a few more rails to make the bridge wider, and a further step on the steep bank, but it does the job for now, as proved by my Dad:
and also by by brother Andy and his wife Rachel:
Mike
More mushrooms
Just a collection of mushroom pictures from our wood and the wayleave just outside it. The first one's Fly Agaric, the rest I don't know...
Mike
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
