Autumn has arrived in the woods

There's been a definite change in the woods this week, with the leaves changing colour and falling, letting more light in:

It's very different to a few months ago, and soon we'll probably be looking forward to spring... Hopefully we'll have a a bit of snow first though!

As we were walking over to our coppicing site, we spotted boar prints in the track, which is strange, as normally they follow their own tracks in the wood. It seems to be really hard to take a picture that shows their prints properly, I guess it'd need to be in 3D! Anyway, here's my best attempt, which just about shows the little toe print at the side of the foot towards the back:

The other large mammal in the wood was a horse, leaning in over the fence to get at the dead hedge we'd built from Hornbeam brash:

It wasn't afraid to dig in to find those last few leaves!

Here's the progress so far. After the two full log racks are two new ones we're filling. We think that once they're filled that might be a year's worth of home heating, leaving the surplus to sell or put to other uses.

After this winter we'll have a much better idea of exactly how much wood we need to get us through a year, and then we can cut the right amount of coppice for our own needs and a bit more for friends we supply.

Mike

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Water, water everywhere

Sorry for the lack of posts in the past couple of weeks - I'm working full time for a short period while work is busy, so not getting up to the wood very much. Only one more week though, and then the coppicing gets going again.

We had a lot of rain on Monday, and the streams are flowing in the wood again now. Tracy popped up on Tuesday and took some pictures. First though, the river outside our house also got pretty high:
Our winter stream in the wood starts at our border with Dome Wood, and flows into the cant we cut last winter.
On the way it flows under a root plate of a windblown birch - the trees were removed last winter, but we used a log to prop the root plate up, as we though it was an interesting feature. The stream then meanders through the wood, passing just below our shelter.After which it goes down a mini-waterfall into the culvert under the main ride:
And comes out the other side.
After this it carries on through the wood and eventually onto the wayleave, where most of it goes into a drainage ditch, although the track is still pretty wet:
Here;'s a short video, first of the stream in Sweep Wood (which my parents own, and borders ours), and then of the stream at the culvert in our own wood:

Autumn is well and truly here now. The leaves are almost all brown on the oaks and the coppice regrowth, and have gone completely from the more mature coppice.

We're up at the wood briefly tomorrow to collect some firewood, weather permitting, and off to visit a friend's wood on Sunday.

Mike

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Firewood processing video and autumn leaves

Yesterday I posted some pictures of the new way of processing firewood that was suggested to us. Well, here's a short video showing it in action (video is in high quality mode, so pause it for a bit before playing):

Before long we had a trailer full ready to deliver to a customer. The splitting will of course be easier with the stuff we've just felled, which we plan to stack in long split lengths, and saw up next summer.
Last winter we made a fire to burn some brash, and the patch left behind obviously had no plants or seeds remaining in it. It's been interesting to watch it be recolonised. It's now covered in moss, which has started to seed by the look of it:
New plants are also doing well at the fringe of the pond (no ID on this one yet):
and quite a bit of grass has sprung up where we cut the coppice last winter:
Many of the leaves are off the sweet chestnut now, except the coppice regrowth, which doesn't look remotely ready for autumn. The oaks still have many of their leaves too:
As the leaves go and the wood gets lighter it becomes easier to take photos. Tracy got this one of a squirrel:
I know they may look cute, but they aren't a native species and do a lot of damage to trees, so we're going to start controlling them soon, by shooting with an air gun. We're planning to eat the meat from them, so they won't be going to waste...

One tree that produces great colours in autumn is the Wild Service, and ours has lost a lot of its leaves now:
You'd never believe these came from the same tree, would you?
Mike

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Electric bikes to the wood!

Our electric bikes arrived yesterday! We both had to work, but that was OK, as the batteries needed a long initial charge... Today started with rain, but then dried up in the afternoon, so we set off to the wood on the bikes to see how they compared to our normal bikes. Well, they got us there a bit quicker, about 25mins compared to my normal 30min going flat out - though Tracy probably would prefer a slower speed on the normal bikes! This time should come down a bit as we get used to them.

The important thing though was that we arrived there without being tired, so it should be realistic to cycle there this winter, work for a day coppicing and then still be able to cycle home afterwards. The biggest difference is on the hills, of which there are several between Rye and our wood. Hills that on my normal bike I can just about maintain 4 mph can be done on the electric bike at 8+ mph, and you're not out of breath at the top!

Anyway, I'll write more about the bikes in future...

One of the main things we wanted to get to the wood for was to see how things had coped with the rain this week. The answer was "pretty well". The only thing slightly amiss was some water collected on top of firewood drier, which was easily dealt with by putting a bit more tension on the plastic sheet.
Autumn has definitely arrived, though with the weather in August you might think it's been here for a while! Up in the treetops the leaves are turning:
Though this dragonfly still managed to find a sunny spot to rest in for a while:
Over in Sweep Wood we found some hazelnuts on the ground. We didn't see any last year, but we probably didn't look this early, and perhaps the pesky squirrels had got to them first anyway.
There's a few unripe chestnuts down with the recent wind, and they are clearly providing a feast for the squirrels:
I really ought to get an air rifle soon, then after the squirrels have eaten our chestnuts then we can eat the squirrels! ;-)

The boar have been causing havoc at our pond, and recently as well, judging by the cloudiness of the water. The neat channel Tracy usually keeps clear for the spring to flow to the pond had been replaced by two mud baths!
Still, nice to see they're enjoying the facilities! :-) I think some time with a spade will be required soon, as the dam has got a bit trampled again as well.

That's all for now, not sure if we're going to the wood again tomorrow, it will depend on the weather. Next weekend is the Wood Fair at Bentley, which is a big event for us, and my parents are coming to visit the following week, along with my brother and his family. I hope we get some sunshine...

Mike

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