Peasmarsh Forest School

Last week I was delighted to go along to the opening of Peasmarsh Forest School - my friend Rich supplied the oak they made into the sign, and I'd helped with the milling of it. The school had got a pyrography expert to put their design into the sign, and had also treated it with some preservatives so hopefully it will stay looking like this for some time to come:

I'd supplied them with some benches, and small logs to use as stools, as seen in the photo below. But the main reason for the photo is to show their innovative method of making popcorn over a fire, using two sieves and a wooden pole! No oil required, and it just uses a bit of wire to hold the sieves together:

Here's the end result, I shall be trying this myself very soon... expect a video!

In our own woods, I've mainly been upgrading some of the tracks and moving logs...

Not that exciting, but at least we've had some nice weather to get on with the job!

Mike

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What a lot of activity...!

A quiet and peaceful woodland, soon to be shattered by the excitement of 27 children age 10 ish! The children from the local primary school love coming to the woodland. This group came to learn about coppicing and local, sustainable forestry. They are going to compare low impact coppicing with logging.... very interesting! They had a go at felling a tree, walked around the wood finding out loads of stuff and enjoyed creating their own tasks. This young man is building a safe house around a baby oak tree to protect it from rabbits.


The children organised a shelter building competition, here are the boys working well as a team.

and the lasses, using a huge log for something!


They are all very safety conscious when they work! (note the helmet)


Here is one of the completed shelters, decorated with the foliage from the tree the kids felled earlier.

They were all fascinated by the boar leg someone hung in our tree..

Many thanks to National Trust for these brilliant guides.

We had a super day. I am only sorry I can't post pictures of smiling kids faces!
The following week we had 54 children visit, this time ages 6- 8. They all adopted baby trees and built shelters, and also did a plant investigation, looking at what grows in the light. We have been left with a variety of unusual looking shelters in the wood!

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