Busy day cutting firewood and felling trees for The Pelham

Today was a busy day! I arrived at the woods at 07:45, and after sorting some odds and ends out (like a culvert blocked with leaves...), I used the Truncator, mounted on the side of the trailer, to cut some logs to take over to The Pelham:

As I videoed it for the time-lapse using my GoPro camera, I know it took 28 minutes to cut about one cubic metre of loose logs, which I think is pretty good!

Once these had been unloaded over at The Pelham, my friend Dan and I got on with felling the trees in the car park - here's a timelapse video of the first two stems coming down:

The trees weren't huge, but we put the Tirfor winch on them anyway as insurance, as having them fall the other way, into the gardens of the adjoining houses, was not an option! We got a decent pile of logs out of it, which will be split up at some point in the next few months, and hopefully will be dry enough to burn next winter:

I also made a stool out of the bottom of one of the trees, which could be used in The Pelham once it's dried out. Here's Ollie, who works at The Pelham, testing it out:

Don't forget, if you're local to Bexhill, that The Pelham coffee bar opens in a couple of weeks:

Post by The Pelham.

Mike

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Close-up chainsawing, GoPro HD

While processing some of next winter's firewood a few days ago, I thought it was time to make some new GoPro video, so I decided to see what it looked like close to the chainsaw! Enjoy...

It was a baking hot day, so I just worked in the morning, and on the way out stopped in the wayleave, which is especially hot due to the hard ground on the track.

The plants there are growing like mad...

Bees all over the brambles, and butterflies too.

Lots of ragwort growing as well, which seems to be popular with the insects.

Mike

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Time-lapse car washing

We weren't in the woods this weekend, instead we were washing cars at a fundraising event for Rother Responders, which trains and equips people in the community to respond to emergencies with life-saving equipment, such as a defibrillator, to help people until an ambulance arrives. Here's a time-lapse video I took with our GoPro camera. Enjoy...

Mike

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Rough seas!

It was lashing it down with rain this morning, and the wind got up too, so after the rain had passed me got a few photos on the Hastings seafront after church, and then went down to Rye Harbour to try out using the GoPro camera on the end of an extendible pole - check the video out...

Here's some of the pics we got too:

I was pleased with the GoPro-on-a-stick idea, and having had a go I'll be back down there next time it's stormy...

Mike

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Rain storm timelapse video

Just a quick one - thought I'd try getting some timelapse video of storms with all this British 'summer' weather we're having...

I did this one by recording HD video using the GoPro and then using Virtual Dub to decimate it, resulting in 100x speedup. It's slower than using stills, and lower resolution, but gives you complete flexibility on frame rate and speedup. I'll be on the lookout for some more storms...

Mike

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A couple of sunrise timelapse videos

Couple of videos from this morning, first one with my Nikon D60, and the second with my GoPro

I tried using manual settings on the Nikon this time, but still had to increase the shutter speed as the sun came up, so got some jumps in brightness. Must try a sunset some time so I can start at the bright end of the event!

Mike

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Sunrise timelapse video

Just a quick post to show off a video I made this morning. I used my SLR with a Gent LED timelapse trigger and my GoPro HD on the same tripod, to see how they compared. The GoPro produces an image that has the bright parts very washed out, as it doesn't have the dynamic range or intelligence of the SLR. However, I made a mistake with the SLR - I should have locked the aperture and shutter speed when I started, so it began dark and finished up bright. I'd left them on auto, which means it looks like it's getting darker as the sun rises, as the camera tries to compensate for the brightness of the sun. Anyway, still a nice video, but a better one will follow...

Mike

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Rye Christmas Procession 2011

A friend arranged for me to get up on the balcony at The George to do a timelapse video the the Christmas Procession, so here you go:

Meanwhile Tracy was down at ground level and got some good video, including Captain Jack Sparrow!

Mike

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More coppicing and a new chainsaw video

Let's start with my latest GoPro video, this time with the camera mounted on my helmet while felling and logging a tree in our wood:

I made a timelapse video on the same day as well, with lots of bustling around to fell trees, burn the brash and process the logs:

The work has already resulted in a rack full of logs, split or striped to start seasoning:

and the Sweep Wood side of the track is now cleared, leaving a Birch and a Sweet Chestnut to grow on a bit:

The recently coppiced on the other side of the track will of course grow up, but we'll keep the strip either side of the track low, so it is lighter and more beneficial for biodiversity.

Next job is over in Alex's wood - pictures to come soon...

Mike

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This season's coppicing work

The last two years have been pretty intense during the period when we've been working in the wood, as we had a set area to fell for a grant, and it was a bit more work than we'd realised! Still, we got an awful lot of wood out of it, and are now well stocked so that we can burn 2-year old wood at home. This year's different, taking a much more relaxed approach. Our only target is to fell at least one year's worth of wood for home heating, which is probably about 12m3 of solid wood. So, there's time to clear up odds and ends that have been left over from the past couple of years, and we're also going to do some work in a nearby wood that belongs to Alex, a friend of mine.

I actually started by going back up to the top of Sweep Wood, where we were working almost exactly two years ago. The problem we had then was lots of Sycamore leaning over the neighbouring farm yard, which all needed roping to pull them back into the wood. This was a lot of work, so I've resolved to cut them every few years, so we never have the same problem again - this will also create a kind of shrub-like edge to the wood there, which will be good for wildlife.

So Sycamore which looked like this:

now looks like this:

The only problem I had was the chainsaw hitting a metal object embedded inside a coppice stool...

This left me with a chain to sharpen...

I've also done the same work to the regrowth on the tree that the electricity company felled about a year ago:

While doing this one I tried out the GoPro on the chainsaw:

Here's the result (which may make you dizzy!):

If you liked that, there's more to come soon from a helmet-mounted version!

Down at the bottom of the hill in Sweep Wood, there's another area where a bit of work needs doing to complete a link between the widened rides we created a couple of years ago and the recent coppicing. This involves felling the edge trees here:

and both sides of this bit:

The first afternoon I did I just dealt with one corner of it:

which may seem a bit slow, but I was also splitting most of the logs as well, so they could start seasoning:

I've left one birch standing at that corner to grow on a bit and ensure that there are seeds coming down for regeneration:

Last but not least, back near our camp we actually have a few samples of fruit on our trees! We only left a few blossoms on, as the trees are still small, but it's nice to see that pollination is definitely happening!

Mike

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Timelapse chainsaw scuplture: making a stool

I've been out playing with my GoPro camera again... Here's a timelapse video of me making a stool from a log using the chainsaw:

Don't forget there's a longer video with full instructions on how to make one of these stools as well:

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GoPro timelapse: chainsawing firewood

Yesterday I took a timelapse video using my GoPro while loading up one of our firewood processing racks, then chainsawing the rack and loading the logs into the trailer. You can watch it in 1080p HD if you like! Enjoy...

Mike

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Timelapse video: moving firewood

Yesterday I went to the wood after work to collect some firewood, and thought I'd try out my GoPro in timelapse mode. I wish it was this quick to load the trailer in real life...

I also left the camera outside in the back garden for a bit to make a video of the clouds in the sky. Not original, I know, but it kind of has to be done!

I'm looking forward to making timelapse videos of working in the wood this autumn, and next time there's a big thunderstorm brewing I'll be straight out there with the camera!

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London to Brighton bike ride 2011

Well, the bike ride was Sunday, and it all went well - despite it lashing down with rain as we set off from Rye! We had a generally dry ride, with quite a bit of sunshine, and completed it with no major problems. It was just under 52 miles in total, and Rob and I did it in just over 4.5 hours of actual cycling, or a bit over 5.5 hours if you include lunch, and other short breaks like stopping to help someone fix a broken chain. Many thanks to Tracy and Ros for driving us there and helping us back as well. And thanks to everyone who sponsored us to raise money for CAP.

I've made a video of the ride using my GoPro camera. The full version is 13 mins and is probably more suited to people who've done the ride themselves, or are going to, and there's also a shorter 6 min version for those who don't want to watch the long one.

Full version:

Short version:

Mike

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GoPro helmet-cam cycling

Just a quick post - I tried my GoPro camera mounted on my bike helmet yesterday. It works well, with less vibration than when mounted on the bike. One downside though - I seem to cycle with my head slightly to one side! Anyway, here's the video, with another 40mph descent of Battery Hill:

I think it actually looked faster when mounted on the forks though, as the camera was lower:

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Chainsaw cam - cutting up logs

First try with the GoPro camera attached to the chainsaw, cutting up a rack of logs using our Husqvarna 570 with a 28" bar on it:

Here's an older video of the same process, with me explaining how it works:

Mike

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42mph cycling down Battery Hill, Fairlight, East Sussex

I've been busy training for the London to Brighton bike ride that I'm doing in Sept, and yesterday I rode along the coats from Rye to Pett Level (about 9 miles) and from there through Fairlight and up Battery Hill to the coastguard station in Hastings Country Park. The main bit of the hill took me about 13 mins to cycle up - it's a similar size to to the Ditchling Beacon hill on the London-Brighton ride, which is why I'm training on it.

Of course the really fun bit is riding back down it at high speed, which is what this video is all about. I've filmed is using a GoPro camera attached to the forks. Enjoy:

and if you liked that, here's another video of different parts of the route, including other camera angles and some cygnets!

I also have a whole load of pictures from the wood from the past two weeks, hoping to catch up and blog them soon....

Mike

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