Splitting long logs

A few days ago someone asked me how I split logs while they're 2m (6'6") long. So I made a little video...

Convenient that I had some logs that needed splitting after clearing a bit of windblow last weekend - this is now all done:

Also, now that we can cut logs up at home, I've covered last season's felled wood where it is, as most of it can sit there for another year now:

Mike

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A day (off) in the woods

On Saturday our friends Phil and Liz visited, giving us the welcome excuse to have a day in the woods without any work to do! Not that that meant nobody was working - Phil and Liz had to help chop up some fuel for the stove to cook lunch!
They also tried out Tracy's new log-splitting device that she picked up at the wood fair last month. I'll do a video at some point which will make the operation clearer, but basically you place the bottom section where you want the split:
then shove the top section down hard:
Phil tried the more traditional method of splitting logs too...
After lunch we wandered round the wood looking at stuff and collecting chestnuts
Between us we probably had a couple of kilos, some of which we roasted on a fire in the afternoon. We also saw lots of fungi over in Sweep Wood. Not sure what these first three are:
but these are the well-known Fly Agaric, of which there must have been 30 or 40!
Once back at the camp it was time to roast chestnuts and toast marshmallows.
and sit around chatting while Phil made himself a 'talking stick' he's hoping to use at work:
After a bit of persuasion Liz had a go at whittling a stick too, and found it's a very addictive activity!
All in all a good day, relaxing and fun. Sunday was back to work, but more on that later...

Mike

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Butterlies and log stacks

Yesterday I popped up the wood on my own for a few hours before the forecast rain arrived. My main intention was to stack some logs in a rack to accelerate their drying and have them ready to process later in the year. But first I was distracted by some butterflies, like this Peacock:
I waited a minute and it opened it's wings fully, letting me get an even better picture:
There were also still a lot of Painted Ladies around, both in the wayleave and in clearings inside the wood:
I also spotted a butterfly I've not seen before, or at least not identified. It's a Ringlet. Not rare, but still nice to see:
Anyway, I eventually got down to some work, building a rack to put some birch logs in. The smaller logs went straight into the rack after striping, and the bigger ones are waiting on the path to be split:
The striping is important, as it breaks the waterproof bark of the birch, allowing it to dry out quickly. You just skim the chainsaw (carefully!) along the sides of the log, leaving them like this:
The bigger logs can be split with the maul and wedges, though birch doesn't cleave as neatly as chestnut. Still, I didn't do a bad job on some of the logs:
They'll all now dry out very rapidly, and there's still room in the rack for some more:
One last thing - we had thunderstorms here on Thursday night, and it was pretty windy too. As a result this branch came down between the public footpath and our main ride:It's not in a dangerous place though, so we'll leave it for the moment and see if it can become a bit of dead wood habitat.

Mike

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The weekend's work, and lots of wildlife

The highlight of the weekend for Tracy was that she discovered she can split logs with a maul! I think she'd just assumed she couldn't before - it's one of those things that if you try it in a half-hearted way it doesn't work - you have to really mean it!
While Tracy was splitting logs, I was loading longer ones into drying racks. There's still a few more racks to do, and we want to get them loaded up soon to make the most of the summer weather for drying:There were jobs to do back at camp as well, like making some kindling while dinner was cooking - it's always useful to have a pile of ready-chopped and dry small bits of wood
The summer wildlife is beginning to come out now, like this lizard:
the beetles:
And this hornet. Before you think it's just a wasp, compare it to the size of the dry chestnut leaves, or the honeysuckle leaves!
Despite it's fearsome looks, the European Hornet is apparently quite docile.

There are loads of birds around, but with the leaves on the trees it's much harder to get pictures of them. It took us 10 minutes to get this mediocre picture of a Song Thrush, but I was still pleased as this is the first one we have of this bird in the woods - they're fairly shy.
I managed to get one of a Robin too:One bird that's different is the Blackbird - now that there's some ground cover coming up, he seems happy to roam around the woodland floor near our camp:The trees are growing at an incredible rate. The buds on the coppiced Sweet Chestnut only started opening at the beginning of April, and six weeks on, each bud has become a shoot six inches long or more:
Another tree growing like mad is a Birch in the wildlife corridor that we deliberately ring-barked in the winter to create some standing dead wood. You can see how it has put out new shoots just below where I cut the bark:and the top of the tree has only a few leaves (compare it to the other Birch behind it):
On the other hand, bits are falling out of some trees - this oak branch came down in the wind:
but at other places there are young oak just starting out in life, and we've built little fences round them to hide them from marauding rabbits:
That's all for now. I'm off to Leeds this weekend for a stag party, including outdoor kart racing and clay pigeon shooting! I think Tracy may well go to the woods though.

Mike

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BBQ and woodland skills

On Monday we had our friends Tina and Jeff visit, along with Emma and Dan. The weather was good and after a trip to the beach and a walk around Rye we went up to the wood for a BBQ
But before eating everyone had to earn their food! We started with using the maul to split some wood for the fire:
Then we moved on to making stakes, which Jeff got pretty good at by the end of the day:
The stakes will be put to use this winter, to hold log piles in place during coppicing.

After dinner we came to the highlight - felling a tree. When coppicing last winter we left a stem which was used to attach a rope to hold up the old shelter. But now we have a new shelter, so it was time for it to come down.

Our next project is building a timber drying store, which hopefully we'll get done this afternoon.

Mike

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