Tame pheasants and a new shelter roof

I've posted photos of the tame pheasants in our woodland before:

But recently I also made a video of them so you can see how they behave - I took this using my mobile phone, so that gives you an idea of how close they are, no zoom lens involved:

The coppicing is generally proceeding according to plan, at least on the few days with nice weather! Here's a couple of shots of the progress so far:

As we've progressed through this area, we've discovered a new wallow the wild boar are using:

I gather from people who've lived here longer than us that there has been a spring here for some time, so it seems the boar have located it and turned it into bathing facilities!

Meanwhile, on a day when it was too windy to fell trees safely, I decided it was finally time to repair the roof of a shelter we built back in 2008. Although it's not used to actually store anything, and only has a roof, not walls, it's still useful on camping trips and when Tracy has her class up there, to shelter stuff from the rain or the sun. The sticks I'd nailed on to make a roof in 2008 had started to rot, so the first step was to get all of them off:

The new roof was going to be made using sweet chestnut offcuts from Rich's sawmill:

First though, I peeled the bark off them to improve durability, and used a chainsaw to cut them to length and taper the ends a bit where necessary:

Then it was a case of drilling holes and nailing the offcuts onto the frame to form a new roof:

I think you'll agree that this finished product:

looks a lot better than the original one did in 2008:

The final step was to reinstall the tarp to keep the rain out:

Now it's ready to serve campers and schoolchildren alike next summer!

Mike

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Shelter building in the woods

Last weekend I went to help a friend build a shelter in his woods, so he has a space to store the basics when he visits to manage the woodland this coming winter. We started by using a post driver to bang in some stakes:

Then attached cross-beams to these:

Everything up to this point had been Sweet Chestnut, but at this point a bit of purchased sawn timber was used:

The final step was to nail on some roof panels he'd bought, and use some recycled desk tops to make the walls:

There's a plan to 'clad' it with some dead branches to improve the aesthetics, but at least there's something to keep the rain off a few odds and ends now!

After the work, we rewarded ourselves with a dinner round a camp fire...

It was really good to be able to apply some of what I'd learned by building our own shelters in the past, of which there've been several versions...

Mike

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Ducks in the woods and a new shelter roof

See, I told you the woods were flooded... we have Mallards swimming around now...

Here's a pic of the River Rother from a couple of weeks ago, which gives you an idea of how waterlogged the area around Rye is!

At least one good sign though - bluebell shoots!

The wet and windy winter had also accelerated the decay of parts of our shelter roof in the woods, so we spent some time over the last couple of weekends getting it sorted...

First we fixed some wooden beams across the existing roof:

Then wedged a few bits of wood underneath to stiffen them up - the roof bows a bit, hence the gap in the middle.

To go on top of them we had some sterling board (OSB - Oriented Strand Board), which we'd treated with a preservative, and corrugated panels to go on top of them:

And of course the solar PV to recharge the drill...

Once the sterling boards were on top, it was pretty easy to move around and screw them down:

Then the corrugated panels and the ridge pieces went on top:

They were supplied with some special caps and nails, but we opted to use screws instead of nails. The screw went through the cap:

Was then tightened until it was holding the panel firmly:

Then finally you flip the centre of the cap over and press it down to create a watertight seal:

We spent a good chunk of one day making half of the roof:

Then came back the following weekend with more power tools and got the second half done much quicker!

We went today as well to do some track repair, but no pics of that - not much to see, just mud!

Mike

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Improving the firewood shelter and log cutting rack

Back in March 2011, some EWB students built a firewood shelter for us, and very good it is too!

But when it was built, we did take a bit of a short-cut so it could be completed during their camping trip - we spaced the slats on the roof out, alternating them between the two sides, and used a tarpaulin to cover them. While this has worked reasonably well, the plan has always been to rebuild the roof in the style of our firewood shelter at home, and in the past week we finally got round to this...

While we were doing it we also set a batch of charcoal cooking in the kiln, ready for some BBQs that are coming up:

The first step for the shelter was to remove the old roof - here it is in 60 seconds! The delay at the end is the last two slats, where we had to get 6" nails out...

So then it looked like this:

We also had a pile of new slats ready, to add to the ones we'd taken off the roof. They're all cleaved pieces of sweet chestnut:

The previous layout of slats had them alternating, but the new one was to have them butting up against each other at the apex, with only small gaps between them on each side. We got one side done first:

I did most of the drilling, while Tracy did hammering:

Then we used some surplus roofing felt to start making it waterproof:

The end of each slat was shaped using a side axe, to make sure it fitted nicely onto the roof spars, and was not too thick to drill through - here's a picture from when we built the one at home:

As a result there was a nice pile of wood shavings left, which we'll save to use for kindling this winter:

The next trip up saw the other side of slats completed and another strip of felt on the first side:

and a third day saw the job done (bar trimming some of the excess felt a bit):

We were assisted throughout by our little mobile solar PV power station, with the addition of a 12V-to-mains inverter to charge the cordless drill:

With the roof on it was then time to sort out the inside, so that one half is ready for firewood:

While the other has assorted odds and ends in it

We used some old corrugated plastic to sort that wall out - the others will get more Hazel sticks stuffed into them until there's enough to keep the rain out.

The other little job I was getting on with was rebuilding our firewood cutting rack, which had seen better days after three years of use. Having taken the stakes out I excavated the saw chips that were there, and was surprised at their depth!

I actually got four wheelbarrows full out of there...

When rebuilding it I took account of the length of the logs we cut up (the yellow log painted on the ground is measured to fit our stove), and oriented the rack so we can get our log trolley close to it for easy loading.

Not long after that it was full and ready to cut up:

If you've not seen this from a chainsaw's point of view before, check out this video I made a few months ago:

Mike

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