Clearing up the brash after felling the Sycamore

Now we're both back at our 'desk jobs', we're making slow progress finishing up this last job in the woods... Fortunately, we had help last Sunday - Lee, a carpenter, came to see where his raw material comes from, and was a big help clearing up the brash and logs from the Sycamore.

It's a slow job...

But we're getting there... Here's Lee having a go at splitting logs using a maul and then wedges:

We're not far off done now, there's three big butts on the ground now:

This weekend should finish the job for now, weather permitting...

Mike

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Felling three large Sycamore - video

This really is the last job this winter... These trees were bigger than I've trained to fell, and as they were also near our neighbour's barn we paid our friend Tim to come and fell them.

We had a bit of a mix up on who was bringing what kit, so a bit of improvisation was required, but Tim's great at that kind of thing. We used our Tirfor 516 winch on one of the trees, in conjunction with wedges and a sledgehammer. The others came down more easily, just with chainsaw and the wedges.

Here's the video of it all. You'll see I had to make a fairly sharp exit after operating the winch, although once the tree was down I saw I could have remained where I was, but it's not the kind of risk you take!

Here's a few still pictures to go with it:

As you can see, they were pretty big trees, and we need to go back later to finish clearing them up. They had rotten parts at their centres, so it was definitely good to get them down, given the proximity to the barn. We'll probably get several cubic metres of logs out of them, so they'll be put to good use.

Mike

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Finishing off the sycamore

We were in the wood yesterday, as we were hosting a Butterfly Conservation volunteer day. This went well, I've put a few pictures on the Rother Guardians blog.

While that was going on, I worked with our friend Carl to finish clearing up the Sycamore that had been felled the day before using a UNIMOG and a cherry picker. Carl's going to take the wood away and split it up so he can use it to heat the family's home next winter, so our deal was that I'd cut the large chunks of wood into pieces that could be carried:

while Carl managed the fire to burn up all the brash that was left:

We're pleased the wood is only travelling a short distance to where it will be used, and it's saved us a big job, as we want to focus on coppicing rather than processing and storing a few cubic metres of wood! We've got plenty from our coppicing activities for our own home heating anyway.

All that's left of the Sycamore are some stumps now:

Our plan is now to cut them every few years as they regrow, so they never get big enough to become a problem again.

Mike

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Last weekend in the woods

It's been a very busy week at the Ashden Awards, which is why it's taken until now for me to post the photos I took last weekend...

The area near our camp is now swamped by a carpet of green:
The fruit trees are coming on well:
but one particular birch tree is having a tough time with caterpillars:
Don't know the species though - leave a comment if you know what they are.

We've got yet more new plants moving into this area as well. I think this one is Hedge Bedstraw (correct me if I'm wrong), which we've not seen before:
Another one that's nice to see is Elder:
The thistles are back, and we have at least two varieties, judging by the colours of the flowers:
What's quite amazing is standing at the boundary of the area we coppiced in 2007/8 and taking a photo in each direction. Here's the coppiced area:
and here's the view in the other direction:
You can see the huge difference in the variety of ground flora. This is why it's important to keep cutting different bits of the wood each year, so there are a variety of areas in different stages of growth, with different plants and habitats in them. It also works well for harvesting the wood, which I guess is why people have been managing woods this way for thousands of years!

Anyway, time for a Sweep Wood update, where everything is growing like crazy! At the top, the logs we sat on to eat lunch last winter are nearly hidden by nettles:
Hazel stools are growing nicely:
as are the Sweet Chestnut:and so are Sycamore (though we won't let these grow to the point where they seed, we have quite enough of them already!)
A new one for us is Ash - this is the first time we've been able to watch it grow after coppicing. The speed of growth is amazing:
especially when you look at how thick the stems are already, way ahead of the other species:
Down at the bottom of Sweep Wood there's a fungi on an Ash tree, in the same place as last year (which is not surprising):
Any ideas on the name? I wasn't sure...

Heading back to our own wood, the pond is looking good:
OK, you may not think that's good, but look closer:
there's other little creatures in there too, but I couldn't get a clear picture...

Down at the end of the path we coppiced in 2008/9, the honeysuckle we carefully protected is in full bloom:
which is a treat for the White Admiral butterfly. We saw two of them near our entrance, the first recorded sighting in the area this year:
Other insects are out and about too, there's loads of dragonflies around in the wayleave:
and last but not least, first picture of a Meadow Brown this year:
That's all for now...

Mike

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More birds and some interesting Sycamore

The rest of this week was just more coppicing, straightforward stuff with no need for ropes. Robin was with us again, though this time he thought he'd explore the land rover and the tool belt:
and of course, come to eat the crumbs we "accidentally" dropped...
Once again, he wasn't the only bird around - a Pheasant exploded out of a tree, along with a pigeon, and then set to prowling around the area we've been working:
One of the Sycamore we coppiced had a really interesting pattern inside it, so I cut several slices off and we'll see if we can do something with them. I'm assuming it's a fungal growth of some kind:
That tree came out of the area I'm working in that's dense with Holly - I've not included another picture, as you can't see any progress, despite a number of trees coming out already!

Tracy, on the other hand, has created a nice space to fell into further down the hill:
The trees at the top of the hill had been felled up the hill, then stacked near the top. But now we're moving down the hill, there's no question of moving the logs that far up the hill, so it's easier to fell them down it now.

One last little oddity - the tree near the top that looks like a kind of plum has blossomed - but only on one branch! This happens to be the branch that was nearest to a fire we had there a couple of months ago - we're wondering if the heat tricked it into flowering?
Mike

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