Windblown coppice into firewood logs

I did a day's work in the wood this week, converting all the logs I'd winched and chainsawed earlier into firewood, ready to burn in a couple of years' time.

It was an ideal time to use my Stein Arbor Trolley! I certainly wasn't filling it to the top though, as this was heavy, green wood I was moving - but it still reduced the number of trips back and forth significantly, and it's also easier pulling logs on wheels than dragging them, providing you have a fairly clear path to take.

I prefer to season the wood in long lengths, so it's easier to handle and also so that the decision about what length to cut the firewood can be postponed until I know if it's for us or for a customer. So the next step is to use a maul and then wedges to split the wood:

I've made a video about this too, if you've not already watched it:

After that, it's just a few steps to the log pile:

That's about half our firewood for a year sorted already, and there's still more windblow to cut up!

I see the weather is likely to turn properly to autumn soon, but hopefully I'll still find some drier days to carry on with the woodland work...

Mike

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Winching windblown trees

This week I carried on removing last winter's windblow. I'd already removed the easy trees, leaving these ones to be pulled out. I attached a sling to each one in turn, then hooked the winch cable into it:

At the other end was my Tirfor T516, attached to a tree with another sling:

Without too much effort, each tree was winched into a position where it could easily be cut up with the chainsaw:

A couple of them had an upturned root plate in the way, so I used this little trick I learned some years ago, propping a forked branch under the winch cable to lift the tree as well as pulling it backwards:

By the end of the day they were all out of the way:

There's still a few logs for me to clear up though...

Plenty to get on with next week, and it looks like the weather will hold!

Mike

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Starting this season's coppicing

I started on this year's coppicing work last week, with the help of my Dad. We were working in the area where several trees blew down last Christmas - my plan is to finish clearing up the windblow and then coppice around the naturally created clearing up to the borders with a ride and wayleave. Here's what we were dealing with:

It was looking better already after several hours' work:

There's a few chunky logs in there, like this one:

I decided to see if it would split straight, so that I could make it into two benches later on... If you're wondering why I'm wearing my helmet in this photo, it's for eye protection, in case the steel wedge splinters, and also for ear protection as it's pretty loud!

The wedges didn't quite reach through the log, so I had to do a bit of work on the other side with an axe to finish it off:

And here it is - a nice, straight split! Looking forward to making benches some time in the next few months...

We got some other useful produce out of the work as well, such as these sweet chestnut poles, which a friend of mine may take for fencing work.

And of course a growing pile of firewood, seasoning for the 2016/17 winter...

I've got some awkward stuff to deal with next, I may well use the tirfor winch to pull some of these trees out of the pile to make them easier to get at...

Finally, Tracy picked an apple from one of our fruit trees, and it actually tasted very good!

Mike

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More clearing up windblown trees

I carried on clearing the windblow today. Here's how part of it looked at the end of yesterday:

and here's how it looked at lunchtime today:

As before, some of it is firewood, but some is useful for other purposes, such as these sections which will make nice waist-high chopping blocks (glove for scale):

and these which will be turned into stools:

Finally, here's a stem I left on the upturned coppice stool, to see what kind of shape tree it grows into:

Mike

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Windblow into produce

With the Ashden Awards successfully completed last week, I've got a week off to catch up on everything else. One of the jobs in the wood was doing something with the windblow that came down a few months ago. The first batch is now converted into split logs for firewood:

big, straight logs for use in making benches and stools (click for videos):

and longer straight logs for building stuff, plus some logs for making stakes:

There's still some more windblow to clear up, though I think I might leave one of the stems as they're growing new shoots from the side now, so it might make an interesting tree one day!

Mike

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Getting started on next winter's firewood and clearing windblow

With the spell of good weather we're having at the moment, I took the opportunity to get into the woods and start preparing logs for next winter, and clear up some more windblown trees. For the first time I took the logs home in 2m lengths, as we now have the Truncator to cut them up at home:

Back in the area I coppiced last autumn, the birch I'd left to grow bigger didn't really work out due to the storms...

There was also a sweet chestnut stool knocked over there too:

They were dealt with pretty quickly, I decided to pollard the birch a few feet up, and coppice the sweet chestnut in the hope it will recover in some form:

There was still some space in one of the racks for the logs produced from the work:

The stools I coppiced back in the autumn are showing some new growth now:

The blubells are picking up too, as the wood anemone start to fade...

... much to the delight of the bees of course!

Once I got back home, we got the Truncator out and Tracy helped me process the logs - I chainsawed the logs in the Truncator, then Tracy took them for stacking while I loaded the next lot from the trailer to the Truncator.

We reckon for the volume of logs produced, it had saved about 60-90 minutes compared to our old method of processing and transporting logs, and was much easier on our backs, as there was not much need to pick stuff up form the floor and all the logs ended up in a wheelbarrow.

So we're now started on the road to next winter's firewood...

Of course, the side effect of using the Truncator at home is that the saw chips are all over the drive... Next time I'm going to try putting a tarp down to collect it, and see if anyone wants it for animal bedding.

Oh, and if you missed it, I also uploaded a video of how to make a simple log bench in five minutes!

Mike

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Sunburn in the woods in January!

Nice sunny day today, and I called in to our friends Tom and Jane to help fell some trees in their garden, one was just a conifer that was getting too big and shading the garden, the other was a eucalyptus that was leaning after the recent storms. Tom has a chainsaw too, so we were able to work together on them.

I actually got sunburnt on the back of my neck! Quite unusual for January!

We then headed from Tom's garden into a part of the woods that he and I manage together, and dealt with some of the recent windblow there. It'll all come in useful next winter to feed Tom and Jane's woodburner!

I showed Tom a few new techniques, such as using a pole cut from a small tree to lever a bigger hung up tree after we'd severed it from the coppice stool:

Nice to get a good load of logs from the work!

Mike

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