Rye Classic Car cruise 2010

Today Rye was filled with noise, smog and old cars. Great fun! I guess this post is really only interesting to those who might spot their car, or like old cars.


A lot of people dressed up for the part too!

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Rye Fawkes 2010

Rye Fawkes 2010 parade, bonfire and fireworks were great fun last night! Here's a short video of what was going on, followed by some still photos of the parade:

Mike

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A mysterious object in the woods

Tracy recently stumbled across this strange rusted object in the wood:

As you can see, it has a handle on one side, and what look like buckles to attach straps to. There used to be some kind of internal structure inside the cylinder, but it's too rusted to see what it might have been. On one end there's a nozzle with a screw thread. Any ideas what it might be?

Last week was mostly wind and rain, but the one sunny day, Wednesday, was a day we both had off work, so we had a beautiful day working in the woods.

The strange thing right now is that while the Ash and Sweet Chestnut have lost their leaves:

some of the Oak have barely started to change colour:

We reckon we're over half way through the main part of our work for this winter, although the edge trees may take a bit longer. In the photo below, you can see the main block of trees still to be coppiced, and if you look along the path, you can see the regrowth from last year's coppicing, so the end is actually in sight already!

Mike

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Chainsaw sharpening station

Much as I love sharpening our chainsaws out in the woods, there are days like yesterday, when it is throwing it down with rain. As I was off work, but not going to the wood, I set about converting an old butcher block into a chainsaw sharpening station.

It works pretty well, and as it's in the conservatory, it's really well lit during the day:

The vice is simply bolted to the top with four bolts:

and I drilled out a section underneath for the rails and screw thread to pass through:

Now I can sharpen the saws when it's raining!

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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