My latest trip was a few days ago. I had a few aims for the day. Clear up the felled hazel limbs from my last visit. Replace some old tree shelters with new ones. Try out my chainsaw. Take my new wheelbarrow and chain it up to a tree. Well I achieved two of them.

It was a mild, dry day for January. First job, wheelbarrow. I bought it on the internet. The tyre was flat but I assumed it was part of the “flat pack” arrangement. I had a pump in the car and intended to inflate it when I got there. It wouldn’t stay up. So I decided to bring the wheel back home and leave the rest of the barrow. I thought I’d left a chain and padlock in my secret stash so I could secure it to a tree but I was mistaken, so the whole thing had to come back home. Bad start.

I set to, sorting out the hazel limbs I had cut last time. They were strewn around where they had dropped. I snedded them (cut the small side branches off) to make poles, rods etc and graded them into several piles – big diameter trunks to be split for stakes etc, long medium diameter ones as possible building materials for a shelter, smaller straight rods for stakes, thin whippy rods for craft produce perhaps, odd shaped pieces to be cut for firewood, and brash and deadwood to be left to rot. It was hard physical work but very enjoyable. I have piles of material to work with now and a nice tidy site around the newly coppiced hazel stump. My next task in that area is to coppice a few more old stools and create a nice small coupe that I can then fence of from deer and see how it progresses in spring. In future I think it wise to do the snedding and sorting of each branch as I cut it. That way it avoids having to wrestle with tangled branches and should be easier and quicker to sort and grade.

Next job needed to be lighter work so I replaced the tree shelters I mentioned. I have planted a few saplings but used old tree shelters I found lying around which are discoloured. They are basically long plastic tubes which you put around each small tree and tie it to a stake. It protects the vulnerable plant from deer and small animals. Once they get established in a few years, they can be removed.

Next job was to carry some of the hazel logs back to my log store. The hazel I coppiced is at the far corner of the wood and the store is in the middle. The route across was strewn with brambles and fallen branches, causing trip hazards. So the next strenuous job was to clear a path directly from the log store to the hazel log site. Using my machete, I hacked at the bramble and moved all the dead sticks and branches. Now I have a nice clear path across. Hard, backbreaking work but effective. It gave me chance to see close-up, what is growing in that area. I found small oak and hawthorn saplings and some wild honeysuckle.

Sadly I didn’t have time to try out my chainsaw for the first time. There’ll be lots of logs to saw up soon and I’ve just knocked together a sawhorse out of scrap timber today. Another small step forward. No new pictures this time, sorry.

Yesterday was a beautiful cold sunny day. A light dusting of frozen snow made everything stand out and looked beautiful. However it was a day for working hard and getting two important jobs done.

A light dusting of snow and some morning sun.

I have a huge over-stood hazel, desperately in need of re-coppicing. The boughs are so heavy that they are almost horizontal. The danger being that the weight pulling down can split the stool (base) of the tree allowing rot to set in. So having now got my felling licence, I’ve been itching to get in there and start doing some surgery. This is how it looked before I started.

Huge overstood hazel ready for re-coppicing

The boughs need cutting right down to a few inches above ground. The problem is, the weight of them will split them before you finish the cut. If they split low down, you damage the stool again. So the first cuts were made about a metre above ground level. A shallow cut underneath first helps to minimise splitting, then start the true cut, just above and higher up the bough. It’s amazing how tall these boughs had become – easily 10 metres to the tips. Quite a lot of weight to them too. So here’s how it looked after the first “trim”.

Over-stood hazel after the initial cut to remove the weighty boughs.

Having then released the main weight from them, it was a case of trimming them down to a few inches above ground. I left a few thin “whips” on to help the tree photosynthesise when spring comes and hopefully, the new shoots to grow away quickly. It’s a case of clearing up the sawn boughs and waiting to see how it responds. The tree was already showing catkins. There won’t be any more of those for a few years now but I should get some nice straight rods for craft work. I’ll protect it from deer for the first few years with some netting. I was interested to know how old these boughs were – how many years since last cut. I counted about 30 years growth rings.

The finished job, the hazel re-coppiced.

I said there were two important jobs. The other was to finish clearing the bramble in the triangular glade patch. The bluebells are starting to show their leaf tips so I wanted to get this done ASAP to avoid damaging them too much. Job done, now wait and see what other wild plants emerge in spring now that the competing bramble and bracken are cut down and light can re-enliven all those dormant seeds. I shall be doing some more replanting here soon too.

The triangular glade where I have finished clearing bramble and bracken

New Years are non-events for me these days. In reality it’s just an extension of the last one isn’t it? But this year I can consider it a new year as a woodland owner. Firstly I have been granted my Forestry Commission thinning license which means I can start cutting down trees to thin them out, re-coppice the hazel and at the same time, create some timber material for using in my planned projects.

Secondly, I was given 10 small saplings as Christmas presents, so yesterday, with the help of my eldest daughter, we planted them up in the clearing where I have been working on eradicating bramble. A lovely satisfying feeling, to add new stock and eagerly await spring to see them burst into life and watch them grow over the coming years. They are all British native species – one each of crab apple, rowan, blackthorn and hazel and three each of dogwood and whitebeam.

Thirdly, whilst digging, we noticed the small tips of bluebells ready and waiting for spring. Some had just pushed through the surface. Other small shoots were evident too. So yes it is the start of a new year in the woods and my first full calendar year.

It was my daughter’s first visit and it was a beautiful sunny frosty morning. It warmed up as the day progressed, the ground was soft enough to plant, having been protected from frost by the dead leaves. We sat contentedly eating sandwiches and a bowl of home made soup, heated over a small stove, the smell of wood smoke in the air and the dappled sun around us and watching a robin hopping around. After a while my daughter said “I can see why you love this place.” Enough said!

a frosty sunny morning in the woods