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.
