Forecast for today – fine in the morning showery in the afternoon. I arrived around 7.45 am pausing at the gate to watch a buzzard circling above and calling incessantly. The sun was shining – a good start. My list for the day included lighting a fire, cutting and burning the diseased ash saplings, starting work putting legs on the plank given to me for a shavehorse, trying out my cheapo hammock and cutting some green logs for making shrink pots. Quite a list so I decided to start straight away and make a fire. The ground was wet from recent rain and the new, virgin, stone fireplace was looking dreary. A large black slug was crawling across the hearth. That’s no place for a slug and not how you want to see your campfire. Funny how a fireplace looks so wrong when there’s no fire in it! I wanted to bring it to life for the first time and it would give me chance to burn the diseased ash saplings. I split a few dry logs into kindling and fire was soon warming and blackening the stones. I did remove the slug first in case you were wondering.
Once there was some hot embers, I cut the saplings, chopped them and stuck them on the fire. It looks wrong again doesn’t it, but it soon burnt through them. Cutting and burning them won’t stop the disease but it allows me to more easily see any new victims in the future.
I knew we were in for some rain in the afternoon, so it was a case of getting all the dry-day jobs done first. I cut a young sycamore tree down that was looking weather beaten and sawed some small logs from it to take home to make shrink pots. I think I described these in a previous posting. I’d like to make more.
My shelter has been looking sad recently. The plastic tarp that is the roof, was hanging down in places because little furry creatures have nibbled the jute twine that was securing it, presumably to make nests. I needed to fix it so that when the rain came, I could keep dry and use the time to do some woodworking.
By late morning there was a change in the weather. I brewed some coffee while the fire was still burning and retired to the shelter for lunch. The rain came down in torrents but after an hour it stopped. I took the opportunity to have a walk around and take some photos. This tree was damaged a few months ago in some gales. It’s a double-stemmed sycamore and one half is wedged firmly. I’m still trying to figure the best way to fell the tree to make it safe. It looks puny in the photo but it’s actually about 50-60 feet tall and the split is half way up!
Next job was to start work on the shave horse. I drilled three angled holes in the plank to take the legs. Two at the back and one at the front. Three legs is better than four on uneven ground. The skies darkened again and I knew more rain was coming. I lugged the heavy plank and some pieces of split oak down to the shelter. The oak was part of a dead tree that had blown down in the winter. The outer sapwood was rotten but the inner wood (the heartwood) of oak remains solid for years due to the high tannin content. Ideal for making the legs. They just needed a lot of axe work to trim off the rotten wood and taper the ends to fit the holes in the plank.
So what about the title of this post then? Well the rain came again, this time acompanied with some fantastic thunder. I sat in the dry chopping away at the oak legs while the rain hammered on the newly repaired tarp. I managed to trim the legs down and fit them to the plank. The shave horse was born. What sprang to mind bizarrely, was a song from an old American tv show from my childhood. It was called Champion the Wonderhorse and I could hear the title tune rattling around my head. Brilliant, from now on, the shavehorse will known as Champion the Thunderhorse. Apt too, that today was Yorkshire day and for those who understand the Yorkshire language, I’ll just say that today was “reet champion” and here’s the horse on his three legs just waiting for his saddle.
