Primroses pushing through.
Storm Ciara was on it’s way and due to peak in the early hours of this morning but the forecast for yesterday was giving warnings of strong winds too. I really wanted to get down to the woods again, so many jobs to get done before Spring, so I decided to chance it. Most likely not as bad as predicted but probably too windy for felling but I took the chainsaw to cut up some of the ones still lying on the ground. I arrived nice and early to a calm woodland. Lots of bird calls and the sun just up. I savour this moment – a full day of woodland therapy and a feeling of contentment washes over me.
I decided to get stuck in with the chainsaw whilst it was calm and take a few small sycamore down. You think the small ones are going to be a doddle but that’s not the case. True to form the first one got badly hung up and despite undercutting it and lots of pulling sideways with a rope, it wouldn’t budge. It wasn’t too far from the ride so I backed the car in as close as I could, took the rope around another tree so that I was at right angles to the one that needed to come down, then tied it to the tow bar and inched forward. It worked brilliantly.
The next tree got hung up even worse, a forked branch lodged between another fork of a nearby tree. No way I could bounce it out so undercutting was on the cards. I don’t like this technique. Basically the tree is at an angle, so you cut from underneath about 3-4 feet from the base (which will be embedded in the soil now that you have attempted to fell it). When you cut through, the main part of the tree will fall down and toward the tree it is stuck in and the weight of it will drop it down by the amount you cut off. Sometimes that is enough to pull it out but this one had a lot of length still where it was jammed. A second undercut was still not enough. The more times you undercut it, the more upright and therefor dangerous to release. The tree is now almost straight up but embedded in the soil. No amount of pulling on the rope would budge it and it was too far away to get the car to it. I think the only way now is to winch it out. I have one at home so for now I have simply roped it off to warn others about it. The ride is rarely used and it’s so well stuck it’s not likely to come down unless of course (fingers crossed (storm Ciara lends a hand).
The tree in the middle is the hung up one. It looks small but it’s bigger and heavier than you think.
It was time for a brew. I brought my vintage Soviet made camping stove. Haven’t used it for about a year and I remembered how much I liked it. It’s just a cool looking piece of kit and does the job really well and perfect for my dinky little kettle. I love the little coffee filter too, can’t beat real coffee.
I took two more small trees down o.k. then after lunch headed to my pal’s woodland plot. We had been talking about making bird boxes and I have plans for a Tree Creeper nest box made from slices of bark covered logs. Steve has just felled some big Ash trees and kindly allowed me to have a go at cleaving some to have a go at the boxes. Ash splits beautifully and I loaded my wheelbarrow with potential pieces. I’ll have a go at making one this week.
I finished the afternoon shifting big logs, taking down deer netting from the coppiced hazel and heading home exhausted but highly satisfied. Good useful day.
