Grey, windy and drizzly when I left home yesterday but as usual, the weather at the woods was better and it stayed dry. My good friend Phil gave me some clear plastic roof panels to replace the tarp on my shelter. The whole thing needs rebuilding which I hope to do in spring. I took the panels over and stashed them. During my usual walkabout I noticed a Great Tit investigating one of my new nest boxes. It walked all around it and eventually went inside. This one is meant for larger birds like Nuthatches and has a wider hole – 32mm. Great Tits are meant to prefer 28mm. Someone needs to tell this bird!

My neighbours arrived and I helped them release a hung up tree they had felled a few days ago. I’ve been busy watching online videos of different felling techniques. The tree was well and truly wedged between a fork. The only thing we could do with this one was to undercut it so it would drop a metre or so, then using a long pole as a lever under the butt end, “jump” it backwards until it fell out. Success then I headed off to do some felling of my own. The target was two more large sycamore in the coup I’ve been creating. This is how it looked after I finally got them down.

The first one fell perfectly. The second one looked challenging to start with. Although pretty well balanced, it looked like it might naturally want to fall into my neighbour’s plot. I planned it to go the opposite way and made my first “gob” cut. As I made the back cut it felt as though it was tightening on the saw slightly, indicating it wanted to fall backwards. I managed to get the tip of a wedge into the cut to hold it while I finished the back cut. While trying to bang it in further it fell out and the tree leaned back, settling on the cut at a disturbing angle towards my neighbours plot. This has to be one of the worst situations to rectify. The tree was now unstable. It would be almost impossible to make a new gob cut on the back side as the cut would be under tension and would close up on the saw. I guess the solution might be to start a new one above it but I didn’t want to be so close to it for that length of time.

With the help of my neighbour, we got a rope over a branch high up. The plan was to stand slightly to the side and in front and try to pull it forward again. It wouldn’t need much movement to tip the balance back the way I wanted it and after a few tugs it fell perfectly. I felt so much relief and was thankful I had a helper. On my own I would have been panicking! We sat and had a coffee and I decided it might be time to end the felling here for this season and start clearing up. I noticed that some of the fresh stumps from a couple of weeks ago were now oozing sap. The first stirrings of spring and new growth. Some of the stumps will be allowed to re-sprout and provide some bushy understorey which can be coppiced in future.

I spend the rest of the day clearing some of the brash and pottering. I’ve been wondering how I can fix the mini tarp over my work table when it’s raining. Last week it caught me out and my gear got wet. There aren’t any trees near enough to it to attach the lines. I could move the table but underneath is full of logs drying, making it a big job and anyway I like the position. There’s a long thin hawthorn branch behind it which has toppled over forming a natural arch. I like that feature. I rammed a post into the ground and pulled the branch forward, lashing it to the post to stabilise it. Two tarp lines could be attached now and with the aid of two long vertical rods at the front, I should be able to put the tarp up sheltering most of the table. I didn’t have time to try it but here’s how the arrangement looks. I might plant some honeysuckle to wind it’s way up the arch.

Saturday was dull and incredibly grey but little sign of rain. I’d made three new bird nest boxes last week. Two were slightly bigger than usual and intended mainly for nuthatches. I recently discovered that there’s no necessity to place boxes high up, other than to prevent people looking in and disturbing them. Most small birds prefer to nest low down anyway and as my woods aren’t open to the public, it makes sense to place them low enough to reach without using a ladder. However the nuthatches do prefer to be higher. This is one of my new boxes in position near my logshed and work area now. Last year a pair used an old woodpecker nest nearby. I often see them in this particular area so there’s a good chance of them using it. It’s close to where I often sit for a coffee break, so I can watch them come and go.

I thought it a good idea to go around all the other boxes, look inside to see if they were used last year and clear out the old nesting material in readiness for the new season. I had ten boxes and eight of them had been used. They would probably all be members of the Paridae family – blue tits, great tits or coal tits which are common here. Sadly one of them contained about eight tiny skeletons, so either the parents abandoned them or were killed by predators – owls, buzzards etc. Two of the boxes had fresh fecal matter, suggesting that birds were using them for nightime shelter during the winter. Many small creatures were also taking advantage – a queen wasp, a yellow coloured ladybird, spiders, millipedes, and various unidentified larvae. So the boxes are useful in many ways. The two boxes that weren’t used have been repositioned by stuffing them low down into the brash hedges. Robins and wrens might make use of them as they like overhanging cover. This is the other new nuthatch box.

The other main job was to fell some more sycamore. My next door neighbours were in which was reassuring when using the chainsaw. We help each other out when trees get hung up which is a regular occurance. The first one was easy and came down where planned with no fuss other than it “barber-chaired”.  A term used when tree stems unexpectedly snap off above your cut. It causes the bottom of the tree butt to pivot backwards on the fixed portion rather like the old fashioned barber’s chairs when they laid the customers flat for shaving. It’s dangerous and the reason you should not stand directly behind the tree when cutting. It was my fault, my lack of expertise. My back cut was too low. Must try harder!

The second one was much bigger and judging where it’s natural lean was and planning the cuts so it fell where I wanted it to, quite challenging. As I make the back cut and it gets close to the front “gob” cut, I usually pause to see how far I am and if my cut is parallel. This time I noticed the cut had opened slightly, suggesting the tree was starting to go. You daredn’t look up while cutting with the chainsaw, so it’s the only sign you get and time to stop and retreat to see if it falls. It didn’t fall but had started to lean. This is the part that is most nerve-wracking for me because it’s unstable and I have to get close again and take action to get it to fall. My first method is to hammer a wedge into the open cut but if that fails I have to take another small cut with the chainsaw. It fell with a reassuring crash exactly where I wanted it to. The feeling of exhilaration and relieve that it is safely down and I am uninjured, might be similar to what people get when participating in extreme sports. The “barber chair” can be seen in the foreground and the deceptively large tree behind. They look like large sticks in the photos but scale is misleading. Bare in mind they are probably forty to fifty feet tall.

One more to go and this one was at the top of the woods and would need to be felled partially across the track/ride. One of my neighbours watched out for anyone walking while we attempted to fell it. The base of the stem had a steep curve which would make it’s natural lean opposite to where I wanted it. Rightly or wrongly, I decided to cut above the curve, taking it out of the equation. It’s not probably how a professional would have done it but it made sense. However, cutting at face level feels very wrong. This one got hung and seemed to be still joined by a sliver. Wedgeing the cut proved useless. Taking a few more centimetres out with the saw didn’t help. By far the most comfortable option is to sling a rope around it as high as you can and pull sideways to dislodge it from neighbouring branches. It’s usually a case of rhythmic pulling and releasing, to get a nice swing going. I spent half an hour snedding and tidying up the ride. I was tired and it was time to quit while winning. I pottered for half an hour or so, taking the luxury of just looking at my woods. Standing quietly I spotted numerous small birds – tree creepers, nuthatch, various tits and a robin. They are quiet at this time of the year, so unless you stop and observe, you tend not to be aware of their presence. Birds are my favourite creatures.

Happy New Year to you all and looking forward to my fourth year as a woodland owner. I have to say I have not lost an ounce of enthusiasm for it and it’s one of the best things I have ever done. If you read this regularly you don’t need reminding. Thankyou for following my blog and the nice feedback you have given.

The year seems to have gone quickly yet I feel I have achieved quite a lot. A mini review might be worthwhile.  My hazel coppicing has been successful after felling several largish sycamore. The extra light brought more birds and dragonflies to the area and the regrowth on the hazel reached around two metres. Several more hazel stools have been cut to increase the coppice area and about fifteen new ones planted.

Two new brash hedges and an underground pit built to encourage wildlife and add interest. The felling of sycamore to create an open coup for replanting has progressed quite well and I’ve taken around ten more down this winter and more to come before spring.

I completed a full year of “fixed point photographs” for the Woodland Trust and a short film for their website. Sadly, my mentor and friend Robin has finished his role with the W.T. but we have exchanged contacts so hopefully he will drop by occasionally for a catch-up.

Several camping trips in the bag, an underground fridge and two new fireplaces built, plus a shavehorse for wood working. Sadly, ash dieback disease was first spotted.

Yesterday was frosty but sunny. My daughter bought me a small tarp for Christmas. It’s called a Magic Carpet made by DD hammocks. It can be used as a quick form of shelter or as a groundsheet. It’s small and light so can be kept in my bag or taken on my walks and bushcrafty adventures. I was keen to try it out and find a suitable spot in the woods for it. I love it. Dare I say I’m looking forward to a bit of rain to try it out for real. Shouldn’t have to wait too long for that!

My main job for the day was to fell some more sycamore in the coup. I took four down. Two got hung up but with the help of my neighbours, we were able to get a rope around them and shake then sideways until they fell. They were all quite tricky as their natural lean was not where I wanted them to fall. I used a wedge in the back cut to stop them leaning back and trapping the chainsaw blade. The last one I felled was in danger of crushing several oak saplings I planted a year or two back. I’m pretty chuffed with myself for missing them but look how close it was! By the way, the tree guard on the ground had already fallen over when the stake rotted.

The felled trees have been left on the ground for now as I am keen to get as many down as I can before spring. I can log them up later in the year. It looks like Armaggedon but the coup is starting to look more promising now and should let a lot more light in for the new trees. Some might ask “why cut trees down to plant more?” Well it’s part of the plan to gradually introduce a more diverse range of native trees into an area that is almost 100% sycamore to create a more semi-natural woodland.

The coup is situated close to the border with my neighbours. I chose that as they have a large open area there which allows a lot of light onto mine. Of course the bramble have taken full advantage of that and grow at an alarming rate. I’ve strimmed mine down and they have also done the same to a large area in theirs but the two were still seperated by a wall of bramble. I suggested it might be beneficial to us both if they were to cut the wall down to connect those two. Ground cover will have chance to migrate between them and it will also create a wildlife corridor between our two plots. They did that yesterday and this is how it now looks. I’m excited to see how that develops during spring and summer.

Wednesday 27th Dec. It was a day planned to take my youngest daughter for a fun day at the woods. Having only been for a few fleeting visits, she was keen to get hands-on and spend some quality time there. I had a couple of small jobs I wanted to do but mainly I wanted to let her experience the woods in more depth and create some good memories for her. First job was to collect firewood and light a fire. I showed her how to use the ferro rod firesteel and birch shavings to get an initial flame, then coax it along gently until it was established. Kettle on for a coffee.

Remember last visit when I had to leave a felled hung up tree? I needed some help to get a rope over it and pull it sideways. I used a small log tied to some cord to throw it over the stem high up, then pull a rope through and back to ourselves. We both held one end and rhythmically pulled on the rope until it loosened and crashed to the ground – exciting and a little scary, great! One job done.

It was soon time for lunch so out came my trusty cast iron skillets. Bacon and egg sarnie for my daughter, veggie burger and egg for me. More coffee. Simple stuff but so satisfying to light a fire, cook over it and scoff it in a woodland.

We headed off to the hazel coppice area with the Silky saw for her to have a go at cutting. She seems to love sawing things so we cut back a couple of small stools and snedded some branches. Earlier we had spotted a hare and there it was again. It’s a rare sight these days so a thrill to see one in my woods.

Back to base and time to let her loose with the big splitting axe. After a little H&S talk, she split a few logs for me. We had a walk over to see if any neighbours were in but didn’t meet any. Time was pushing on so I packed up while she had a bit of quiet time sitting on mum’s bench and watching birds on the feeders. I think it was a successful day out and hopefully left her with some nice memories.

Out on the road by 7am and on my way to the woods yesterday. It was very cold and frosty but I was rewarded with an amazing sky view just before the sun rose. A thin sliver of new moon was on the horizon, the sky turning from deep azure blue to fiery red. I was in the woods by the time it was light. It was good to walk about the crispy, frosty woodland floor and see it as day dawned.

I took the chainsaw and finished off cutting the large hazel that we coppiced last visit, then cut the large stuff into logs. Time for a nice fire and a brew and there was never a better day to enjoy the heat and spiritual comfort of a fire. I decided to cut a few small sycamore trees. The area I have started to open out for re-planting needs more thinning so while I had the chainsaw it made sense to take a few of the smaller ones down.

My woodland friend called around and we chatted about our plans and had a walkabout and he watched as I cut a couple of trees down. I did pretty well with my aiming and took about five down, dropping them just where I wanted. The last and biggest one got hung up though. It was too big to try to push sideways so I tried a technique of undercutting it a few feet off the ground. It’s dangerous as the top part will drop suddenly as you cut through and you have to judge it and get out of the way quick. The idea is that it will pull itself out as it drops. But often it doesn’t and just embeds itself back in the ground. I had a second attempt, same again. At this point, tired and getting near the end of the day, it was a good time to call it a day and I just left it. More fun for next time.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of some company and help from my good friend Phil who also owns a small woodland in another part of the country. He is a real woodlander and lover of nature and also an expert bushcrafter. We can talk all day about the subjects and not get tired and the wonderful thing about knowing someone like that is that they understand how you feel about it all without having to explain it and with no danger of boring them to death. They “get it”.

There’s something really special when you can properly connect with nature and I’m sad to say that most people have not experienced that. Probably because we live in such a “developed” environment and have become too comfortable with our cosy homes, cars etc. I think that given the chance, most people could find that connection. It’s not too long ago that all our ancestors had it and there’s probably some sort of genetic memory in us all that is still lurking and can be triggered when given the chance. Some people have a natural leaning towards it and actively seek it out in their lives in different ways, not necessarily on a conscious level. Look at how popular hobbies such as angling, walking, landscape photography, climbing, mountain biking etc are. They all allow you to connect with the natural world and make you feel good.

We started the day with a short guided tour, then decided a fire was the order of the day. We foraged for some dry tinder and twigs and soon had a fire crackling away and the kettle on. That shared activity of working together to create the life sustaining warmth of a fire also resonates deeply in my ancestral, archived memory bank.

There were two, large overstood hazel trees that I wanted to coppice this year. They are on the edge of the area I have already done and have plenty of light now, so should respond well to regrowth. Although hazel trees look small in comparison to the larger standards, they are often trickier to cut down when neglected like this. The multi-stemmed nature means that they usually get stuck in nearby trees and also have a tendency to twist as you cut them, often trapping your saw. It’s definitely easier with a helper. This is one of the trees before we attacked it. The photo doesn’t convey just how much timber is in it but each of those branches probably reached a good 25-30 feet high.

I wanted to have a go at layering a couple of branches to create new plants. It involves partially cutting through the stem low down, then letting it fall to the ground and pegging it down twards the end. As it’s still partially attached, the parent tree will continue to feed it but the stress of it will cause the pegged stem to throw down new roots. In a couple of years you have a new tree and the old stem attaching it will rot away. You can see the newly coppiced stump and two layered stems in this photo.

We spent an hour or so cutting up the felled branches and stacking them. There’s still some brash to clear and some tidying to do but we got the hardest part done. I am very thankful for the help and we both enjoyed working together, doing what we truly love – working with nature. The process of coppicing looks brutal but it is beneficial to the tree. Left alone it would die off in a couple of decades or so. By cutting it back, it resets it’s biological clock and stimulates new growth, lengthening it’s lifespan. Here’s Phil hard at work. Happy days!

Yesterday was another visit with the unexpected. I planned to do more brushcutting but having had a hectic and stressful week, decided just to go and relax a little, play in the woods and build a fireplace next to my work area where my bench and seat are. This will be the third fire location, one being at my camping area (mainly used in summer) and the other at my shelter (winter). This one will be for small quick fires when I want to make coffee the bushcraft way and get a bit of a warm when it’s very cold.

Arriving around 8.30 I decided to start off with a walk around the wider woods. I could smell a vague hint of woodsmoke and wondered who was already there enjoying a fire. I checked a couple of the other sites  but found no-one. I could see bluish smoke further way to the edge of the woods so decided to head there, purely out of curiosity. When I got there, a smouldering fire was burning in the undergrowth and had covered an area about 50 square metres. It was clearly a wild fire, not intentional and small flames kept breaking out as the breeze fanned it onto the dead bracken and pine needles. I knew who the owner was an rang him and waited till he arrived with water. It hardly made an impact and he was going to have to make several trips with more. I’m not sure whether an intruder had started it or the owner had previously had a small fire which he thought he had extinguished but had kept burning below the surface. His plot being mainly pine, has a thick layer of pine needles which are resinous and can smoulder below the surface and keep going for days. A good job it wasn’t summer and much drier or it could have been very severe.

Half the morning had gone by the time I got back to mine. Some of the neighbours arrived and it was good to just socialise for a while. One of them lit their own fire and I joked that we could have just gone around to the wild fire for a warm up. The main tasks for the day were to build my new fire and try lighting  it using the birch bark scrapings technique much loved by bushcrafters. I wanted my fireplace to be raised off the ground so that the heat would be more aligned to my body when sitting and also involve less bending when lighting etc. 

I placed some building blocks as legs and balanced a small concrete slab across it with two bricks as side walls which will also support a wire mesh for grilling. It was functional but looked too rigid and unnatural. I spent about an hour rearranging it, trying to hide the blocks, using the limestone rocks I dug up a few months ago. I’m not 100% happy with the look of it but for now it will suffice.

I went foraging for birch bark and found some nice pieces on some fallen trees. For fuel I collected small dead twigs that had fallen from above and lodged in the lower branches. These are best as they tend to be dry. I stored some in an old dustbin to keep dry for later fires. The technique of starting a flame is to lay the bark flat, shielding it from breezes. Then using a sharp knife, scrape the surface hard until you create a small pile of fine shavings. The bark contains a lot of volatile oils and will take a spark from a ferro rod (firesteel) and produce a small flame which can then be fed with dry tinder, thin bark peelings etc and by slowly adding twigs, build into a sustainable fire. Here’s my inaugural fire.

That was pretty much all the work I did but it’s good just to go and enjoy being there and playing like a ten year-old.

I’m late with this post due to nasty DIY jobs at home which are pressing and time consuming. It was last Saturday when I went to the woods. I decided to continue with the bramble brush cutting, clearing the areas that had regrown from last year and making better access to some trees that I want to fell this winter. As usual I had a walkabout first. Even after three and a half years, there is still an area I really don’t know very well. It’s right in the centre of the lower half and there is no reason to go into it because it’s not a target for any work yet and quite brambly. Well just for the hell of it I waded in. I found the scattered remains of what was probably a wood pigeon. I don’t know what predated it but guessing it was a buzzard. No sign of the carcass, just wings and feathers.

I erected some deer netting around a couple of healthy young hazel trees that had been donated by a friend in spring. Doing really well but looking quite tasty to a hungry roe deer and standing out like a sore thumb where I’ve cut the bramble back.

I noticed this harlequin ladybird on the top of the hazel. They are a non-native species from Asia and killing off a lot of our native ones. They are much bigger and apparently eat ours. Can you spot another small predator on the same twig? It’s so well disguised it took a while for me to notice it.

I covered a fair bit of area with the brushcutter, you can see what a difference it makes to the woodand floor compared to the bramble in the background. It looks severe now but the bluebells and wood anemones will love the extra light in Spring and hopefully other ground cover plants will take advantage too.

I had a nice surprise this week. The Woodland Trust are writing a fairly large article about their Heritage Lottery project for PAWS woodland owners that is ending soon. It will go in their next quarterly magazine. They were pleased with the filming they did with me and wanted to include some of the material in the magazine. I had a long conversation with a very nice lady about my work here and it looks like my fame as a woodland is spreading! It’s a nice compliment and am looking forward to seeing the article. Hoping to go again on Sunday and bash some more bramble.

Yesterday’s visit showed the woods at it’s Autumn’s best. The beech trees in particular are beautiful with their multi-coloured leaves. The weather was still, the low sun just skimming through the trees and the woods felt calm and quiet. I felt grateful to have all this.

I planned to do some serious work. First clearing up the remaining brash from the trees I felled last week, then attacking the rampant bramble with the brushcutter. Some areas that I previously cut had regrown to a point where they were taking over the ground again.

The brash needed some hefty muscle work to pull it out of the elder tree it had fallen into. I dragged it over to the dead hedge behind the logshed and wove it into place. It’s nice and dense now and hopefully home to a robin or blackbird nest next year. I paused for a few seconds and was rewarded by the appearance of a tiny wren. It was clearly checking me out as it flew closer and closer, finally landing sideways on a tree a metre away. Unusual for them to get so close. I wondered if it was because it was purely a woodland inhabitant and had no inbuilt fear of humans because it had no reason to – no past experiences of being predated by us. Perhaps it saw me as just another woodland creature. That felt good, a huge compliment.

Brushcutting is very hard work on the back and feels quite brutal to the woods. I’ve done a lot of bramble pulling this year, which is preferable as you can usually get the roots out too but these areas are too big to do that way. Using the machine means I can reduce the heavy bulk quickly and hopefully weaken the plants, slowing down regrowth. I hadn’t used the machine for almost a year but it fired up straight away. I prioritised the areas to cut and started around the camp area, moving on down the strip where I have cleared before and planted saplings. By the end of the day I had made a significant inroad which I shall continue with next time.

I’ll end with a photo of a lovely, gnarly old hawthorn tree