January - What I have done in this month

[MartreCycle]

An opportunity to share information about the work/tasks/activities done in your woodland during January.

Can be exciting, interesting, big projects, small projects, laborious, tedious, relaxing, mundane, life enhancing etc. The item does not have be original and can be the same as other activities done in any other month.

The aim of this months thread is to give folk an idea of what owning a wood involves - glamourous and not so glamourous.

[tracy]

Been taking photos of the snow in the wood!

[John H]

Nothing,I have been trying to recover from the flu bug someone gave me on Christmas Day. I am desparate to get to the woods to try out my new toy, but the thought of turning up to find a frozen caravan makes me see sense.

John

[tracy]

We have flu now!

Come on all, what are you doing in your woods? I need more news for the newsletter.

Anyone want to send me some photos and a little paragraph of what you have been doing- makes the newsletter more interesting..

(not a photo of you sick in bed John!)

[RichardKing]

Finally got back to the woods this week after about a 5 week gap due to seasonal festivities & weather.

Still coppicing some monster overstood (30 year old & 15 inches or more diameter) Sweet Chestnut. The stems curve out at crazy angles and are under a lot of stress. So to reduce risk of violent splitting by making the felling cut by plunging the chainsaw in from the side before back cutting out to the tension side. These trees are remarkably strong, probably because they have grown under so much tension and some remain standing even when just the hinge is left. When they go over there is no question as to the basic direction of fall. However, something that I am wary of is that their curved shape causes them to violently jump around when they hit the ground so I retreat even further than usual in the safe direction.

[Darren]

Been cutting down Birch which have been pull over with the weight of the snow

[docsquid]

We have completed our coppicing for this year, and had the tree surgeons do the necessary work on our more dangerous trees, and help with some tricky felling. We have done lots of photography in the lovely snowy weather, and at the end of the month we will be planting 400 little trees to make future coppice areas in places where we have cleared the excessive elder and bramble scrub. It has been a very good month!

[wood troll]

I have just coppiced five over stood hazels up the side of an old sunken track.

The hazel itself was not a problem but the combination of hawthorn, blackthorn, bramble, briar rose and old man's beard growing over, under, through and round the hazel were! :-( .....these have now been cast into the flames, the subsequent baked tatties were really tasty :-)

Also had a bonus of finding five new hazel saplings perfectly spaced to colonize the field next to track that is being allowed to regenerate into woodland.

.

Prior to that I have been trying out my new Stihl MS200T. A friend has gone 50/50 on wood from a hedgerow next to a lane with a telephone line on the other side. The oak trees (and a few straggly elms) were mostly leaning out into the lane and had to be felled branch by branch. The new Stihl was brilliant for the climbing work and chopping up the branches when down! The result: 3 pollarded and 7 felled oaks, about 15 cubic meters of firewood (each), 9 oak beams of various lengths and sizes and an intact telephone line!!!!

Me happy :-)

wood troll

[tracy]

Well done Woodtroll! Sounds like a lot of hard work to me!

[MartreCycle]

Running a few weeks later than expected - due to Nordic weather conditions...

The last weekend in January ..

marked up 70 birch and felled for firewood - all were regens. and of poor form -

Certainly has let the light into the canopy - which hopefully should benefit the other birch ( with some better form ).

Blue skies and brilliant sunshine along with bbq cooked bacon sandwiches and large quantities of biscuits with coffee made for excellent working conditions.

Not much bird song, though the screech and glimpse of a green woodpecker (not seen before) added to the "good to be alive" feeling of the day.