January - What I have done in this month

[Landpikey]

We managed to get a visit to the woods with a friend and his kelly kettle this month. Our first cuppa in our woods! It worked so well we've bought one online!

We had a camp fire with bacon butties cooked over it. The twins had soup warmed up by having the tins sat right next to the coals and there was also a tin of beans warmed the same way. We were only missing camp fire toast as I've mislaid the toasting fork

We're leaving the woods alone for a year while we see what happens so we only chopped up one fallen tree (just had to use the chainsaw on something!).

I'm away until the end of Feb so I will have to rely on picture updates to satisfy my woodland urges.

[Bulworthy Project]

Coppicing Birch, Polarding Willow, removing Norway spruce and building a dead-hedge with the brash.

[Rich]

Coppicing Birch, Polarding Willow, removing Norway spruce and building a dead-hedge with the brash.

Bravo Pete! considering your location I was expecting your wood to be under 3 feet of water and a bit of a right off for doing anthing productive!

Actually though, I guess here in the south east we've had more dry days than wet and the harsh frost of last week has made it easier to get in the wood. I've been cutting birch too, saving the brushy tops for besoms, the rougher brash for dead hedging and fuel for a homemade retort, the small diameter for firewood (it doesn't need splitting) and the bigger stuff that does .... well that will just go back into the woodland for the insects to mull over!

[tracy]

Enjoying the snow and the chance to get logs out of the wet wood!

http://peplers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/s ... -2013.html

[docsquid]

We've been struggling with the weather, having a very damp and waterlogged woodland that subsequently got a lot of snow. But we have finished our wood-drying shed, and started to install cut firewood and logs for drying in the store. It is a fairly industrial looking building, but actually very well hidden in the woods and a substantial improvement on the old derelict goat shed we were using before (which will be demolished soon). We have also been installing pallet-racking into our main building (that houses the tractor) to improve storage efficienty while we weren't able to get much done outdoors.

We have also enjoyed the snow, and done a lot of photography. But best of all we went skiing, fulfilling a lifetime ambition to ski down through our own trees and meadows. OK, it isn't the Hannenkahm, and it takes a bit of poling to get going, but we did it.