March - What I have done in this month

[MartreCycle]

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

Can be exciting, interesting, laborious, tedious, relaxing, mundane, life enhancing, dangerous, controversial even spiritual etc.

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

The item does not have to be original, bigger, better etc than any other forum entry.

Can be the same as other activities done in any other month.

Spring seems to be kicking off ( albeit slowly this year) -

Catkins are currently looking briliant and a great signal that the wood is moving out of dormancy..

[woodbodger]

My on going project is to improve access around the wood as there is no hope in trying to replant and thin woodland if it is difficult to get tools there. I have tracks that I can get a quad along around half the wood now: today I cut a fallen willow and a large Ash limb that had obstructed a potential path so I created another twenty foot of access. I have an issue in that my brain is young, some have said infantile, but the body is old and I have to go steadily so a bit everyday rather than 8 hours hard slog at a shot.

[woodbodger]

[docsquid]

We've been busy again. We finally have some grant money to provide a fence along part of the field boundary - this is the bit nearest the road and therefore the most vulnerable to intrusion. The rest of the hedge is pretty much intact and therefore this will make the site much more secure. So we've been clearing the brambles and undergrowth and getting the old fence ready to take down. The fencing man should be able to do this in the next week or two.

Otherwise, we've been busy taking bird photos, doing a breeding bird survey, starting our two-zone mowing along the rides, and tidying the wood up ready for the open days.

We've been doing a bit of gardening too - setting up the greenhouse with an irrigation system, and getting our few raised beds ready for some of our crops.

[Darren]

Clearing Spruce branches and coppicing Ash trees.

[woodbodger]

Driving over my chain saw

[jillybean]

Oh dear. Is that why they call you Bodger? I blunted mine cutting stumps. Been preparing mushroom logs.

[Darren]

Helping out with Forest school or rather they have been helping me out.

[MartreCycle]

Using the Mattock ( a top tool IMO )to scrape off the top plant layer to find soil ready to plant up 100 downy birch next week.

Put out the canes and spirals as well.

Reposition bird box - after it fell out of the old location.

Dragging out the last of the already cut birch thinnings to be used for fire wood.

Planting out a small quantity (20 ish) home grown sessile oaks

Taking a peaceful lunch with the warm sun shining in a sheltered spot and trying not to fall asleep !

[greyman]

We're franticallally trying to finish off this years cut/project to clear the bottom track and stream before we're overtaken by bud burst/blue bell flowering and a pending visit from the SWOG group meeting on the 20th March. Mrs Greyman has been out with the Dyson and dustpan and brush for the last two weekends clearing up after I've been thrashing around with the chainsaw. I spent last Sunday afternoon standing in the stream with boots full of sticks and water clearing up a willow that had fallen out of the bank and started growing all over the place. Nice fire and a beer at the end of the day are fair compensation!

Greyman