Outside jobs

The first few months are always the best time to get out into the woods when the brush is low; not only can you see what you're doing, but the low temperature makes it quite nice to work.

There are always quite a few jobs to be done - I think I inherit that from my mother.  Her jobs would centre around the house where as mine seem to focus on the shed and everything else outside.  Now that we've got a truck there's so much to send to the dump!

The hedge needed cutting, but as it hadn't been cut for 10 years we required a chainsaw and a forklift.  Everyone helped out, except the dogs who got in the way and had to be pulled away from areas where they would be hit by falling branches.

It was a good excuse to get out the tractor powered wood chipper.  Jack had built an enclosed top for our little 1.25 tonne tipper trailer so we could chip straight into it.

Dad and I also spent a large amount of time removing an amount of fencing from around the field.

Not only was there a mesh fence put in by Dad about 10 years ago to help keep sheep in the meadow (it didn't work), but there was also a large amount of barbed wire left by the previous owner of the field.

The best part about the barbed wire was that it was attached to a number of galvanised poles, whose origin are quite possibly German... as in World War 2 German.  The barbed wire was mostly very rusty and after handling a lot of it I am glad to have been vaccinated against tetanus.

The good news is that it's no longer there for the dogs to injure themselves on.

After taking out the fence we managed to remove some branches and some smaller sycamore trees.  I dislike sycamore because much like weeds they just seem to sprout up everywhere. 

A couple of years ago some conservation work was done further down into Le Saie woods where the Sycamore trees were all removed leaving the oaks, and i'm attempting to continue that.

In times gone past we'd have to start a fire to burn everything, but with the new wood chipper and my policy of 'if it fits, it chips', we made some good progress.  

There's something really very satisfying about wood chipping, don't you think?

It is also worth noting that over the Christmas period we enjoyed a couple of lovely cakes made by SW and AH.  Dad also received an email from JM where he recounted his fond memories of the Land Rover 101 (the truck that I bought) from his Army days.  His fond memories also include it breaking down a lot, so no doubt we have some fun times to come.