Saturday 25 October 2008

Firewood processing video and autumn leaves

Yesterday I posted some pictures of the new way of processing firewood that was suggested to us. Well, here's a short video showing it in action (video is in high quality mode, so pause it for a bit before playing):

Before long we had a trailer full ready to deliver to a customer. The splitting will of course be easier with the stuff we've just felled, which we plan to stack in long split lengths, and saw up next summer.
Last winter we made a fire to burn some brash, and the patch left behind obviously had no plants or seeds remaining in it. It's been interesting to watch it be recolonised. It's now covered in moss, which has started to seed by the look of it:
New plants are also doing well at the fringe of the pond (no ID on this one yet):
and quite a bit of grass has sprung up where we cut the coppice last winter:
Many of the leaves are off the sweet chestnut now, except the coppice regrowth, which doesn't look remotely ready for autumn. The oaks still have many of their leaves too:
As the leaves go and the wood gets lighter it becomes easier to take photos. Tracy got this one of a squirrel:
I know they may look cute, but they aren't a native species and do a lot of damage to trees, so we're going to start controlling them soon, by shooting with an air gun. We're planning to eat the meat from them, so they won't be going to waste...

One tree that produces great colours in autumn is the Wild Service, and ours has lost a lot of its leaves now:
You'd never believe these came from the same tree, would you?
Mike

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