What have you done in the wood today?

Today we have been working clearing a new paddock area on the edge of the wood nearest the pool,

CM and I have felled 4 BIG trees and logged them up and stacked them in the wood store to dry out, I have snedded off the twiggery and saved what is reasonable for burning or crafts, and made a
pile for shredding the rest...we have also burnt some very tangled hawthorn  and got a good hot fire going.

We have also coppiced 3 stools of 20 year old hazel... so have some lovely straight thick poles
for firewood and construction and a lot of bean poles as well as some supports for my planned bender and for den building courses.

And coppiced some Wayfarer...a tangled mess but we managed to make it look tidy...

Have now got the poles for the bodgers hovel/bender I am planning, as well as some lovely curved
poles from a wayfarer I coppiced   and some really good poles with "Y"s at the end for support poles for various dens...and LOADS of firewood and pea sticks and bean poles...

Have just come in from being by the fire in the dark, pushing the outer twiggery into the embers to burn up the last few bits and keep the fire safe....I love fires and woodland....especially in the dark  

But now I need a hot shower and a hair washing session...!

Didnt do much this weekend, just took down a big ash tree. used a few lengths for anvil stands, cut two 7 foot lengths and slip them down for bow staves. The rest of the large stuff will be used as benching in the chill out area, with the smaller stuff as firewood. Next weekend we start on the Brick bread oven and the earthed up dustbin bread oven. Oh and more work on the bow staves.

I am wondering if I can split some of the ash we will fell tomorrow using just wedges.....I want some for benches but don't have a planking set up....

Also am now eying up everything for a shave horse from green wood...also poles for a structure...CM is getting a bit fed up with me stopping him cutting it up for firewood!

Compostwoman wrote:I am wondering if I can split some of the ash we will fell tomorrow using just wedges.....

Nah. I reckon you're going to need some sort of hammer as well.

Out of interest, what do you folk call a "big tree"?
If memory serves, it is anything more than 1 ½ times the length of the saw.

Ha ha very funny...have hammers...wondered if wedges and a bilhook to get it started would do..

Big tree..yes, your estinate would be about right!

Lots of wood stacking up in 2010's woodstore bay..... a good feeling to have it piling up !

Yeah, we just used a beetle and 4 wedges. Wasn't a huge tree...

Would really appreciate some advice about splitting logs to make firewood. A friend helped us cut down a smallish tree with a chainsaw a few years ago - we've used the smaller branches on our log burner, but are left with some nicely maturing logs approx 14'' diameter (and no idea how to split them!). I know this is probably beginner's stuff, but would be grateful to know how to do it. We've got a wedge - do we need more than one?

We split foot plus diameter logs with a grenade and a sledgehammer....

is that any help? Usually into four or more bits...

Sorry to sound a bit dim, but what's a grenade??

A metal wedge? Its shaped like a grenade...and that is what they get called...

not dim at all btw, if you don't know, its much better to ask...I think it is dim not to....

linky to one HERE

Could come over and help if you need it, Dandelion?

Compostwoman wrote:linky to one HERE

I've found those ones not as good as the Stihl one. You would think a pointy bit of metal is a pointy bit of metal, but...
Actually the Stihl one has a flat end, not a point. Counter intuitive: I'd've thought a point would be better.

See? That is why I started this thread....lots of useful info in all our heads...

Dandelion,
I chainsawed some green oak for a friend recently and when she tried to split it she used a spliting maul (looks like an axe but the head is much thicker and the blade is more like a fat wedge) she was getting nowhere. I sugested getting a medium sized splitting axe (a handle about 2 1/2 feet long) and a lump or sledge hammer. Doing a fine job now.

I had to advise CM yesterday to split the Alder logs asap, as when it seasons it is rock hard stuff..used for lock gates and waterwheels fixings I believe so impervious to wet ( and splitting....)

So he did.

Thanks for all your advice folks - will report back when OH has time to have a go at the logs.
Let's split!

Actually I think Alder is rock solid once wet..which is why it is used for submerged stuff...but still, it got the stuff split asap.....

One of the trees used for mediaeval foundations was elm. Strasbourg cathedral is build on elm piles driven into the wet ground... just one problem... when modern man decided to pump ground water the water-table dropped... elm piles exposed to air and started rotting... cathedral started subsiding... expensive underpinning job.

Most of Venice is builts on piles made from Alder tree trunks....

Am
doing a Living Willow structure course on Saturday...

Helped CM to fell a very beautiful Bird Cherry yesterday did not really want to fell it as it was magnificent BUT it was producing such a lot of shading over the veg plot, now it is fully grown, that for the last 4 years we have said we must fell it....

so this year, we did

Sad though...but lots of fire wood and some nice wood for me to make things with

Today we felled another wild cherry and a big silver birch, and CM shredded a lot of twiggery so the hens will have lots of wood shred to play in, inside their pen, later on..

Also moved the new picnic benches into the woodland camp site, so next I need to sort out the tarp. shelter/bodgers hovel I am errecting there...

CM and I have been clearing up all the logs from the felled trees lately, also shredding and I have been gathering pea sticks and more poles for den building stuff.

have put up a shelter in the wood, a bit on the small side but am planning a bigger one, in my mind, at the moment....

Still clearing away the hazel I coppiced in the Spring (knowing I would have time over the summer). I think i will probably get around two cord out of it once I have finished. The stools had not been touched for 25+ years!

Have been felling trees and coppicing hazel in the wood - now have a clearing which would make a lovely pig pen...

The trees were Ash, Cherry and Poplar, all of which are shading the pvs in the winter so are to be used for firewood....I have kept back some cherry for woodwork.

The Hazel was more of the 20 year old, never yet cut which had some really good sized wood for burning AND some thinner lengths for building benders etc

This year I am hoping to make a proper bender as well as a frame for a tarpaulin shelter. I also want to make some hurdles so am grading and separating the hazel as we cut it down. Will be doing a lot more of that this coming week I think.

Have been continuing to coppice various hazels, shred twiggery and cut logs, ..no birds were nesting any where near any of the trees etc, in case anyone was wondering!