My aim is to get a little fitter in 2019
So I use the ‘green gym’. Membership is free and you can go as little or as often as you like!
I have the satisfaction of getting fitter in a healthy environment and at the same time achieve something useful. (just think how much we could achieve if everyone who lifts weights lifted timber instead!)
Chainsaw Coppice April19
F2Coppiced stool with a couple of whips left for layering. These bendy branches will be bent down and pegged to the ground to form new hazel stools (still not done yet!)
A very big blackthorn
Oak tree. Pondhead Trust lease the understory. The big beach and oaks are the responsibility of the Forestry Commission (even the dead ones)
This is the hazel stool my coat was hanging on in the January scene. The stool has been cut to the ground, but one rod has been left to support the tennex fencing that keep the deer out.
No bluebells have been seen here for at least 20 years, but let some light in and ta-daa!
Extra stakes added to hold the fencing up
This is the blackthorn, we left this as it is good for biodiversity (birds). It's looking healthy
Chainsaw Coppice Jan19
F2Timber for Charcoal
Still to be coppiced
A lesser spotted coppice worker
More wood for charcoal
Coppiced stool with a couple of whips left for layering. These bendy branches will be bent down and pegged to the ground to form new hazel stools
Flat fans of brush with weighty logs on top for pea sticks.
Can't see clearly, but this is blackthorn, we leave this as it is good for biodiversity (birds)
This is a Blackthorn, I think. It's the biggest one I've ever seen
Teleport over to the Hand coppice
Coppiced stool with single rod left at edge of coppice for tenex fencing
Brash for burning
Anyone want a prog? a long stick with a forked end, to hold up their washing line.
£2.50
Binders. straight(ish) whippy rods 12 foot long. Bought by hedge-layers to bind the top of the hedge
Coppiced stool with single rod left at edge of coppice for tenex fencing. (Also convenient coat hook)
Oak tree. Pondhead Trust lease the understory. The big beach and oaks are the responsibility of the Forestry Commission (even the dead ones)
The above is a panorama taken in Pondhead with info buttons to help make sense of the apparent chaos of coppicing. Click in the square, top-right, to go full screen. I think most of what you can see there was cut by two of us today.
Please note this panarama has been updated (April 2019) to show how it looks now. Please use the forward and back arrows (top left) to move to the original panorama taken after cutting in January.
For more information on getting involved, pop over to Pondhead Conservation Trust‘s website
