Land Week 16th - 22nd Feb

Woody took a week off work to help Ian break the back of the land preparation ready for the 500m of fencing that needed to go in (plus hanging 3 gates!). Despite all our earlier clearing work there was still a huge amount to do.

So far we had concentrated our efforts along fence line A-B clearing the very low hanging branches, dead trees and general tangle of brambles, wire and old gates.  A first wave had been cut and sorted; logs piled up, brash burnt, but a second wave needed to be felled to ensure the fence would not be damaged later on by falling dead wood.  

The avenue of trees on the driveway stretch from B-C also suffered from low limbs, very twisted old growth, multiple wire strands embedded in trunks (lethal for chain saws!) and a wide strip of brambles and young birch.  Before the low branches could be taken down the floor needed flailing in order to make clearing the logs/branches safer.

Once all the clearing had been done, posts, strainers and the wire all had to be installed.  Of course this little plan does not account for weather conditions, kit malfunctions, emergency calls outs and log shifters bunking off for a days hunting!

Monday - The Baroness!
Monday a bright and bitterly cold morning.  Ian helped with the first stage clearing by mowing the brambles and birch saplings down along the driveway fence-line with "The Baroness", this would save much hassle later on when we cleared the felled and limbed oak, birch and holly.  Trying to clear logs and branches from thick brambles is not much fun so the Baroness' help was much appreciated.  

Crouchy & The Baroness flailing from C-B

www.baronessuk.com
Next came allot more felling of the low level branches.  As you can see from the above photos there was only 6ft of head height in places, not enough to get a tractor and post banger in under so there was more prep work to do than we first thought.

It looked like "fencing week" may turn into "prep week....with a bit of fencing at the weekend"!

Tuesday - Pole Saws Can't Swim

A freezing morning with a hard frost but very sunny...perfect day for hunting!  I am afraid to say I ducked out of log shifting and spent a fantastic days hunting with our lovely neighbor Kirsty and our two beloved horses Easter and Nester.  There was frost on the ground well after 11am, the sunshine was gloriously warm and we set off (at speed) across country to explore parts of our local area we never usually had access to.  Kirsty and I both felt very privileged to be able to take part in this rural tradition in a beautiful area where we are lucky enough to be "landowners".

Anyway, back to the boys who were still clearing low branches, still being thwarted by the years of neglect that the old oaks had been subjected to.  Ian was up and down ladders with chain saws and decided to use a pruning pole saw from the ground instead.  Effectively a metal pole with a chainsaw on the far end, using it must take some skill; a bit like writing your name with a pen on the end of a long stick! Focusing on your cuts, over 12ft above you it is easy to forget about the bottom of the pole saw where the engine is. Judging the height and angle to cut in from, getting the revs of the engine right is quite an art form... it was all going so well until Woody turned round and saw that Ian was engulfed in a cloud of steam and swear words. Too busy looking up he dunked the whole engine of the pole saw into a water trough.  It turns out that pole-saws don't swim very well and it was back to the ladder for Ian!

Tree line view C-B with the low limbs felled.

Wednesday 

In go the first posts!!

Thursday & Friday - R&R (Rain and a Reprieve!)
Too wet to get on the land with the heavy machinery so....Woody went window shopping!

Saturday
I left Woody and Ian to get on with the fencing while I mucked out stables only to find they'ed been on a bacon roll eating, fence post buying jolly, well it was a beautiful day!  We had a productive day and even Joanne, Ians better half turned up to help shift posts after she had spent the morning moving her sheep to spring grass.  We had an early-ish finish as they were off to a shoot dinner....Woody and I doubted that we would see Ian (in any sober state) on Sunday! :)

Tree line C-B, pruned with logs and brash neatly stacked ready for sorting.

Sunday
Quite proud of ourselves today, we worked on through pouring rain getting soaked clearing the brash piles cut down earlier in the week.  It was a hard slog, it was freezing and we wanted to give up and go home several times but we kept going.  If we cleared down to the far corner we could go home having accomplished another job.  The week had taken it's toll on Woody who had been project manager, apprentice, delivery driver and laborer.  I'm very proud of him for all his graft as I am not always sure he see's my vision.  I can see it though, it might not be perfect but there is so much we can do to make it what we want, exciting times!