The woods had become covered with fallen branches and twigs and although we collected a lot last year for fire wood there was too much for us to use. So, after a little searching, we hired a wood chipper in the hope that we could have a mass tidy up. We found a wonderful local hire store who let us have the chipper for an extra few days over the Easter weekend for free. A few days before the chipper arrived we started to gather the sticks and branches into piles, hoping this would speed things along.
There have been lots of little seedlings appearing around the woods and we thought we'd try to rescue some before we started trampling all over them. Having no idea what they are it could be interesting to see what they grow into, M was joking that they are probably weeds we have just rescued.
And so it began, I was amazed by the speed we were able to work through the piles of wood, the chipper could take up to 7mm diameter sticks so pretty much everything we had went in. The time consuming part was raking up the little twigs and getting them lifted up without spilling everywhere.
After 2 days work we had completed the smallest area and were pretty pleased with the results. Unfortunately the chipper was really noisy so Jess and Finn had to spend the majority of the time inside but obviously came out to check our progress. Although the little piles of wood chip seem disappointingly small given how much wood we gathered, we're hoping all the seedlings and bluebells will now be able to get some light to grow up big and strong.
I'm not sure if we had underestimated the magnitude of the task but on we pushed, literally dragging the chipper through to the next bit of the woods. M was in charge of operating the chipper and I made piles and piles of wood. Our Fitbits were definitely working overtime as we walked an average of about 12km each day.
By the time we got Easter Saturday (day 5) it was clear that we would not be able to drag the chipper any further into the woods. Thankfully we were able to use the quad and trailer to move the wood bundles out to the chipper at the edge of the trees.
This is just one of many many trailer loads. Again, I was in charge of collecting and M was driving the quad and master machine operator.
Slowly the wood chippings started to grow and we could see a little bit of progress. The sun is shining here and after a couple of days we were starting to get a bit of a suntan, if not windburn, but only from the neck up.
This has got to be one of the worst photos of me ever, pretty much done in at the end of day 3 (only half way through) then. Each day we were completely exhausted, I remember how sore my feet were when I removed my boots and put on my supposedly soft slippers and tried to walk into the kitchen - ouch! It sounds like such a simple job of wondering around picking up sticks and putting them together to get collected in the trailer. But then you realised that you are bending over every other step and because of the long unwieldy shapes you can only carry a few at a time, negotiating the trees to get to the piles. Anyway, we're not complaining, it was physically tiring but very satisfying work. Thankfully Easter Sunday arrived at just the right time for us to take a day off.
Easter Monday was the last day we had set aside for chipping as the chipper needed to be cleaned before collection on the Tuesday. We didn't quite manage to clear the whole lot but concentrated on the biggest branches, leaving some sticks for the wildlife and hedgehogs and some for collection next year for firewood.
Not a bad few days work. An added bonus has been that all this exercise has completely cured my 2 frozen shoulders which have been causing me a lot of pain for about 8 months. We're hoping for a rest now but the days are getting longer, weather is slowly improving, the seedlings are growing and there is just so much to get on with. Where ever you are I hope you all had a lovely and hopefully relaxing Easter break.
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