Early summer in Bridgewood

Posted by Tanos on Wed 18 Jun 08, 4:12 PM

I've not posted about the wood for a couple of months, but a fair bit has been happening. We've had several work trips and a couple of "social" trips with three or four of us, and the basic layout of the wood is starting to emerge via spade, bowsaw, axe and chainsaw.

We're concentrating on the Middle Ride and the clearing this year, but I've also done some work laying out the north and south beginnings of the Circular Ride running off from the Middle Ride itself. This has involved marking the route with stakes and cutting down smaller trees and bushes so its at least walkable. Eventually these two branches of it will meet up again with the Middle Ride on the far side of the wood.

For the Middle Ride itself, lili and charlie have done some work clearing stretches of it right down to ground level, which lasts very well: nettles, thistles and other shrubby vegetation don't make a big effort after their spring growth has been cut back. Eventually, we'll have a petrol driven scythe mower, but rakes and spades are surprisingly effective, as you can see in the picture. charlie has also attacked tree stumps and half-buried logs on the ride with axe and bowsaw, which has immediately made it easier when we're moving stuff around with the (non pony!) cart.

Last week, popi and I went for a first visit using the chainsaw and I cut up a tree felled in an earlier post into these logs. I also felled another, larger, tree in the clearing with the chainsaw and cut that down into logs (no decent picture unfortunately.)

The chainsaw is a lightweight, quite low powered Stihl MS-210 CBE (CBE = idiot proof starting and tool-free adjustments for casual users ) although I'm getting a 14 inch guidebar rather than the 12 inch one in the picture. Chainsaws certainly are about as much fun as you can have with your bright orange protective clothes on

The plan for the remainder of the year is more of the same: keep opening up the rides and open spaces to sunlight, to get them grassed over and drier.

Edited Fri 12 Jun 09, 1:20 PM by Tanos