We have been back working hard in Witley Copse at Swan Barn Farm again this week, and have managed to finish the felling work for this section of the project.
We still have to do the extraction, but we are hoping to get a better weather window soon to do this in so that we don’t make to much mess, its pretty wet here at the moment.
We will be winching out the timber using the tractor you can see above and then moving it to the site of the building using our timber crane. The oak tree we have been working on in these photo’s is destined for interior floorboards for the building, it will be sawn into planks and then air dryed for a number of months before a final short spell of kiln drying, this will get the wood to a moisture level that will make a nice and stable floor, hopefully that way we should avoid gaps apearing between the floorboards as the wood drys and shrinks!
Its been really wet here this week, the sort of weather when you need a nice fire to help you dry yourself out and keep warm at lunchtime. It always seems to create a sense of place when you light a fire, this one is multi purpose, it heats the kettle for our tea, dries out soggy wardens and helps us to make sure we don’t have too many piles of brash getting in the way.
As I sit here writing this the sun has well and truly set and its starting to rain again, I would never wish the winter to pass too fast (we have far to much work to fit into it to start with), but some days you just can’t help thinking ahead to the spring. It made me think of this photo I took of a patch of celendines in Witley Copse a few years ago.
They are one of our more common wildflowers, and often don’t rate a mention, especialy when there are bluebells and anemonie’s around, but they are one of my absolute favourites, when the sun reflects off their shiny petals they look so bright its as if they light up the whole wood.
