Tree Felling by Axe

 It was a chilly start this morning but thankfully, on my arrival, Graham and Gary had started a welcoming campfire which we hurriedly stood around awaiting the arrival of the rest of the gang. Over a warming cuppa we discussed the day and were soon walking off into the woods to learn another new skill.

This week Chris Atkins demonstrated tree felling using an axe. The group watched as he explained the first steps, which is always your personal safety; things like your position, clearing your immediate area of debris and unusually removing gloves. Unlike a lot of greenwood working jobs, using an axe is best done glove free as your grip is much better. Chris then demonstrated which cuts you make, where and why.

We were all then able to have a go, under his close instruction, at what is possibly one of the hardest of the greenwood workers tasks.

Ian was the man to have the final swings that felled a very large tree, with Jim accurately predicting the exact site it would land. We all agreed that it was really satisfying.

We then continued with the coppicing, finishing off the stools we started last week and tackling some new ones too. Mike tried a new method of covering the stools today by making a frame of lengths of branches weaved together with thinner hazel, used to keep the deer from nibbling off the new hazel shoots.

Things are beginning to look very different in the woods now and it actually turned out to be a fresh bright day. The bluebell leaves have sprung up all over and I for one cannot wait to see them when they bloom.