Yule logging

Hap, Steve, Jess, Mandy, Harvey, Geoff, Dave and Dianne.

Today we had our now traditional pre-Christmas woodland management session. Weather was a bit grizzly and damp. But we soldiered on. We were: myself, Guy, Mandy, Dave, Geoff, Ben, Dianne and Lizzie the Dog, Duncan and Harvey the Dog, Jess, Steve, Hap, Philip and Stephen.

Guy and Mandy provided hearty chilli stew for break time. This was accompanied by Dave's Aldi knock off Bailey's, and Geoff's purportedly more sophisticated blackcurrant liqueur. And home made oat biscuits. Plus cheese and crackers. And a roaring camp fire.

Before and after we made pigs of ourselves Philip and Steven were doing their chainsaw work, and the rest of us were felling smaller trees and logging. We were thinning out some woodland that was planted by us 15 years ago. Removing some nurse species and shorter lived trees such as Larch, Birch and Alder, to allow more light to the Oaks.

Oh, and we also carried a further 150 deer stakes and 200 deer guards on site.