How much wood would a woodchuck chuck If a woodchuck could chuck wood?

After cutting down the trees last week I'm left with the mammoth task of sawing the wood into movable pieces and clearing away the tons of fir branches.
There is so much of it that I have little option but to burn it. I don't feel too bad about it as after doing a bit of research it appears that it gives up as much carbon if it is burnt as if it is let to decay naturally over many years and is considered "Carbon Neutral". Everyone around here seems to have a fire at some point in their gardens and even the local council burns a huge amount of branches etc when the're coppicing the trees around here.

I am already piling up a serious amount of wood for the wood burner and I haven't really started on the larger trunks yet at all.

Cutting the stumps down to ground level is a job I'm not looking forward to, the base of some of the trunks are very large and the only way I will be able to tackle it is to chop around it a piece at a time.

When it is all cleared away we hope to extend the rhododendron bush that is around the base of the palm tree. The palm tree should also benefit from the removal of the trees as It will no longer be in their shadow.

Tractor 3 -Mike 0

Well day 4 and the tractor is slowly disappearing into the ground, Australia bound! I have now given up on the idea of chaining a log to the wheels. I am going to do nothing more to it until Thursday which is market day here in Huelgoat. Once a Month there is a lorry and trailer full of hardware and tools  sets up and this is the week they arrive. I have taken a look through their catalogue and have found a very reasonably priced ( 30 euros ) hand winch that will pull over 2 tons.

I am going to attach it with a chain to the front of the tractor and the other end I can attach around a large rock buried into the ground.

The weather here for the last couple of days and the next few to come if the forecast is to be believed is superb with sunshine all day. We are both making the most of it and getting out into the garden, Avril has been busy cutting part of the lawn for the first time and I have been out with the chain saw and axe stacking up logs for next winter.

Of course we have also made time for a bit of relaxation in the sun on our decking area!

I'm feeling quite good about myself this week. I have a small meadow and woodland area at the bottom of our property that is accessed by a bridge I have built over the stream that divides it from the rest of our ground.
There are several trees that have fallen across the stream that need to be cleared and will also provide logs for our woodburner. I have been down there with a chainsaw sawing up logs however it is a lot of very hard work to carry them back to the house.

However there is access across our farmer neighbough's field where the stream is piped for about 15ft that I can drive my tractor over.
I went round to see him this week and managed to ask in French if it would be ok for me to drive my tractor across the field so I was more than pleased when he not only understood what I said but said yes I also had the bonus of being asked into his house for a glass of 50 yr old home made "hooch" that his father had made, extremely potent I might add!

Autumn

I've just had a very rewarding couple of afternoons down in the bit of woodland leading to our stream. There were a couple of large trees, probably Oaks, that had probably fallen down several years ago. You could see where the whole roots had pulled up from the ground but over the years the tree had been covered with a layer of thick moss and Ivy.

So I have been down with my chainsaw and have made a start cutting them into logs, not the easiest of jobs as it is on a fairly steep slope and several times the log that I sawed off rolled into the stream!

I have a very good quality splitting axe thanks to Avril, who insisted I get a good one rather than the cheaper one I was looking at! It has a carbon fibre handle and is very well balanced so made surprisingly quick work in splitting them up.

I now have quite a decent stack put aside for the coming winter for our wood burner which now goes on every night. We are just starting to collect chestnuts of decent size from our trees which cook nicely on top of it in a purpose built "Wok like" pan with holes in it that Steve bought as a present for us with exactly this in mind.

Out in the garden

Well, at last, what after seems like weeks of rain every single day I have been able to get out in the garden for a couple of days. It's far to early to be able to plant anything or even for that turn over the ground but it has given me chance to decide what area I'm going to use this year. As we only moved here 5 Months ago and have only put in fruit up to now I have plenty of scope (and free ground ) so the danger will be taking on too much in the first year.

What I have been able to get back on with is the topping of my fir trees, I say topping in a loose way, with my tongue  firmly in my cheek, as I'm taking off around 10 metres or so, and I'm sure the one I took down yesterday weighed around half a ton!
However I can now start to see some real progress as I am about a third of the way through the job.

Tree Lopping

Of course the more trees I trim the bigger my woodpile grows, It pales into insignificance compared to my French neighboughs, who like most who live in or near the countryside,here in Brittany seem to have a stockpile that would last a hundred years. But it is growing and if nothing else it shows I'm trying to "fit in".

They will need to season for at least a couple of years but the likelihood of us installing a wood-burner grows stronger by the day.

Wood Pile

Of course the really big advantage  and the reason I started in the first place is the amount of extra sunshine and light I will get at the back of the house, although they are well away from the house, the sun dips down under them in the evening and this should extend that by around a couple of hours in the Summer.