Willow Coppice Planted
Woo hoo! We have finished planting all of the Willows. In total there were 198!
In theory this means we should (in 5 years!) have our first seasoned wood to burn. Who knows, by then we might even have a wood burner or two to burn it in 
Willow Coppice Planting
At last after weeks of hard work and slog, and contending with snow and ice we can finally start planting up the Willow Coppice!
It was as ever a family affair and the kids loved pushing the willow ‘twigs’ into the holes and sinking in the cane beside it to hold up the rabbit guard. My Mum was also on hand to help dig and plant so we managed quite a production line, and got over half of the 200 trees planted.
Short Rotation Coppicing - Rows
We have always aspired to recycle as much as we can and ideally be self-sufficient. We seem to have made a slow start on the latter, but at last our plan to create our own coppice to sustain us with firewood has begun!
Today, following Tam’s careful plan, we marked out the 12 rows varying between 12 and 16 meters long. Not as easy as it sounds as we first had to shift tons of sand/soil etc which was in the way! Now the rows are marked out we need to get the turf/meadow cut so we can strip it off.
Ditch Work
Mr Liam Lambert was back on site…must stop calling our home a site!
This time he was a week late as we had already shifted approx. 6-8 tons of sand and soil by hand (!) to make way for the willow coppice, but we always have things that need doing if you have a JCB for 10 minutes! This time it was finally clearing the last of the soil/rubble that the previous owner had excavated for the new drainage ditch. Finally the top paddock looks ‘neat’ and there are no piles of junk around.
Hot Air Balloon Carriage
The kids and I got rather a shock when it appeared that a hot air balloon had landed in the top paddock tonight! With the kids in their PJs, we pulled on some shoes and made a dash up the garden to investigate…
The balloon looked huge and was rapidly deflating as we lurched up the garden in a combination of rapidly pulled on foot-wear from wellies to flip-flops. It was upon reaching the gate to the top paddock that we were disappointed to see that in fact the balloon had landed on the field next door, Farmer Long’s.
