Chestnut Coppice

[Adam1]

This video makes the purpose of the one with legs more clear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2V8GFqk_Y&NR=1

I can see the military technologists getting very excited about this machine. Not sure that it would deliver any military advantage though.

[RenewableCandy]

This video makes the purpose of the one with legs more clear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2V8GFqk_Y&NR=1

I can see the military technologists getting very excited about this machine. Not sure that it would deliver any military advantage though.

It would scare the c?@p out of your enemies!

Now, back to the comparatively pedestrian subject of Chestnut trees: any reason why they wouldn't just, erm, grow from chestnuts (I'm thinking of buying some and planting them to see what happens)?

[Vortex]

I can see the military technologists getting very excited about this machine. Not sure that it would deliver any military advantage though.

It could be relatively mine resistant.

A few of those firing machine guns and 20mm cannon whilst coming towards me would indeed turn my bowels to jelly.

[Andy Hunt]

You paint a pretty picture Vortex.

[Blue Peter]

A few of those firing machine guns and 20mm cannon whilst coming towards me would indeed turn my bowels to jelly.

Oh come on! They're nothing compared to AT-ATs, and it only took a few cuddly ewoks (or something) to take them out. Grow a pair (or however many ewoks have)!


Peter.

Edit: punctuation

[Bandidoz]

Can anyone tell me the point of that machine?

Compacting the ground I should think.

I imagine it's more a Health and Safety concern. They had loggers on C4's "Dangerous Jobs for Girls" and it demonstrated very well just how risky the whole operation is; especially on a hillside.

[Tracy P]

I was very amused to hear them saying the job was called 'Falling a tree'

lol

And, speaking as a highly trained experienced chainsaw user that did a 4 day course ( ) the girls didn't even do the difficult cut!

chuckle

[mikepepler]

Now, back to the comparatively pedestrian subject of Chestnut trees: any reason why they wouldn't just, erm, grow from chestnuts (I'm thinking of buying some and planting them to see what happens)?

They should grow just fine, they self-seed in our wood. However, you might want to go to a nursery and buy "whips" (as they're called) to plant, as then you know what variety you're getting, and how well they'll do in the UK. I'm afraid chestnut needs to be mature to produce much fruit, and a hot summer for the fruit to be a decent size, so I don't know how well they'll do in Yorkshire...

[RenewableCandy]

Now, back to the comparatively pedestrian subject of Chestnut trees: any reason why they wouldn't just, erm, grow from chestnuts (I'm thinking of buying some and planting them to see what happens)?

They should grow just fine, they self-seed in our wood. However, you might want to go to a nursery and buy "whips" (as they're called) to plant, as then you know what variety you're getting, and how well they'll do in the UK. I'm afraid chestnut needs to be mature to produce much fruit, and a hot summer for the fruit to be a decent size, so I don't know how well they'll do in Yorkshire...

Thanks. We're taking a punt on getting more hot summers what with planting our grapevine though perhaps we should hedge our bets with...a hedge!

[Catweazle]

Now, back to the comparatively pedestrian subject of Chestnut trees: any reason why they wouldn't just, erm, grow from chestnuts (I'm thinking of buying some and planting them to see what happens)?

They should grow just fine, they self-seed in our wood. However, you might want to go to a nursery and buy "whips" (as they're called) to plant, as then you know what variety you're getting, and how well they'll do in the UK. I'm afraid chestnut needs to be mature to produce much fruit, and a hot summer for the fruit to be a decent size, so I don't know how well they'll do in Yorkshire...

Thanks. We're taking a punt on getting more hot summers what with planting our grapevine though perhaps we should hedge our bets with...a hedge!

You'll probably have to wait 25 years for a crop, but I can post you some chestnuts from my woods if you like, some of mine are 350 years old so they're well used to the weather

[mikepepler]

We've just been on a 5-day coppice harvesting course, to improve our efficiency and learn some new felling methods. I've written some blog entries on it if people are interested: http://peplers.blogspot.com/2008/10/cop ... day-1.html
(there's a link at the end of that post to the next day)

[RevdTess]

We've just been on a 5-day coppice harvesting course, to improve our efficiency and learn some new felling methods. I've written some blog entries on it if people are interested: http://peplers.blogspot.com/2008/10/cop ... day-1.html
(there's a link at the end of that post to the next day)

Fascinating stuff - thanks for posting all that!

[mikepepler]

And another thing we learned recently - a different way of processing firewood:
http://peplers.blogspot.com/2008/10/fir ... utumn.html
It will really come into its own with the stuff we're coppicing right now. We'll split the logs in 2m lengths, then stack them to dry, only sawing them next summer, to whatever length the customer needs. The logs will split much easier fresh - the one in the video is 8 months old.

[eatyourveg]

And another thing we learned recently - a different way of processing firewood:
http://peplers.blogspot.com/2008/10/fir ... utumn.html
It will really come into its own with the stuff we're coppicing right now. We'll split the logs in 2m lengths, then stack them to dry, only sawing them next summer, to whatever length the customer needs. The logs will split much easier fresh - the one in the video is 8 months old.

Thanks for passing this tip on, certainly saves alot of time. It's one of those things that is so blindingly obvious once you see it, but wasn't even on the radar before!

[mikepepler]

And another thing we learned recently - a different way of processing firewood:
http://peplers.blogspot.com/2008/10/fir ... utumn.html
It will really come into its own with the stuff we're coppicing right now. We'll split the logs in 2m lengths, then stack them to dry, only sawing them next summer, to whatever length the customer needs. The logs will split much easier fresh - the one in the video is 8 months old.

Thanks for passing this tip on, certainly saves alot of time. It's one of those things that is so blindingly obvious once you see it, but wasn't even on the radar before!

Yeah, it's cool, isn't it? I'm really looking forward to doing it with this year's logs. We were felling yesterday, and cutting to 2m lengths. We'll go back on Sunday to split them while they're still wet (when it'll be dead easy) and them stack them to dry, coming back to do the cutting in the summer. One of the advantages of stacking 2m split logs to dry is that they don't try and fall over, like short logs do!