Snigger snigger

Last week I took on a week of forestry work with my friend Barbara Hadrill of Carnog Working Horses http://carnog.co.uk/


 
 
Barbara works 2 Welsh cobs, Billy & Tyler and undertakes a wide range of land management tasks from woodland/forestry management to harrowing, bracken & bramble control with a strong commitment to sustainability and ecological sensitivity.

The work was for Barlings Barn, a holiday business near Machynlleth, and largely consisted of thinning work within their conifer plantation on a steep hillside, the timber being extracted by the horses (known as snigging).

The trees are Western Hemlocks of between 15" & 20" diameter at the butt, planted on an aincient woodland site probably around 60-70 years ago. The end-use will be fire wood for the holiday business' woodfuel boiler, but one of the main drivers for the work was to allow more light to reach the woodland floor, thus promoting the natural regeneration of native tree species such as oak, ash and hazel. Eventually, through successive thinings & harvesting of woodfuel, this plantation monoculture will be returned to native broadleaved woodland, which will support many times the number of species of plants and animals.

Western Hemlock is native of the Pacific West coast of America. It has a much higher water content than many other tree species when it is felled. The timber is is prone to checking (splitting through shrinkage) as it dries due to the large volume of water that needs to be displaced, but is valued as it is quite stable with little tendancy to warp or twist. Grown in ideal conditions it can produce some valuable timber for interior cladding and detailed trim for windows & staircases etc. Here in the mountains of Mid-Wales however they have less value as timber trees. Actually, they have almost zero value ecologically either, save perhaps a couple of pairs of goldcrest that would happily also nest & feed elswhere. In my humble opinion, they are just taking up space that would be better occupied by a polyculture of native species that actually support our native ecological systems, and therefore I have no qualms about knocking them over. Plus it gives me chance to try out my brand shiny new professional forestry saw!

... AND have a go at horse logging / snigging my self, under Barbara's watchful eye. I'm very greatful for that experience.

Some of the trees were wider than the bar of the saw and fluted into wide buttresses which had to be removed before felling. I'm about to fell this tree to the left.

 

The purple strop is attached to a winch, which is essential to have in a dense plantations such as this. The tree was held vertical by the canopy of the others around it even after the feling cuts were made and my hi-lift wedges driven in.

Safely down, the next step is to "sned" the tree - to take the branches off. This needs to be done extremely thoroughly as any pegs left can plough into the ground making it hard for the horses to pull, and any missed branches will whip Barbara as she runs along side!

A well snedded log ready for extraction

The larger diameter trees weigh somewhere around 1.5 tons. They were cut into 15ft lengths to reduce their weight so that they could be dragged up hill to the track. This is one of the most dangerous tasks as the trees are on a 25 degree slope and are apt to roll or slide over the other logs at alarming speed. They're also under a lot of tension and compression which can make them behave quite violently when cut - you really don't want to be stood on the wrong side when they go!

The drive out was spectacular as ever. I really miss living in Wales.

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Another random collection of experiences

Here's some more stuff that's been happening at Lower Upcott Farm...

Making fence posts:

No imported tanalized timber here, this is local oak left over from another project. The sapwood (lighter coloured outer ¼) has rotted away but the heartwood (darker inner ¾) is as solid as ever. They are very heavy pieces of wood & should last another 15 years minimum in the ground without any nasty preservative treatment.

Here Flora has eyed up the piece and turned it so that she can split it along its flattest plane. It doesn’t matter if the post is wavy along the length of the fence – this just adds a rustic feel, but it does need to be dead straight against the face of the fence or else the whole fence will be wobbly & not structurally sound. Having selected the best plane to split the piece to achieve 2 flat faces she is driving wedges in to part the grain.

Nicely cleft! She'll get 2 posts out of that log. The faces can now be flattened off with a side axe (an axe with the head slightly offset from the handle to allow space for the fingers when working flat faces).

Below, Simon is using his axe to point up one of the cleft posts. Only another 75 to go...

Milling timber:

This is oak too, but this lot destined to be turned into benches & other larger projects. Trunks like these often end up covered in mud as they are extracted from the woodland so the first job is to wash them off so that the silica in the mud doesn’t blunt the saw on the sawmill. A pressure washer proved effective…

The trunks are then sawn using a mobile sawmill powered by a petrol motor, the cutting band is lubricated with water. It is a very efficient way to make planks from sizable timber. “Mobile” is a relative term & this one is left in position for convenience, but it could be dismantled and transported between woodlands on a trailer, meaning that individual planks can be extracted from woods by hand rather than entire tree trunks which would require machinary or horses. This log will yield several 2" planks for storytelling bench tops, plus other parts for chairs etc. This forms a significant portion of the farm's income. See http://www.forestcrafts.co.uk/ to see the end results.

Shoeing horses:

New shoes for Joey & Tom! It was really impressive to watch Mark the farrier go about his work. Appologies for the blury pictures - this is partly due to the low light in the stables, & partly due to the speed that the man works!

He told me his apprenticeship was 5 years. The Farriers Registration Act (1975) states that only registered farriers are allowed to shoe horses, or prepare a foot for shoeing by law.

The hooves are trimmed and filed - a bit like a fingernail manicure.

The right size shoe is selected but still needs a little shaping. Mark has a forge in the back of his landrover!

Once shaped, the shoe is applied still red hot. This is spectacular to witness but totally painless for the horse - Tom doesn't react at all.

The shoe is nailed on from underneath with square nails & the points filed off. That's one corner done, 3 more to go!

A rant about the economy

... and why all is not lost
 

I began the last post with a section about how it is possible to gain skills for a change of direction. This time I want to scratch the surface of one of several answers to the question “why?”

I’ve explained that I would prefer to live in a way that offers mutual beneficially for my self and the world in which I live, rather than aspire to a “norm” that doesn’t actually make me feel particularly happy whilst actively damaging the world in which I live.

Opinions do differ on this subject, but I believe that the current perception of a “normal” western lifestyle will be forced to change at some point anyway (timing as yet unknown, but probably sooner than we’d like) due to the fact that it is supported entirely by an economy which relies entirely on an unlimited supply of resources of which we have only a known quantity. Kenneth Boulding, President Kennedy’s environmental advisor forty five years ago said something about this:  “Anyone who believes in indefinite growth in anything physical, on a physically finite planet, is either mad – or an economist.”

This is simple fact is easy to ignore in the short term while our teeth are gritted and our heads are down, grinding away at our jobs which occupy most of our waking hours. We justify it on the basis that it brings in the money required for us to consume all that stuff that we don’t actually need. Our jobs themselves are rarely sympathetic to our ecological life-support systems - even in my case where I was trying to undertake a “green career” managing woodlands for nature conservation, yet driving, through necessity, 50 miles a day in a car to get to work and back, thereby more than cancelling out any positive impact I might have had.

Being a slave to the economy seems like an unshakable chain while we are so busy trying to keep our heads above water to take the time to assess the problem properly. But once we begin to understand what it actually is that locks us in to the cycle it becomes increasingly obvious that there are other ways.

I would like to share the following video from http://www.doingitourselves.org/ which offers a concise overview of the economic system we are locked into and how utterly silly it actually is.

For myself I feel that the only sensible route is to explore ways that do not force me to undermine the ecological systems that support my life in order to live. Also I no longer want to be too busy to be able to offer my family and friends the emotional and practical support they need into old age, and I no longer want to be too pre-occupied to notice the transient shapes of clouds and the wind on my face as I go about my day to day experiences. These are the things that define my life, not the brand of jeans I wear or the car I drive...

Lots of things

Apologies for my absence – I lost internet connection for a while, and then unfortunately managed to injure my self & found it uncomfortable sitting long enough to write blog posts! Hey ho, I am up and about again now & getting there, slowly. Here is part 1 of a summary of what I've been up to since last time...

Firstly though I feel that I should explain a little about how it is that I am doing what I am doing, and where these working opportunities come from.

WWOOFing

I have joined an organisation called WWOOF UK (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). This is a membership charity, teaching people about organic growing and low-impact lifestyles through hands-on experience in the UK. The organisation holds a list of organic farms, gardens and smallholdings, all offering food and accommodation in exchange for practical help on their land. The range of opportunities is staggering, from full scale commercial operations to small woodland permaculture projects and communities exploring low impact living and self sufficiency. The list can be previewed for free at http://www.wwoof.org.uk/civicrm/profile?reset=1&gid=12

(It is also worth mentioning that Wwoofing opportunities are available all over the world via www.wwoof.org)

For my £20 per year membership fee I get access to the contact details for these hosts, where-by I am able to get in touch with projects that interest me independently and organise a placement.

The deal is variable but usually something like all meals and somewhere to stay (usually with the family) in return for 5 full days work per week, which generally includes on-the-job training.

  

So that’s it really. As a “wwoofer” my living expenses are very low, and I’m soaking up all that learning like a sponge. Every now and again I hope for a short paid contract to bring in a little money & keep my budgets on track.

 

Anyhow, back to Devon:

The working day here begins at around 0800 where it is the responsibility of us 3 wwoofers to let the chickens and ducks out of their coops, feed and water the pig, count the cattle, check drinking water, & feed Jem the pregnant mare - she gets a bowl of cereal (horse muesli) with garlic and vitamin B twice a day since she's eating for two. We also clean out the stables and bring in the horses if they are to work, in which case they get a supplementary breakfast, a good brush down and their hooves cleaned out as a matter of routine. Everyone gets a thorough mucking out on a weekly basis.

The day “officially” ends at around 1700 when we lock up & feed the said animals again, although in practice the work often extends into the evening depending on what is happening that day.

Once the animals are cared for, the day’s jobs are metered out. I’ve been utilizing my tractor skills to cut rushes on the fields (very much as I would have done at work) to stop them taking over and replacing the grass. They grow prolifically on compacted waterlogged soils, which these heavy Devonian clays have a tendency to do, especially in such a wet year. I’m pleased to say that I managed the task without getting the tractor stuck (although it was pretty close on several occasions).

Meat

6 pigs came back from the butchers one afternoon & it was all hands on deck to get the meat processed & stored. What a contrast it was to shift out of the days cow-dung covered trousers and mud coated arms into food hygiene mode in the blink of an eye!

These were Dylis’ offspring  who had left for Hatherleigh abattoir shortly before. This is Dylis enjoying the sunshine at the foot of a pile of oak logs, most of which are due to be cleft into fence posts.

I have some experience in butchery, having lived on road-kill venison for 4 years in Scotland. I used to gralloch and skin the deer behind the office at work & then cancel my plans for the evening so that I could get the carcase sectioned into sirloins/frying steaks, roasting joints, burger mince & offal, which all went into the freezer bar the liver and tenderloins which I would eat as a celebratory tea.

Here though the butchery had been done professionally as much of the pork was for sale. Our task was to cure it all with salt & sugar for hams and bacon. This I had never done before so it was great to be involved.

The loins were rubbed all over with a mix of Demerara and salt, packed into polystyrene boxes and refrigerated. The salt/sugar mix was reapplied daily for 3 weeks, with the excess liquid drained off.

The hams were soaked in buckets of heavily salted water with lemons, cloves and a dash of whiskey & refrigerated for a similar period.

Without an electric fridge these could of course be stored perfectly well in a cold cellar.

Here Flora is re-salting the loins

After 3 weeks they were all ready for smoking in an old wooden barrel with the flue of a caravan sized wood burning stove routed through it. Oak shavings left over from woodworking was the fuel of choice, for that special oak smoked flavour.

Clearing up week

The other week I was mostly... driving a 10-ton dumper truck. The two-year old inside me went wild! Not exactly low impact I admit, but quite effective at moving sh*t from A to B. I’ve been making huge piles of manure in the fields ready for spreading.

The dumper and a digger were on hire for a week so it was a pretty manic week getting all the jobs done in time. Unfortunately I didn’t get to drive the digger, but hey ho, the dumper was a lot of fun, particularly when bogged down in a wet heap.

The digger was used to restore some typical Devonshire ditch & bank hedging which has replaced an old barbed wire fence. A good choice of stock proofing I feel. Barbed wire is horrible to deal with and it always feels great to have taken out old rusted fence lines, removing them from the countryside forever – this is all to often regarded as an inefficient use of time on farms, with a new fence being placed over the top of the old one. Old redundant fences are litter in my book, whereas this ditch and bank system is multifunctional in that it is stock-proof, will drain water off the land, and incorporates a hedge which is beneficial to wildlife and provides some shelter. Plus it leaves no dangerous metal behind.

I did a bit of prep work with the chainsaw to free up the line of the bank which involved felling some trees that were in the way and some aerial tree surgery to remove overhanging oak branches. These were extracted by the horses and will be processed for fire wood. No photos unfortunately.

Being taken for a ride!

This post is mainly about Shire horses from the point of view of a complete novice:

I had no idea of the complexities of their characters and am discovering that these animas are far more intelligent than I’d ever imagined. Getting to know them is very much a two way process in which they are sussing me out as much as anything. In fact they work out my weaknesses amazingly quickly and exploit them well before I realize what’s going on! It is a steep learning curve for me, and Ben my host, is very keen that the horses and I establish who is the boss as quickly as possible before they decide I can be pushed around. I can see how right he is about this & I’m having to work hard and learn fast.

Meet Tom (the black one). He’s an absolute beauty & stands well over 7ft tall (in “hands” that is 18.2), probably weighing somewhere around a ton. He’s a reliable worker in experienced hands but is well on the ball & when I take the reigns he will push the boundaries to establish where he and I sit relative to each other in the hierarchy of dominance – I have learned that it is never assumed that the human is at the top! Ben says that this is true of any working horse worth his salt. Tom is impeccably behaved with Ben and it is apparent that they have a very clear understanding between them.

Joey (brown one of the pair) is younger and less experienced but is very capable. He is not quite Tom’s size (but still a massive horse). He will often nosey over for a stroke when I enter the field & rest his chin on my shoulder (or head), unlike Tom who is a little more aloof and usually content just to wander over and nibble grass near-by. Joey is a cheeky fellow though and tries to push the boundaries even with Ben, but Ben will not let him get away with it for one moment.

Here the pair of them are tasked with extracting haylage bags on a sledge from the areas of the hay meadow that were too wet to bale with the tractor.

There are 3 others horses to look after: Jem, who is currently pregnant;  Sonny her 6-month old foal, and a black and white mare named Gypsy. I'll post photos later.

So what have I learned so far about working with these magnificent creatures so far? In the grand scheme of things not a lot! It is going to be a long process, however I feel totally absorbed in getting to know them & am hooked already. My routine duties on horse days now include catching Tom & fitting his halter in the paddock; leading him to the stables; cleaning out his hoofs & giving him a brush down in preparation to being fitted up with his tack; and hosing him down after the day’s work. I’m getting the hang of fitting the tack too & hope to be allowed make this a routine task as soon as I can remember where the hell all those clips & bits of leather go! As for the working aspect, it is still early days and I’m just getting used to the commands for simple manoeuvres like “walk-on”, “whoa”, “steady”, “stand”, and simple reign control. I’ll let you know how I get on…