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.
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.
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| The hooves are trimmed and filed - a bit like a fingernail manicure. |
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| The right size shoe is selected but still needs a little shaping. Mark has a forge in the back of his landrover! |
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| 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. |
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| The shoe is nailed on from underneath with square nails & the points filed off. That's one corner done, 3 more to go! |
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