Stump pulling competition

We had a great competition at the orchard field in Turnditch last night using a cable winch to pull up the stumps of the Blackthorn bushes. It was all going well until the occupants of a previously undiscovered wasp nest decided to intervene. Everyone received at least one sting from the insects who did not like us disturbing their wood pile. Then poor light stopped play.

The volunteer team scored a narrow 5 - 4 victory over the management in terms of stump extractions.

Clearing thornbush

Now the summer bird nesting season has finsihed we've been able to get down to clearing a sizeable patch of black thorn bushes at the end of the orchard. During previous years of neglect by previous owners these bushes have been allowed to grow on a level part of the field.  Their thorns make them a nasty almost dangerous type of undergrowth to remove. We've using a chainsaw to topple them leaving stumps some 30 cm high. 

Over the next few weeks we'll use cable winches to pull up the stumps and their root network. I was able to find a convenient source of steel chain. We use the chain to wrap around and grip the stumps as we winch them out. The chain  supplied in retail hardware stores is either too weak or grossly overpriced. Even our local agricultural supplier Lester Lowe  didn't have a suitable chain on its capacious shelves.

We've been left with a huge pile of bushes to burn. We started the burning this week, but the as the wood is green it will take a while to get the job done.

Our volunteer has learned a healthy respect for the thorns and I suspect he is very grateful for the thorn proof gloves we provided him at the commencement of his voluntary work period.

Thankfully after several weeks my foot is recovering from injury, so soon I'll be able to get back to a full schedule of work in the orchard.

Fruits of our Labour

I and the volunteer were working on the Turnditch orchard last night preparing the ground to remove some more blackthorn bushes which have invaded the field. With my wonky foot progress was a little bit slow but steady. We are working to make the land safe so other people can be invited on to the land.

I was able to take home a couple of the Queen Cox apples which we allowed to fruit this year. They have a gorgeous flavour. It gives promise of great fruit in the future.

Neighbours to the rescue

The young man who volunteers came to the rescue over the long grass on the orchard. He successfully took on the task of mowing the the grass and weeds. It takes about five hours to complete this task and is hard work. While I'm recovering from my foot injury it's not a job I should attempt. The dumped rubble prevents the use of a normal mowing machine.

It orchard is now looking as though it is tended and cared for thanks to his work with the field trimmer.

Off my feet

The grass is long in the orchard. A couple of weeks ago when I was cleaning out the stream bed I managed to tear the muscles under my right foot. It makes walking quite painful. The doctor called it Plantar Fasciitis and said it will take several weeks to resolve, but I shouldn't need surgery!

So no hard manual work for a while.

Meanwhile we were able to sample the first few plums and cherries from the orchard. They were delicious.

Removing sick Elm trees

We cleared out some sick Elm trees from the river bank this week. It is all part of the programme to open up the river bank down at the Turnditch Orchard Project. We used cable winches to prevent the trees falling into the river and a chain saw to cut the trees. I made good use of my new wader boots as the dummy in the water. 

It is a lot more open than it used to be when we first took possession of the field. There's a couple of pictures below showing the before state.

The river bank before cut back. Notice the marked trees.

Our dog getting ready for a paddle.

There is of course a very large pile of wood now awaiting destruction by burning on site. We don't want to risk spreading the disease any further. I'll devise some kind of furnace to keep the fire temperatures high. Elm is usually not a very good firewood, if left to its own devices it usually produces a lot of acrid smoke when it burns in an open fire.

This tree removal work will make space for us to introduce some erosion control on the river banks.

Hedge trim and river cleaning

We had a reasonably productive week so far. With the aid of the new volunteer help we were able to winch a fallen tree from the river. A pile of silt had built up on the river bed where the tree was impeding the water flow. Hopefully that will resolve itself or we'll have to carry many bucket loads of mud from the river.

Fallen tree in the river

We were able to remove some invasive and some poisonous plants from the orchard, namely Himalayan Balsam and also full grown Ragwort. Ragwort is toxic to grazing animals such as horses. The persistent toxins destroy the animals' livers.

I spent a few hours yesterday trimming the roadside hedge which was encroaching the footpath and also beginning to hide some road signs. Thinking about the work made me realise I'd trimmed something like 400 Sq Metres of hedge using hand tools, mostly hawthorn and some ash trees. Wearing bright yellow clothing while working on the roadside footpath was an essential measure. The hump of the railway bridge makes it a blind spot for cars and lorry drivers.