I was tree felling today because it is getting towards the time when the sap is rising in the trees. The presence of the sap in the eventual timber means that the durability of the timber is diminished, so I cut down the trees I am hoping to make planks from this summer.
Very happy to have used the big Husky 395xp for its first plunge cut on this oak tree
Cutting a biggish holly with the trusty Stihl ms.201. Holly is an amazing white, dense wood which takes shape very well. I'm hoping to make a few chairs out of holly soon, I think they will be beautiful. I feel very lucky to have access to holly wood of this size, and to work in the amazing woodland where they grow.
The holly tree grew very much interlocked with its neighbouring oak tree, so I had to use the winch to pull them apart. Their intertwining reminded me of the equinox mythology. The oak king and the holly king do battle on the longest and on the shortest day. The outcome is that the holly (evergreen) king rules in the winter, and the oak (deciduous) king rules in the summer.
This is certainly the case here, where the oak remains to grow on this summer, and the holly (eventually!) falls. However, the holly I have cut down today will coppice, so that the summer regrowth will do battle with the oak king and reign supreme in the wintertime again. Woods work on such a long time scale, and there is always such resurgence. My hope in this woodland is to make small changes to the advantage of the whole wood, so that it remains healthy for the future.