Quickthorn

Don't envy you on the blackthorn..I bet we're all flat out getting the last bits done. These last few days have seen a lot of hawthorn I'm on break buds. It's hedgelaying for me til end march, then moving house, then spraying.

Yea, frost, or i wish it would dry out. Been doing pa6 assessments in the snow today and yesterday. So many fields have standing water in them, I bet all the local woods are the same..total quagmires. I'm supposed to be cutting some hazel in a wood a few miles from here, but I doubt if I'll be able to drive up to the work,so everything I cut will have to be carried out..that will double the effort needed

Hi dave..yes, been busy and away in the caravan for the last week. was working nearer home yesterday, but the wind was a bit nippy. I've taken today off because of the snow they forecast..it's getting to site that I thought might be the problem..more getting past the idiots in cars who get stuck/crash and block the roads up. Doesn't seem that bad at the moment, though.

I paid about £3500, but that was ex dealer, and it was too much really. What I really wanted fell through, so I had to find one in a hurry. It's done alright, but it is really slow. Do you drive landrover, or have you got more sense?

It tends to be a mixture of ash and hazel, dave, mainly hazel. I've been cutting in a wildlife trust reserve, which is a source of good material, as it's been managed for a while now. As usual with anything worth having, there's a lot of people interested in it, so I've been restricted to 1/3rd acre for the last few years. I'm going to try locally in the new year, but my experience of local woods is that a lot of the coppice is a bit poor, as the gamekeepers cut tracks through it, and the people in control of it are pretty greedy. Some people round here seem to prefer stuff to fall over and die rather than sell it for anything less than top dollar.

Is there much coppice on your estate? On the wildlife trust sites, they tend to get all sorts of wildflowers etc. on the newly cut coupes.

Cheers, Dave..same to you, and all the best for New Year!

I don't do much over summer, david. Come March, it starts to dry up. There's a few day's spraying here and there, plus a few days pa6 assessing, but apart from that, I spend summer putting back together all the stuff that broke during the winter season! One problem now is that so many clients now believe that the bird nesting season starts earlier, and so they want everything done by the end of February. At the moment,I wish there was 2 of me!

Do they keep you busy over summer?

I've got plenty to do in Winter, luckily..I'm actually flat out til end March. It's summer that's slow, and to earn decent money in this line of work, you need to be flat out all of the time!

I'm self employed..I'm sure I'd be better off as an employee, but I used to feel pretty trapped working for others. If you're self employed, you get to choose what jobs you take on, what gear you use (if you can afford it), how well you maintain it all, etc. Since I moved to Lincs, I'd probably be better off on the dole, really, but if you enjoy what you do for a living, you don't need money to spend on holidays, hobbies etc. because you don't need all that stuff.

If I ever gave up self employment, the next best thing would be working for the right estate. I did think of trying to get in here, but it's a good job I didn't, because they've sacked all the woodmen and now contractors do it all!

Hi Matt

I've just been going through your epic 130 thread again. I'm thinking of retiring my 110 at the end of this season and going for a 130. I know where you got it from, but can you tell me what sort of price you paid, who had it before you and what sort of mileage it had on it? I've seen a few at dealers for £7-8k ex Environment Agency, with about 120000 or so on the clock. Did you try approaching the utility co direct, or auctions, to cut the dealer out before going to Drake's?

I've heard the hazel thing too. It's a crying shame that there's so much overstood, getting on for 50-60 years old. I'd cut a lot more if I knew there was a market, but I'd need to ask 50p for, say a 5' hedgelaying stake, and an awful lot of people turn their noses up at that.

There are supposed to be dormice in one of the woods I coppice. They now leave uncut margins between coupes, to act as corridors for them. In one way, it would be nice if they were there, but I wouldn't look forward to the possible restrictions that might come if they were found. I mean, they'd be there partly because of the way the place is managed..if they stop us managing it, won't it change their habitat?

yes, that's me., messing about with my camera when I should of been working. There's hedging work around, but i get the feeling there's less now since they scrapped countryside stewardship. The new els doesn't tie the landowner into a particular task, such as hedgelaying. There are still grants, though. It can sometimes be 50% of my season, though I'm glad to finish some jobs. First job this season, after cutting hazel for it, was a 400 yd hedge with no vehicle access except for one end. Towards the end, I must have been walking a couple ofmiles a day just carrying materials!

Good idea to create that woodman's group. I like all the coppice crafts and stuff, but earning money always has to come first, unfortunately.

Well that doesn't sound too bad. You can manage woods for wildlife etc. and still get shooting out of it. It's a shame they don't do a bit more of that here really; most work in the woods is decided on by either the gamekeeper or a forestry consultant they have, whose main motivation is making as much money out of the woods as possible.

Does he have any coppice - especially hazel or ash, for stakes and such? A 7-8 year rotation's good for wildlife, gives cover for game, and can even bring in an income if the quality is right.

I've only been working with trees for about 13 yrs or so..before that, it was office or factory work, which was dreadful. Sounds like you're in the right area to make money out of firewood-i'd be doing it myself, but there's very little money in Lincs..people don't really want to pay for firewood around here, it seems. How are you getting on with the alaskan? I want something like that, as I sometimes find there's stuff I could use but cannot move, so why not plank it? Only trouble these days is it seems that there's a lot more interest now, so stuff that would have been left to rot now has a price on it.

It's a shame, and shortsighted. I think a lot of it's when they get land agents or consultant foresters in. Contractors may be cheaper on paper, but they'll be in and out as quickly as they possibly can. Yet some estates manage to keep their woodsmen. There's one place near Sleaford where they have them planking up a lot of their felled oak, and stickering it ready to season, after which it's all used to maintain the estate cottages. They also manage to make a firewood business pay. It just takes a bit of imagination.

Good luck on the planting..it's the sort of work I quite like, if there's not too much pressure on. great weather for it now, although a bit miserable if you're the one doing it!

Hi david,

No, I'm a self employed contractor, doing hedgelaying and anything that's feasible without big machinery.

I do live on an estate, though, as I rent a cottage next to their woodyard. The only trouble is, they've just sacked all their woodsmen and gone over to contractors, which is a great shame, really.

Rgards, Nick