Ben Ballard

i know what you mean it depressing see ing all your hard work it in mess .ive keep goin round replacing the stakes some areas have had almost all replaced ,find it a pain when the cable tie been chewed so carry secetuers to trim the ends and ones that i collected of old ones,but hopefully should get better in future years as the deer are been controlled 100 been shot this last year:001_smile:

that sounds a big job will you get some help or contractors in ?,i been removing guards as wel on the stuf i am thinning its the old type so they dont split open that well,i have no trouble recycling the spirals but cant get rid of the tubex as recycle company dont take them as they made of already recycled material that cant be used again so they have to go in a skip,i get told to burn them ,whats wrong so i been piling them up for now ,iam realy looking forward to alaska going on cruze from vancover travel up to glacier bay then on coach and train to denali national park hopefully see some bears ,mose and be cool if get to see samon going up rivers:001_smile:

:001_smile:Hi David hows your week been ?,iam almost at end of block i am thinning so hopefuly move on to next block hope to have whole area done in feb -march with tree planting to do hopefuly trees should be delivered soon.and on 17 tree rats and started baiting up some cages to start new area next week

congrtatulations and hope your wee one get better soon mate must be very stressful sounds like a future tree man in the making been strong as a ox.

Thancks Stevie your threads are good aswell and your a pro at what you do i like the crane you use,ill post another cool photo .you been busy today ?

hi david i chopthe brash up withthe saw when thinning find it soon rots down pile some brash on hazel stumps to protect from the deer burn when need to clear access or got to much brash forestry commision dont like burning much and say a wood doesnt need to look tidy like a garden,but i dont like it looking a mess so do bit of both on chestnut coppice always burn to aid extraction

we planting lonicera i know what u mean about it spreading so not planting to much of it ,box ,holly ,laurel,dog rose,dog wood, spindal tree i said no way to rodrodendrum.iam planting them in clumps about 1m spacing in areas of about 5m square with mesh guards and a tempory fence for each clump to stop the deer,due to mesh guards i will have to weed manualy .do you have much wild garlic in your woods ? i was selling to a game dealer last yearpicked just the leaves and flower,there was so much i didnt make a dent in it, is not on the protected wild flower list so i wasnt doing wrong i was planning to have a good harvest this year but we have sold that wood now so might have to poach it haha was worth £7.50a kg took about a hour to fill a bin bag wouldnt get rich doing it but nice been in the woods and get a bit of pocketmoney

thats good about the farm pond ,we are thinning same area still been sorting out what we are planting,one of my jods is to plant a mixture of evergreen scrubs in groups in a wood i thinned last summer at the flushing points mainly ,when i first come here i would spend 3 months planting a year most of our woods have been restocked now and we are incoraged to keep what open areas we got left open .i plant specimins mainly now ,i used to like setting a plantation out with ranging poles and seeing it all line up when guards are on its nice seeing what you have planted grow its a good feeling.

hi David we got our last shoot tomorow it beaters day, do you have many to go ? did you finnish your pond was it big and what is it for