Two Acres

Tell you what, how about buying a small wood, putting a shed in it and selling it on. I found a five acre conifer woodland for sale, near me, yesterday. It has a 'gingerbread house' in it (thats a pretty shed by thw way). The asking price is £100,000

Excellent post that Alec Whats the fee structure with Investment Sense? Do they charge a percentage fee or by the hour?

Mine too. The Private Equity fund has been really good

You could think about putting it into a fund. Have a look at companies like F&C and Fidelity. Potentially you could doubleyour money in five years. Youcould, however also lose perhaps 20%, all depends how comfortable you are with risk.

Hi Ben, I'm near Norwich but would be very glad to take the wood if thats any help

Heres an interesting website - Vote for Policies - Vote for policies, not personalities! You can make choices based on policies without knowing which party they belong to. Then the website tells you who you should be voting for. As you can see most folks are choosing Green when they pick on policy alone.

I've checked with the neighbour and he reckons he planted the willow around eight or nine years ago. The rings aren't very distinct in my logs, but from what I can see I would say he's right. They're about 4 inches diameter. I also have a fair load of alder logs. Not burnt many yet but I have read in Vincent Thurkettles book that he rates alder as highly as ash (when both are properly seasoned and he only rates ash as 'good' not 'excellent').

I'm currently burning no end of willow that my neighbour planted. Most of it, I'd guess, is around four inch diameter. What I'll do is ask the neighbour for you tomorrow , see if he remembers when he planted the trees. I'll also measure up some logs.

Can't really be worth your time Scotty, not now the bankers have spent all our cash

:lol: horn beamed, I see what you did there, very clever VI

Heres a first line for you Village Idiot, Come look at the size of my hornbeam...

Cheers John K, Appreciate that

I agree with you on the fence Woodguy, mine is open. I have been disapointed however to discover a little plot of cannabis, tread in a dog poop and find someone has carved their initals in a tree I'm hoping that when I start working in it, and it looks a little less neglected, than maybe that will encourage other folks to look after it too.

Thats interesting Sysiphus, Whats SWOG? I guess you found the Woodland Trust helpful? Any grants forthcoming or is it more advice thats useful?

Cheers for that Woodguy, Sounds like excellent advice to me

Well, I have a plan slowly forming in my mind! I was planning on having them all out on the basis outlined in my previous post along with the thought that they really have no place in a British woodland. The alternative point of view is to leave some for the benefit of wildlife. I think I can safely remove most of them, then see whats left and decide from there.

i'll look forward to seeing the winter pics, much easier to see whats what in the winter. Sounds like you've got to clear some of that understory to get better access, then you'd be better able to make decisions. I've decided to go slow with mine and I'm suprised eveytime I go in there at themoment. Something new comes to light!

Its all the same is it rather than a rotation system? If so not much point in coppicing again? Some winter pics would be really good to see - could get more of an idea of the structure of the woodland them. Sorry I'm not being much help here, My knowledge is very limited but I'm just interestd as I'm in a similar position

Thanks for the pics, interesting to see Looks like the coppice has been coppiced not so long ago?

:lol:Very, very funny Silky, cheers for that:thumbup:

Thanks for sharing that Steve, its nice to see

I'm interested in where you were thinking of putting them Bombus? Would love to see some pics of the wood to see what space you have to play with

Thanks for your thoughts Woodguy and Spandit, To my mind there are a number of problems with the leylandii. For a start there are a are a heck of a lot of them. The way they have been planted, with the intention that they line either side of the ride, has meant that the now effectively form a massive hedge. There is no longer a ride, the leylandi have overgrown it. As a consequence vehicle access to the wood is impossible. This 'hedge' also prevents light reaching one corner of the wood and is out competing more favourable species that are growing amongst it. I've been for another stroll around this afternoon and have discovered two good sized Scots that I hadn't realised were there growing among the leylandi. I'd like to give those trees space to grow. Even of I remove all the leylandi in the 'hedge' I will still have several other leylandi dotted around the wood, so I'd need to take a firm decision to eradicate it if I wanted to do so.

Many thanks Woodyguy and Paul, I will attempt to get more accurate measurements of the trees and make some firm calculations. Then I'll be able to confirm if a felling licence is required or not.

Yes indeed TVI, I've discovered that underestimating considerably, and then realising your error, is a wonderfully easy method of increasing the size of your woodland. The inability to estimate acreage correctly also has the added bonus (unique in my experience) of leaving you with a warm glow all over when your total failure is revealed to you by someone else. Never has personal ineptidude felt so good