Mr. Ed

Mike R: is that you at Peafields?

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CSL in Schull, West Cork, are a big supplier of all sorts of blades - and sharpen them as well. The website takes a while to get the knack of but they have loads of kit. CSL Tool & Supply Company WWW.CSLTOOL.COM csl, tool, supply

how can you being yourself to burn it! It’s beautiful.

Thanks SmG. Alder leaf beetle isn’t supposed to have got to Ireland (yet) whereas there’s a bit of a larch plantation just a hundred metres away with some poorly trees in it. Does Phytophthora tend to kill a whole plantation or just some trees in it?

We have a small section of alders on our land (SW Ireland), many of which are looking pretty crook. Very thin crowns on many of them and lots of leaf growth coming straight from the stems. Anyone have any ideas? Phytophthera?

Good toys! Yum yum.

Oh and a tip if doing this - make sure all the stakes are on the same side of the tree! It helps find them (and stops you from trampling them).

A quick update. Alessandro has completed the staking out and initial cleaning of the post dieback replanting - he’s mostly only staked (this is for finding them, not for supporting them) oaks rather than other species, since they’re the most threatened. Maybe 1500 stakes in the 2.75 hectares, maybe 2000. Apparently we need to reach a level of 2700 per hectare to please the Department. it’s been remarkably difficult finding them - especially as we began before they were in leaf - which also meant before the brambles got going. At times you would swear they were moving around or suddenly shooting up and at times it felt like an exercise in Artificial Intelligence - which is of course no match for Natural Stupidity. Here’s a couple we found casually just today. Spot the oak. and here’s a couple of overviews of our New Age Golgotha. I can’t speak highly enough of Alessandro. We were very likely to find him.

Thank you for sharing - I’m glad I’ve never done anything stupid …

that’s like asking why a dog licks its elbows - because it can. We did it because it came with a house we could buy and it’s proving a rich unexpected new dimension to life. As to the original question, is the friend a real absentee owner? In which case surely he needs a professional who knows what he’s doing working for him and hiring contractors and getting felling licences and so on. In our case we sort of had to because there was still some grant income. If he has an environmental goal as well, have a talk with the local ProSilva people - Continuous Cover is the way to go. (Duck and cover!)

I was thinking more about staying flat than the colour really. I’ve had problems with the slices that go through the pith of the tree - they sort of buckle?

Wow. Are you thinking table? How will that sort of board with lots of pith dry? y

Lovely stuff. What’s the wood in the fourth photo? The one with the fancy markings… And do you sharpen or buy afresh? Seems a stupid question but I was told (by a saw sharpener) that for smallish blades there was no point. Mind, that’s not such a small saw - I have machine envy. That’s a luxurious setup.

A quick update - thanks to Alessandro we’ve made great progress and have marked most of the vulnerable trees (mostly the very small oaks) and cleared around them. This will make future weeding much easier and safer. We don’t have a clear idea of how much we’ve lost yet. our professional forester is wryly amused by our folly. I can see why they prefer to use glyphosate, given how much time this is taking and I’m also very glad we’re not doing it. Alessandro was alarmed by a mallard flying up at his feet yesterday. Here’s her nest. It seems an unfeasibly long journey to the river.

“staring with a coffee type of build. …” Wonderful! I’m stealing that.

We've got a few Robinia Pseudoacacia - Most varieties (like ours) have a natural tendency to be rather wobbly (go all over the place) and certainly sucker. I think the variety they grow in plantations in Hungary where it's the most planted tree is called "ship mast" or something like that. There's a ghost site out there bigging it up as a wonder-tree for Ireland. Pleased to see the inside of it! If we wait fifty years we might have a few bits straight enough!

Ned Walls from Wexford has said he’ll do something for us but it’s been months of next week next week. Nice guy and great place mind. Check their website for a real old school mill. Astonishing.

I’ve just found you on the internet - what a great operation you have there. Congratulations.

Just two AJ - held together by a “gravity joint” (in other words just sitting there). I’ll do something a bit more permanent.

Leyland I think. From the garden just by the house. It’s been in the house since Christmas and I’ll do a bit of refinishing once it’s settled down and stopped moving.

Ah, we’ve been doing it like that in Kerry for years and there’s actually an Irish word for the pillows that theu fell the trees on to. but seriously that is astonishing - there is nothing that the Japanese can’t do in a super-perfect way.

what sizes do you sell it in, what uses are people buying it for, and what sort of prices do you get? Too many questions I know (ans sorry). I’m interested because we have a couple of reasonable areas of planted sycamore in our newly acquired wee woodland. There might be some sawlog size in a decade and I’d be interested to know its market. We’re in the SW of Ireland and you can’t move for craftspeople, but you can get a lot of spoons from one tree …

As a newby it’s a tremendous thrill extracting geometry from chaos. A very rich experience to have things made from something you’ve cut yourself, even if it does mean that our house still has no skirtings or architraves and the cladding is still unfinished …

Just like he said. But pump the tires up.