About Big Wood  
THE BIG WOOD YEAR
WINTER is when all the hard work is done in Big Wood. The sap is down (normally !) and the leaves are off. Bracken and ferns have died back and you can see the wood for the trees.
SPRING is a GLORIOUS time in Big Wood - being an ancient bluebell wood by mid-February the woodland floor is greening up with bluebell shoots. They normally don't flower until the last week in April. This signals the end of all the heavy work within the wood, as birds will be nesting and the growing flora is easily damaged.
SUMMER is a time for just enjoying the wood - if there is time. Its beautifully cool under the tree canopy on a hot day. During June, all of the ferns and bracken appear from nowhere - it's a jungle out there ! Don't mention the horse flies and midges - everything is buzzing. wood13sept03_007.jpg (125820 bytes)
wood12may04 007.jpg (126933 bytes) AUTUMN is GOOD. OK, so there are all the nice colours and leaves dropping to the ground - but this is the time of seed production for new life - and the Sweet Chestnut seeds taste good too. Fungi appear from nowhere. Deer are mating and a new season starts. 'To everything there is a season....' - Ecclesiastes and The Byrds
TIMBER PRODUCTION
About 3 or 4 trees are earmarked each year for timber. These are presently 'thinnings'. Big  Wood has not been under a management regime for many years, so in many places naturally seeded trees are too close together. The trees are felled and then cut into chunks about 5' long and then planked using a Logosol portable sawmill. Sycamore stains very easily after felling, so logs and planks are stacked vertically for a while in the wood to prevent this, before being moved to a barn for seasoning over the next few years.

Logosol Mill and planks
TREES & STUFF
There is also lots of mammal activity in Big Wood. There are Roe and Fallow Deer that come and go, happily eating all the new tree shoots. We have several large active badger setts, and rabbits, hares and stoats/weasels (which ? it was too quick !). Foxes have also been seen, and unfortunately grey squirrels are everywhere.