Spent another fantastic weekend in the wood - first on Saturday with my Mum clearing yet more Rhodies from the stream area - can now see the bathroom! Then when the boys turned up later in the day a huge bonfire cleared the majority of the two huge piles of prunings leaving only a small amount to go.I spent an hour or so remaking one of the canvas beds using stronger, straighter poles, to the point where I debated swapping my own bed for the new one - nice and high off the ground with a much more horizontal sleeping platform, but instead decided to give turning my poles around a go first - glad I did - as it did the trick perfectly.
I also managed to spend a satisfying hour or so clearing brambles and their roots from the northern path and some more from the clearing to at least make a start on getting them under control. Since exposing the ground in the clearing all kinds of plants have germinated and I'd like to keep as much of a variety as possible, but the brambles have to go. There are plenty of them growing along Oogy pass and they taste pretty good too, so taming them to grow where I want them is definitely my preference.Saturday was the first night round the campfire with most of the camping crew (with the exception of one very valuable member - her pokey fire stick was pretty lonely all night). The rain held off and we were in for a good night's sleep - or at least we would have been if we had gone to bed at a sensible hour! Still it allowed us a lie in until gone 9am which was nice - my sleeping bag and Bivvy combo was well worth the money spent.
Feeling slightly overwhelmed at how quickly things grow and beginning to realise why people resort to Glyphosate to eradicate certain species. It's going to be the only method I think for us to gain control over the Rhodies and soon the brambles. But since it is best to spray in June/July we still have a long way to go with the pruning and burning method before we have to think about getting a knapsack sprayer.The CPH number arrived from the Forestry Commission too this week and so we have nearly everything we need to write the management plan and submit it with the completed grant application forms.
