Wood Collecting with Henry

Today was our monthly workday group or 'Methail' as it's called in Irish, and it was my turn to have everyone over. There was seven of us, well eight including Henry the horse, who is very much part of the team. We took it in turns to work with Henry, loading up the pack saddle with with the gorse sticks and walking down through the land to a growing wood pile! The gorse was cut originally from areas of the land in preparation for the tree planting of the winter before last. These sticks will be cut to suitable lengths for the woodburning stove, gorse burns very well, although it is combined with turf to slow it down a bit. Henry is able to go to areas of the land not accessible with the tractor and trailer.
The rest of the group worked in the new woodland, locating the young trees amongst the bracken and clearing around them with a hook. This task will need to be done for a few years until the trees have grown up above the bracken and brambles. We were very lucky with the weather, the sun shone and we took a tea break out on the hill with views out over a sparkling Bantry Bay. The day was a great success we had worked our way through all the woodland and thanks to Henry the wood pile had grown considerably! The day was rounded off with a hearty supper.