Sprint to beat Spring deadline

I am reminded of the benefits of retirement as the end of the financial year approaches. No accruals for me, sorry for you unlucky NT staff coping with this. However the rush is on to get fence clearing and thinning tasks completed as much as possible before the bird nesting season starts mid March. So not surprisingly spent a hard days fence clearing with Martin but enjoyed my first visit to Clump Farm, which in spite of fog on the Broadway tower hilltop, provided good views down onto Broadway. Still some way to go on tree identification {I need to see the leaves!}, so failed in identifying field maple, crab apple and even sycamore. Got the hawthorn but mainly 'cos the thorns are a bit of a giveaway especially when they pierce my gloves! Martin remains reasonably patient and only sighed a few times...

Clump farm on a sunny day

Today with Mike started with a visit to the the drystone wallers working the wall adjacent to East belt. Interesting local father and son team who we helped out by clearing some of the sapling growth too near the wall and delivered some much needed supplies of cotswold stone. After this got stuck into the main days task of thinning which completed the work started last week which will allow Mike to erect a deer fence compartment. This will enable the new beech and ash  growth to develop unhindered by hungry deer. A side benefit of the thinning was not just increasing firewood supplies but to provide some 'seats' for the local school children. So some suitable 6' lengths of wood were loaded onto the trailer and duly delivered to the Sherborne school ready for use this coming weekend.