KW-46 The forest throws its voice

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One of the great pleasures of the forest is sharing it with visitors and volunteers. The joy of a forest walk with others interested in the greens and the browns, is great for wellbeing and bonding. Shinrin-yoku. In silence, without coloquators, the secrets of the space muddy the slight vibrations of the air - which are real, and which inside your head. Sometimes, your own footsteps emerge from a great distance beyond the trees. On these days, time disappears, the mind clears, and before you know it, you can’t walk any more because you’ve done 10k in new boots you haven’t broken in yet.

the wild boars are everywhere in the forest at the moment. These grubbings were still warm from piggie snouts. You don’t really want to run into a family of wild boars, but also, you never will.

Not a great deal has happened in the garden this week. It’s been raining. It’s going to keep raining. I’ve been trying to get as much of the wood inside as possible, or at least as much as I am going to need. This is a rotten job to do when the log pile has been rained on non-stop, but the wood shed has amazing drying properties, and within a couple of days of getting it inside, it’s already usable again.

There are two sorts of “dry” wood. Or rather, wet wood. When you cut a tree, the moisture in the plant cells starts to leave. The very best way of hurrying this along is to strip the bark off it, but cutting it, chopping it or splitting it works as well. Moisture can’t really leave through the skin of the tree, but it will leave through any exposed cut side. The smaller you chop it up, the shorter the distance it has to travel. For a 2 meter long tree trunk section with the bark still on, this can take two years or more. Let it do its thing, and in no time (2 years), you’ll have usable wood for burning or cabinet making.

The other sort of “wet” is rained on. This will dry out completely in two days, but if you leave it standing around and wet, it will start to rot immediately, and in 6 months, will be good for nothing.

So, I’ve been getting it all inside. The 4m³ of oak went into the wood shop, and so far I’ve got about 6m³ of the sprucey, piney, furry (!) stuff in the wood shed.

It would be really helpful to have two full nights and days without rain. As I was thinking this exact thought, I picked up my phone to check a bunch of weather apps and take the average. I swear, at the exact moment I turned it on, this notification came through

Wet and wild. Endless rain until the middle of the week.

Other than this, I resowed the Pig Field with grass seed (saved from my own grass!). I checked on it yesterday, and I can’t see any signs of sprouting yet. I have a horrible feeling it’s all been eaten by birds or mice or something. But then, I am a doomer. It’ll be fine. Probably.

It looks a bit Ikea, but the new Pirate Ben kitchen kabinet fits in to the ktichen just a treat

I got most of the sweetcorn cut down from the new pumpkin field out the back, but I didn’t get a chance to shred it, on account of the perpetual precipitation. That will be fine as well. And other than that, I honestly can’t remember what I have done all week. Pottering, mostly.

Oh, there was one exciting moment when the rain tried to turn into snow. I shook my fist at the heavens and cried “Wehe!!” which is German for “I wouldn’t if I were you!”, and the heavens saw sense enough not to snow, but sleeted sulkily instead, just to be petulant.

I started on the next making a thing out of wood project last night. When your woodworking starts with “cut down a tree”, there’s quite a lot of work to be done before you get to the bit where you have nice straight planks with right angles on them. I prepped some oak, some birch and some larch yesterday. I was hoping that the colours would contrast rather more than they do. The larch is red, sure, but the oak and the birch are mostly exactly the same if you aren’t looking closely.

Nothing is normal. Of course the best week for mushrooming this year has been the second week of November. When else would you expect it? /s

This week, I am mostly going to be in the wood shop, I think. Whenever things dry out, I will

• rake leaves

• move wood inside

• shred sweetcorn

• converse with pigs

Next week, no doubt a rant on COP-28. Or maybe not. maybe this year I can ignore it. For some mad reason, this week I decided to read the IEA World Energy Outlook. It’s ridiculous. ¹ Someone recommend me something nice to read?

But until then, until next time, be excellent to each other.

Much piratey love

Your

Pirate Ben

xoxo

ps… please do do all the social things that you get nagged about so often. In the last year, we have gained over 200 new readers, and this time last year, we had 20 paid sub. Now, it’s 41². None of this is possible without your likes, comments, shares and recommendations, for which I am continually grateful

1. https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/66b8f989-971c-4a8d-82b0-4735834de594/WorldEnergyOutlook2023.pdf

2. We should do something when we hit 42. Suggestions please in the comments!