We have been so busy the last few weeks I did not get time to update the blog!! However I am not complaining as it is a difficult trading time for most businesses at the moment so long may it last. We have been doing mainly small local jobs with problem trees in gardens at Crook, Willington, Ferryhill, Wolsingham, Witton le Wear and Durham. We did have one large commercial job to do with traffic controls as the trees were overhanging a road but generally we have been in and our of people’s gardens trying to tame some overgrown trees. We have also removed some dangerous trees for the Forestry Commision and supplied a load of birch bundles to Carlisle racecourse and some private trainers. The jump race season will be starting in the autumn so a lot of the racecources are repairing or rebuilding their jumps at the moment. A local riding club has asked us to build them some portable jumps which we are happy to do and we usually do a few working hunter courses during the summer as well as Wolsingham Show in September.
We have had a slight rat problem at home when the hedehogs moved out of, and some rats moved into, the log pile beside the wild garden. Our little Jack Russell terrier Susie alerted us to their presence and sadly they have to go because of the damage they can do and the diseases they spread to the other animals. Plus my mother is terrified of them and can be heard screaming from 2 miles away if she sees one!! Touch wood they seem to have gone now but we will have to be vigilant this winter.

We were all delighted to see a bright electic blue dragonfly make an apparance at our wildlife pond the other day. No-one is exactly sure what type it is but we think it is a rare type usually only seen in the south of England. Maybe global warming is helping them to move North! Our postman is a keen conservationist and he got very exicted when he saw it and although he was supposed to be helping us decide if a nasty looking brown pond weed could be removed – or it was the wrong time of year to be disturbing the pond critters – he could not concentrate because he was enthralled by this beautiful dragonfly hovering about. It did not seem a a bit bothered about the audience it was attracting and it is certainly a good work stopper as we kept going to the pond to see if he was back. I just hope the dragonfly does not get eaten by something larger as the hedges around the farm are teeming with life at the moment which is always great to see.
On a more work related note we have been doing a lot of landscaping and tree surgery work at a private estate between Hamsterly and Wolsingham for the last 2 weeks. It is a lovely place, very tranquil and off the beaten track and the owners have done a massive amount of work on the gardens and surrounding woodland which is starting to pay off beautifully now. We have also been thinning timber out on 2 sites at Crook and Durham for the Council which will be sold for the wood burning markets in the winter. We will be returning to these sites at the back end of the year to take out more timber where it has got over crowded. It has been lovely working in the warm, sunny weather and long may it last.

Life has certainly been hectic in the last 2 weeks as my parents went on holiday to Austria and London and left me in charge of the lot!! This means as well as keeping the busines going by organising the work and staff I have to look after their small holding as well as my own. This means feeding several horses, chickens, dogs, pigs, 23 piglets and 2 rabbits before I even start to think about getting to work on time. Then it is the same thing in reverse when we get home plus mucking out, filling waters and walking the dogs before I get any chance of having my tea!! By the time I have done all this after a day’s work and picked up the phone messages, checked the emails and organised the following day’s work, I only have time to get a bath and fall into bed before starting again.
Tree surgery work has also been busy lately – normally once the birds start nesting in the trees we do not do much chainsaw work so that we do not desturb them. We have had to take down some dangerous trees overhanging the road in Durham but fortunately they had no nests in them. We also had to get a tree preservation order overturned for one customer as the roots were causing serious structural damage to his house. We recently pruned back a willow tree with a virus in Spennymoor, which hopefully we will be able to save as it is a lovely mature tree which the owner is quite fond of!! We always try to save as many trees as we can and make it a priority to improve the locations we are working at as forestry in general used to have a very bad reputation for being destructive and we like to think Woodland Enterprises is the opposite of that.

How nice it is to be working in warm sunny days – long may it last as we must be due to a good summer after all the snow this winter. Workwise we are very busy which is always a good thing when you work for yourself although my Dad tends to moan when he is too busy and moan even more when things are quiet!! We have been doing some tree work in Durham for the Council and some private tree surgery near Bishop Auckland and Spennymoor. Large trees growing too close to private houses can cause all sorts of problems with subsidence, broken and blocked drains and even broken windows if the walls have been moved by the tree roots. They are always best removed before they cause too much damage although sometimes it is possible to reduce the size of the trees or hedges enough to stop any damage occuring without having to take the lot out. We are always happy to provide free advice and quotations to prospective customers if they are in doubt.
I would like to extend a warm welcome to Ian Gray our new employee as he joined us a couple of weeks ago having previously done some contract work for us in the past. Ian is a qualified and experienced tree surgeon and I am sure he will become a much valued member of our small team. Phillip Harris has now had to take early retirement on health grounds after many years of stirling service and he is much missed -especially at lunch breaks as he rarely stopped talking and had strong views on just about every subject!! We all hope you have a brilliant retirement Phillip and you are certainly a hard act to follow.

Well we are in March now and we still have snow on the ground in the hedge backs and behind the more sheltered walls. There is an old saying that if the snow is hanging around then it will have to snow some more before we get rid of the stuff still hanging around. So it looks like we will be getting some more yet! This is definetly the longest period of time any of us can remember when there has been snow around without a break of milder weather when it melts away. My neighbours told me it started snowing in Woodland on December 6th and it has been here in varying amounts since so I am sure they are right.
This of course has an effect on our work although we can reach most of our sites OK now. Because the ground is still frozen in most places we cannot get any planting done so we will have quite a bit of catching up to do when the weather eventually warms up. By the way do not let anyone tell you that we cannot be experiencing global warming because the winter has been soo cold – climate change as it should be better know, is characterised by unusual weather patterns including cold, heat and storms. I notice that there has been the warmest winter for donkey’s years in Canada just as they wanted more snow for the winter Olympics – typical!!
Bill and Andrew are currently in Cardiff doing some tree surgery work on the motorways and footpaths. They don’t usually travel as far as Wales but in this economic climate you have to go where the work is. Andrew is qualified to do specialist tree surgey work on the railways, motorways and near power lines so he is usually the one who travels furthest afield with a groundsman to help him. Bill decided to go with him this time for a change but he is complaining about the traffic jams and roadworks (not a problem we usually have in Woodland) so he may not go again next time. There is nothing like a change of scenery to make you appreciate the good stuff you already have at home.

We got a very odd email this week from a guy calling himself Mr Zulu !! offering to go halves with us on 83.5 million US dollars if we would just forward all our personal information and express an interest in this !! It was an obvious scam of course and there is no 83 million or any other amount of money to be just given away. It makes you wonder though where these people get their information from and what makes them decide which businesses will be daft enough to fall for it. Usually they ask you to send a cheque or deposit some smallish amount of money in their bank account for “administration” charges and after that you will never hear from them again. If you receive any approaches from a Mr Zulu or similar, my advice would be to pass their details to the Police. As the expression goes “of it seems to good to be true then it probably is”.
On a work note we are still struggling with the weather as the snow continues to fall. However we have been able to do some private tree surgery work in Durham and Spennymoor. This has involved removing overgrown and dangerous trees from private gardens. If left to grow unchecked these type of trees can do a lot of damage to properties, footpaths and drains so it is best to get them removed -ideally before the birds start nesting in the surrounding gardens. We have been supplying birch bundles to Carlisle Racecourse as we do regularly, so they can rebuild some fences between race meetings. We have also been building fences for a couple of local Point to Point meetings so we are hoping these will be going ahead – weather permitting.
Andrew has also been on the telly, both the BBC and ITV local news, as he decided to add grave digging to his skills and went on the first course to be held at Houghall College for several years. Apparently it is a dying skill (boom boom) and there is a shortage of grave diggers in the area so Andrew decided to add another string to his bow which he can fit in around his tree surgery work. He has not dug his first official grave yet but I will let you know when he does !!

For the first time in over 40 years my Father has not been to work for 5 weeks!! The snow started before Christmas and this week is the first full week of work we at Woodland Enterprises have been able to do since. My dad has been going stir crazy at home – not least because my mother keeps finding him jobs to do there, when he would much rather be at work. Because we normally work in remote sites such as forests or moorland it has just been impossible to get there even in 4 wheel drive vehicles. We can at least get to the sites now but we are still leaving the vehicles on the roadside and carrying all the chainsaws, ropes etc to the felling sites in a lot of cases. It is often hard for people to understand that while they may have had a bit of slush left in the back garden, the places we normally work have still got 3 feet of snow and ice. It has been very frustrating having work to do but being unable to get on with it – and the bank manager is not too impressed either!!
Also although winter/early spring is the best time to plant new trees, hedging and shrubs, we cannot plant in frozen ground so that has been on hold too. We have managed to keep our regular customers supplied with logs and sticks and have done more deliveries than normal as people are understandably cautious about collecting their firewood in this icy weather. The demand for logs has been higher in the cold snap and we have been working up a sweat splitting logs in smaller sizes for log burners and moving them out of a building which got blown in with snow.
I have to say the snowy scenery has been spectacular, particularly the white frosted trees and shrubs – real Christmas card views, but we are all looking forward to seeing some snowdrops and crocuses instead before too much longer.

Just a short note to wish all our customers – past, present and future, a very Happy New Year and may we all have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010. I hope you all had a very merry Christmas with your family and friends.
If you decide the New Year is a good time to tidy and improve your gardens do let us know as we will be happy to supply a no obligation quote. The winter is the best time to plant new trees, hedges and shrubs while the plants are in their dormant state, also to prune and re-shape any overgrown ones.
If like us you have a good covering of snow everywhere it is also important to feed the birds now as they are finding it very hard to source their usual feed supplies. We had some English Grey Partridge in the garden yesterday, and we have had some Black Grouse feeding closer to the stables than I have ever seen them before which is an indictation of them needing more food.
Hopefully we will see more rare or unusual wildlife in 2010.

We have had a recent inquiry from a firm in China wishing to supply us with stock fencing but much as we like new trading partners we have had to decline the offer. As a “green” company we always try to source our products locally and always within the UK if not within the North of England. This is to try and keep our transport costs and carbon footprint for all our products and services to a minimim. This is particularly relevant at the moment while the eyes of the world are on Copenhagen and the climate change summit being held there.
As you will all have noticed the weather has not improved much in the last few weeks and here at Woodland Enterprises we are all getting fed up of being soaked through to the skin – all free waterproofs gratefully accepted!! The forecast is for frost and snow in the next few days and although that can present us with some different problems while working it would certainly make a change from the rain.
We have been working hard supplying birch bundles for Kelso point to point course and also some private racehorse trainers. The demand for logs has gone up this season as more people discover they are a economic and environmentally friendly alternative to coal, oil etc. However this means that people now expect to be paid for their fallen and wind blown timber where as before they were happy for us to just remove it and clear the site. We have also been installing some more water gates in Hamsterley forest to keep the sheep out as they will do a lot of damage to newly planted saplings and young trees. We have been doing tree safety work in Liverpool for Ashlea – a large firm who sub contract some of their work. We also supply a small number of Christmas trees to our family and friends plus one or two local schools and village halls. Any comments or queries about the website are welcome so please feel free to use the contact page if you wish to get in touch.

The endless heavy rain, floods and high winds have caused us all some problems in the last few weeks and when you work outside all the time they certainly make life interesting. The waterproof clothing has been earning it’s keep recently and the short dark days mean that the lunch hour is a thing of the past – more like a lunch 10 minutes in the winter.
We have been kept busy with tree safety work recently, some of it caused by the high winds, and also with cutting birch for racecourse fences. We had to dismantle a tricky broken crown in a very old and unstable oak tree recently and we have done quite a bit of private garden and tree work locally. The log season has started with some new customers finding us via the website which is good news.
The mud and rain causes access problems on some sites as people understandably do not want their land churned up and even with 4 wheel drive it can be difficult to reach some of the more remote forestry and moorland sites. It is often easier to work once the temperature drops and the ground freezes but with global warming this may be happening less and less. It always feels healthier if we have a cold winter but not too much snow as that is a whole other set of issues!