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.