Autumn jobs

It certainly doesn't feel like autumn, but there are jobs that need doing on the turning of the seasons.

The pressing mammoth task this year is hedge laying, which has to be done every 4-5 years. Some of the hedges are already done and I've just finished the one between the house and the gite, which we can see for the first time in years. The hedges on the left which border the chemin are next. They're currently about 4-5m high and all the the thinnings of which there are mountains have to go through the chipper on the back of the tractor...I'm waiting for cooler weather to attack those.

The hedges either side of he chemin form a tunnel at present and need to laid before the winter

The autumn crocii are out in the fields and that's the signal to bring the firewood that been drying for two years (already cut, split and stacked) up into the woodshed for the winter. 

It's a strangely comforting feeling to have the woodshed full with the wood for the coming winter. Last year there was plenty of old oak beams, flooring and roof timbers to burn from the barn conversion. This year 80% of it it oak from a single tree that fell in a storm. The rest is birch and poplar which we'll burn first, saving the high calorific oak for colder weather mid winter - though it's been a while since we've had a really cold winter.

There's still a couple of stère of oak left as reserve.