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Today at Heartwood we welcomed a visitor who was having a taster session to see whether they would like to join us. It was such a lovely spring day and there was lots to see and try. We started to use the pole lathe to turn wood to make a door knob; it's very exciting to use something that has been made at Heartwood to create something else. More chestnut poles were peeled to use at the supports for a bench we started. Some large chestnut cores were also split. In the aftern

This week on our walk at Heartwood and were so surprised to discover that not only were the wood anemone beginning to bloom but we found that a few bluebells were starting to come out too. Now that is early for bluebells! There was a lot of sawing and splitting to make kindling, pallet breaking to deconstruct the pallet for wood working, fixing the pole lathe and also fixing a mallet.

Today was another glorious spring day and we noticed the white blossom on the Cherry Plum and Blackthorn trees, as well as all the catkins on the hazel. We were thrilled to discover two frogs that had moved into our new pond and took the opportunity to do the frogspawn rescue. This was important as the other pond area has already starting drying out, leaving the some of the frogspawn above the water level. We did more splitting of the chestnut cores, peeled a large chestnut p

We welcomed in Spring with the exciting discovery of the first frogspawn in our not pond pond. This is an old dugout area where it fills with water each winter but which gradually dries out. We will need to do a frogspawn rescue! It was a fabulous warm and sunny day. Some of us even got to wearing T-shirts while we worked! Thankfully, it's really helping the land to dry up. Much less mud. Whilst digging holes for the Bodger shed, we discovered some very interesting fungi whic

Such a beautiful and relaxed spring sunny day. We welcomed the warmth of the sunshine and were very busy with lots of different activities, these included mallet making, peeling the large posts for the new bodger shelter, burning the ends of the poles to preserve them longer from the soil, a second coat of oil went on the pole lathe and two more trees were felled. Brash was moved to the perimeter to create a brash boundary. Some of the large chestnut cores were split and new

We were thrilled to have a dry and almost sunny day on Tuesday. It was great to be able to spread out to work around the site, especially once we had emptied another trailer load of woodchip around the mostwet and muddy areas.   We started work on building a bodger shelter to house the new pole lathe. Two deep holes were dug, and the pole lathe had a first coat of oil. We used forks to create air holes and improve drainage in the clearing, as well as finished creating the wil

Today it was all about building the Yoda hut and having a go on the new pole lathe. Work began on attaching the long bending willow to the stakes and were then attached to each other to create half of the dome. It was great to give the pole lathe a try and we practised how to use the chisel and time using the pedal to turn the wood- not as easy as Mark makes it look! There was a lot of peeling to be done on 4 large chestnut poles for fencing and Twig was taught a new trick of

As it was Shrove Tuesday, we made and cooked pancakes over the fire. They were delicious and very much appreciated by us all. We especially appreciated the sunshine after so much rainfall recently and also the wood chip collected by Mark. It was a good team effort to dig and wheelbarrow the wood chip to our waterlogged fire site. Both made for a much drier underfoot experience! We discovered lots of animal and bird tracks in the soft mud and amongst them some good squirrel pr

It was a good day of finishing off today at Heartwood. We had the second door of the kitchen cupboard finished and put into place, which looks great. We can now sort out the storage. Mark's exciting pole lathe project is now also complete. It has been a labour of love and we are all looking forward to being able to have a go. Willow stake work for the start of building the Yoda Hut structure commenced and it was nice to see this being started. We also had a prospective stude

It is officially very muddy! We've put up tarps, put down charcoal paths, moved our fire site and still we are wading through ankle deep mud. However, there has still been a lot of activity. The pole lathe is almost finished and Mark is really excited about getting it working. We moved brash from a felled tree which had been coppiced over the weekend. We're going to use this to build a dead hedge along the boundary line. Some of us moved willow lengths which had been pollarde

On Wednesday we had a wonderful blue sky and winter sunshine. It felt like a real treat after the torrential rain yesterday. In the morning we welcomed a visitor from Sussex Partnership NHS Trust, who came to see what we do and to see the project in action. We were proud to show her around. There were lots of jobs to get on with today, these included finishing a wooden mallet, making a pedal for the pole lathe, pallet breaking and replenishing the charcoal path. A table was m

It was an incredibly wet day today but we still had a lovely time. We popped up the tarp over the temporary fire site and were able to continue to work and take our breaks by the fire. Progress is being made on the pole lathe, we made a boot jack to remove muddy boots without getting muddy hands. Lots of the willow stakes were pointed up and then charred over the fire. The charring will make them stronger and less likely to rot in the ground. After lunch some of us went for a

What a difference a day makes! Today we were treated to a gorgeous dry and sunny day and we really appreciated the difference. The wet weather meant we needed to relocate the fire site to a drier spot and we avoided the actual fire area to allow it to recover as soon as possible. Mark chainsawed a dead tree and this gave us the chance to get together some more firewood. Further work was done on the pole lathe as well as splitting, sharpening the stakes and going for a slow me

Wow! That really was the wettest morning we've ever experienced at The Heartwood Project. We had such heavy rainfall for the entire morning that it transformed the site completely. We even had to dig trenches to channel the flow of water cascading through our fire area! However, we put up two tarps and were able to give everyone an undercover area to work. Once the rain stopped after lunch we went for a walk with Barley and Twig, Twig climbed her first fallen tree. Work was s

Today the door and roof on the kitchen cupboard were finished! It is all looking great and will be so much easier to store and access our cooking equipment. More willow stakes and another tipi pole were peeled and we dodged the rain by putting up our tarp and working under the shelter. The final touches were put on the bird table and we added extra charcoal to the temporary path in the clearing as the ground is saturated from the heavy rain today. Two pallets were dismantled

Today we enjoyed a dry day and managed to do a lot of peeling bark. This week is the RSPB's Big Garden watch where the public are encouraged to take part in Citizen Science. For one hour we took it in turns to sit in the bird hide with binoculars and the bird ID chart and recorded what we saw. It was a very relaxing activity but we heard more birds than we actually saw. Another tipi pole and a number of willow stakes for the new build Yoda Hut were peeled.. More felting on th

What a difference the dry weather made after such a rainy previous day. We started off by laying a charcoal path across the clearing and raking charcoal around the fire site as it was very slippery with all the mud. This helped to create more traction and a drier and safer underfoot experience. Felting was attached to the kitchen cupboard roof and another tipi pole was peeled. In the afternoon we walked over to Herstmonceux Castle to cut some willow from around the moat. It w

There aren't many days when it rains from dawn until dusk but on Tuesday it really did!. We had the tarp up over the fire so we were dry and warm for lunch and breaks. A roof was put onto the cupboard for the kitchen and another of the tipi poles was peeled. We went for a very rainy walk after lunch but it was good to keep warm.

On Wednesday the tap eventually thawed as the temperature rose. Some further work was made on the new kitchen with the start of a roof for the Tardis cupboard. Our resident and very friendly robin came to visit throughout the day and we left out plenty of bird seed for it. It was interesting to notice the returning of the bird song today. We heard a woodpecker, great tit and wood pigeon for the first time this winter. It was very welcome. We had a walk with the dogs in the af

On Tuesday, it was quite the magical winter's day. The weather had turned incredibly cold and was well below zero so we put up the tipi in the fire space and lit the wood burning stove inside. It was so nice to have a cosy 'indoor' space to have our breaks and lunch. It was very special when it started to snow a little after lunch; we all rushed outside to enjoy the rare pleasure of the snow. The temperature was so cold that the water in the tap had frozen on Monday and remai