Log splitting at Styal on 3 August 2014

There were eleven of us today including two newcomers, continuing the run of good turnouts.  Simon Hiley had planned two jobs for us in/near the toolstore yard and therefore, unusually, the worksite leader did not need to bring any tools to the meeting point in the Quarry Bank Mill car park!

Most of us spent the day splitting logs from trees felled on the estate into log burner-size logs and adding them to the huge pile of split logs stored around the perimeter of the yard.  The Trust plans to sell the logs to local residents.  We split the logs using either a hydraulic log splitter (a fantastic labour saving device!) or using axes and chopping blocks.  Separately, four or five of us worked in the copse behind the toolstore and at the back of Styal Primary School cutting out dead holly trees, sycamores and general brash.

Daniel and Neil operating the log splitter