Wednesday 15th February to Monday 20th February, 2012

Wednesday 15th February, 2012

The ice having been broken around us by a couple of boats Braunston bound today, I decided to do the water run to Braunston and back. I left single-handing Draco at around 11.15 and motored to Braunston, did the necessary with the water, etc. and then motored back to Barby Wood Bridge via Kilsby winding hole. All back and moored up behind Success by just before 4pm.

10 miles, 0 locks

Thursday 16th February, 2012

Krystyna waiting to be cast adrift...

Today is the day we will try and get the boats onto our new mooring just around the corner at Barby Wood Farm. Around 10am I loosed off Success and then took Draco past to pick up the short-straps.

Krystyna adrift and moving Draco up
to collect the short-straps

My original plan had been to run the short distance around the corner breasted up, but then I remembered we have to go through bridge 79 and as in poor a state of repair as it is, I guessed that the powers-that-be would like it to be still there.....

Breasting up just after bridge 79

So, we motored round the corner and through the bridge and then breasted the pair up, allowing a Braunston-bound boat past first. There were two distinct mooring spots where there was a natural gap in the hedge for landing, so we initially moored Success up at the first and then attempted to get Draco into the second spot.

Approaching the mooring



No luck, the closest I could get the bows in was still about 6 foot out from the bank, a tad too far even for our long plank. Consequently, I backed up and breasted Draco up on the outside of

Moored up for now

Success, which still left about 10 foot of canal at the bows end, enough for a few days, but once the trees had been removed I would be able to pull the bows into the bank leaving a much wider space between the towpath and Draco.

Friday 17th February, 2012

The result at the end of the first day

The first full day of site clearing. Unfortunately our chainsaw had decided to give up the ghost, so after strimming all the dead rushes and reeds from the top section of the mooring I set about removing the brambles and briars from the treed section. Fortunately the lack of chainsaw was not a problem, it very much had to been done by hand using a brush-clearing handsaw and a fair amount of brute force pulling, or attempting to, the briars out of the tree. These plants had obviously not been disturbed since this section was piled back in the late 40's (?) and consequently they were very well established - I was cutting though briars up to 1.5 inches thick in places!

The debris pile waiting for removal

By the end of the day I had worked about half way up the trees and Owen (the farmer) came down with his mighty machine and in one fell swoop cleared the lot onto the fire pile. What had taken me all day to clear out of the trees took him just 3 minutes to collect up and dump!


Sunday 19th February, 2012

Result! - brambles and briars all cleared
ready for tree felling!

Saturday had been a horrible wet and cold day and after fuelling up from Ian and Ali on Gosty Hill, I didn't achieve a great deal else until mid-afternoon when the sun came out.

Almost there....

Today, however, was another glorious sunny day, so I set about clearing the rest of the trees of brambles and briars. By the end of the afternoon I had achieved my aim and several mounds of debris behind me. We were now ready to fell all the trees, which was planned for tomorrow, with Richard, a friend of ours from the village, coming to help me. This was an excellent plan, as he is very experienced in this type of work and also had a wood-burning stove...

We now also have a new chainsaw, so that will be put to good use tomorrow.



Monday 20th February, 2012

Start of the day

I started the day by felling some of the small bushes at the top end of the mooring with our shiny new chainsaw - not so shiny now :-> Around 11am Richard arrived and we set to felling the rest of the trees. We made good progress and by 1pm they were all down and piled up behind us - the debris pile now stretching almost the full length of the mooring...

Richard tidying up a stump

Richard popped home for lunch whilst I gave the dogs a run - Krystyna was away all day at a trade show at the NEC. An hour or so later Richard returned with his trailer in tow and proceeded to sort out the suitable trunks and developed logs for burning on his stove.

All trees down

Meanwhile, I continued tidying up the top end of the mooring where I had started this morning.

The final debris pile

Owen and his mighty machine!

Towards the end of the afternoon Owen came down from the farm with his mighty machine again and cleared what was left of the debris onto the fire pile, which is now quite a size, it will be interesting when we fire this.....

Trees - what trees?
Site cleared.

A bit more tidying up after Owen and Richard left and I was finished by 5pm. What trees?