Oddly enough, I also spent New Year's Day in the woods doing similar slashing about - in my case, the ubiquitous bramble. I have a couple of months with a brushcutter and faithful Silky (I cannot love my chainsaw)...before the bird nesting takes over and the endless, and often futile warfare between human and rubus enters the resigned to losing stage. Annoying but far more relaxing than the season of desperate hope when I WILL get on top of it, even though the usual result is a bloody trail of ripped flesh and foulmouthed swearing.

I have been losing the battle at the allotment too...and it is not a pretty sight in it's overstuffed chaos. Rather than digging up and transplanting favourite wild roses, dogwoods and deutzias, I took the easy route of simply taking (hardwood) cuttingsn Expecting huge rates of attrition, I stuck hundreds of them all over the woods, sometime back in late October/November. Poking about (and tugging)< I was alarmed to find that apparently all of them have struck in the warm and moist autumn season...so the likelihood of digging and transplanting is still looming. Woodland soil, after 5 decades of neglect, is NOTHING like well-used allotment soil, regardless of how careful I am with raised beds and rotations.

Another dozen tree seedlings found a home, using the thinned and tamed bramble as 'nurse' shrubs, including a couple of sequoias, sorbus, field maples, holm oak and sweet chestnut (and a Christmnas viburnum nudum - new to me)..

I just got back in the office at 6:30. Now time to marinate some steak. I have earned it. I freed some more Spanish Oaks . God there really is a lot of tornado damage. The tops of trees are just twisted off and thrown around. But there are also oak trees that even though they got twisted are alive and well and in a whole new form and needing cedars thinned out of their new canopy . Camp, Do you have a list of favored trees. Mine goes like this. Madrone trump escarpment cherries, who trump red bud, who trump Spanish Oaks trump bromeliad trees, trump Lote trees on and on to Mountain ash Juniper way at the bottom of the list. Actually , I like the Mountain ash juniper when they get old and mature. There are just so many and they grow so fast that they out compete pretty much everything else. Thank god they do not re-sprout from their stumps if you chop them low enough..

Here is some of todays messes that I AVOIDED, but I am thinking about them. This is just one mess from 2 views. some of those branches in the first picture are still alive with some buds on them.

I had to clear a lot of cedar just to be able to take this picture. Their are three other larger oaks that scare me even more. I don't walk here much and might leave this as some of that wild widow maker appeal to the woods. Animals love this stuff. I leave lords of dead branches as nurse cages. I might walk here more now that I have a PATH through the chaos. Tomorrow I make the berms with the slash. I hope to pile the logs on the down hill side and build up the slant of the hill for easier walking. I left the stumps sticking out to hold the felled small logs of the trees. We are not talking big trees here.

Camp, yesterday I came Back to the house with a rip in my pants from mid thigh to almost my ankle. My husband looked at me and said , "I hope that was not the chainsaw." It was mostly brush snagging a small hole and me squatting and my knee enlarging the hole. Time for a new/old pair of pants.

I do love my chainsaw, some of the time. IT is a relationship based on hurt, frustration, fear and pride. No blood as of yet. Just sore elbow and carpel tunnel. I do get a great deal of joy in the accomplishing the big picture. Most of the time , I can't see the picture, but then it starts to form. I am just now starting to see glimpses of the bones of the land through the chaos. Tomorrow, I hope to build 175' of three berms through this mess. They really do stop the run off and hold back soil. You do not have to worry about the ferocious erosion that we have here. My biologist said to leave everything that I cut down when it is this slanted and to cut down as little as possible. I look up and try to keep a good canopy but I want to keep the red oak canopies clear of MOST cedar. It is a balancing game. I have found some small Ageratina havanensis sprouting up in the garden. I will move them out there. They can really take our droughts. I have tomorrow and the next day and then it is jury duty for me.

Mmmm - top trees? Yes, well there are several lists varying from the purely fantasy, through to the possibles and finally the much meaner reality list. Funnily enough, madrones and redwoods top my fantasy list since seeing some splendid specimens in my urban locale (Oh the seedling list gets ever longer) and I am having something of a live oak moment seeing how quercus ilex has crept into the flat Norfolk landscape, naturalising along with its Mediterranean partner, Atlas cedar. That combination of deep green glossy leafage, next to an almost heartbreakingly blue cedar gets my little heart going pitter-pat. However, for the moment, the canopy is high and clear - poplars have a wonderful cathedral effect with many tall straight trunks - most have lost all lower limbs over their years of neglect - so the understorey is the big blank on the canvas...and here, I am right back in my comfort zone with all those dainty small trees which flower and fruit in profusion - sorbus, malus, prunus, mespilus, quickthorn, whitethorn guelder rose and salix (styrax and dogwoods sadly not keen on the alkaline soil),

For years, in my mind, the epitome of boredom resided in hydrangeas and viburnums...so much so that if challenged on an unknown shrub, I would confidently assert 'Oh yes, Viburnum' - regardless of whether it was or not so I have been reluctantly nudged into accepting that both of these bread and butter types are quite stellar in a light, well drained woodland. Of course, common old guelder rose (viburnum opulus) can also be had with yellow berries and even a beguiling apricot colour and both Christmas and birthday list included oak-leaved hydrangea, a ridiculous black stemmed mophead and viburnum nudum - a complete unknown to me,

The biggest hole in a not terribly diverse plantation was the utter lack of berries, heps or haws so for the past couple of years, I have been in a red-berry mania mode - all those equally common firethorns, cotoneasters, sambucus, hollies and, of course, my beloved briar roses...plus amplopsis, symplocus, sorbus, callicarpa, aronias, even black bryony and various nightshades are encouraged with a novel, but idle way of bird-gardening. Simply string a wire across a clearing or between trees and wait a couple of decades or so - perching (and shitting) birds create their very own hedging.

I had something of a hellebore mind blowing though - many of them are out and proud - I had forgotten I had rescued so many unknown seedlings so the wonderful sight of pale yellows, reds, deep slate and various frilled petticoats (I have the rather dull pink orientalis and pale green native h.foetidus at home) was a terrific surprise.

I have been enjoying the photos of your land - hard though - getting any distance at all for a good photo in a wood, isn't it? Sadly, taking photos (not to mention uploading) is another of my many fails...and I have to rely on wordy notebooks since the blurry nondescript attempts at picture taking just merge into complete non-information and a vague greenish blur.

Finally, chainsaws - I have tried, even getting a tree-surgeon mate to order a small, but vicious climbing chainsaw (adopted by offspring for impromptu carving) but I am now saving for a long-handled hayate pole saw - for the small size elder and sapling removal, a sharp Silky cannot be beaten...and I have a fine collection of axes.

You do throw those names out in abundance. Your aim is much more garden like than my goals.True what is garden-like in my brain might be your naturalized woods. I do have some Purple and some white Calicarpa americana in my garden un irrigated. It might do in the valley if the deer would stop eating the small plants.. A friend of mine has some Black Calicarpa americana from a mMexican population that has gotten about 25' under his live oaks and palms. The Calicarpa around here is native to bottomlands of the Texas hill country. I am in the thin soiled uplands. Mostly, my goals are just to keep the woods a diversified healthy hill Country woods. I am encouraging what comes up naturally and doing seedlings that are here natively, I planted out seedlings for thirty Nolina texana and they are now invisible in the chaos.I would not mind the undergrowth looking like these slopes down by the Pedernales River. I usually think of these as sun plants but they grow natively in a bit of thin shade also in Texas heat. I will be germinating many more once it heats up again. Once I clean up this place I will have many places screaming for them. I think they will be really good for erosion also.

yes it is hard to get back far enough to take a picture.

Tool wise, I use a 16" "easy start" Stihl Chainsaw and large Corona lopper that I need to paint shocking pink because I am always loosing it in the brush. Some factory designer fool has painted it forest green and natural wood. It can get cedar trunks up to about 2.5". Sometimes more depending where and how fast the cedar grew. I also use a sharpened pickax on the smaller trees when I get tired of the lopper on the smaller ones.. I have a a hand pulled two directional chain that is attached to a bean bag and rope that I throw over tall limbs for trimming. OOOH I just googled "Silky", those silkies are pricey. Does the Japanese blade work better than the normal american/european ones? I wonder if I can retrofit the blade to fit my pole saw. We have some Japanese hand saws in our wood shop that are pricey but amazing in their performance. I see the replacement blade alone its $116. The whole Hayauchi pole saw cost what my Stihl cost.

My next purchase is a kerosene Pear burner for lighting grass fires.

You brought up berries. I like them , BUT I like to keep berry bearing plants natives especially if they are berry bearing vines. Birds just love to spread them with a vengeance . I notice that plants that create the worst dangerous invasiveness to a forrest are berry bearing vines, especially in the southern woods. The Madrone tree has a great show of red berries for a long time in winter. Agarita, Deciduous Yaupon, Possumhaw, Carolina Buckthorn, and Guayacan are berry bearing natives. I have tried to get a red berry bearing vine called Snailseed vine ( Cocculous carolinas) going out here, but it is slated for the area just east of here and likes a richer soil. This one is controllable and pretty..

Yep, birds and berries - always a risk...but I eat them too - there are few berries, heps and haws that have not found their way into various jams. jellies, chutneys and preserves - have been known to munch happily on fuschia and was thrilled when the rampant iochroma produced rather choice fruits. I discovered the joys of chokeberries, juneberries, saskatoons etc a few years ago and literally grew up on rosehip syrup and have been doing serious research into rubus varieties (so many...and often extremely beautiful too.

Bearing in mind the paucity of UK natives (being an island under successive glaciations) the general horticultural thrust in Britain has been predicated on our imperial adventures and planthunting past...plus a very, very different attitude towards invasives, so yeah, I do chuck a lot of plant names about but compared to my recent past, I have become the soul of rectitude and responsibility...at least here in the woods (on the allotment, anything goes). Consider, for example, there are only 21 native species of tree...and a third of them are compromised by disease threats or utterly unsuitable to my soil...so I would say we are pretty much on the same page when it comes to increasing diversity - especially pertinent on a monoculture plantation such as mine. Every single inch of the UK has been managed, altered, refined by humans - there is NO virgin or unmanaged land anywhere at all so our invasive list has been steady at around 13 species for decades (I especially enjoy enraging US people by the deliberate planting of buckthorn - a good bird cover and hedge constituent). Also, it is fair to say, my little 5.5 acres can easily withstand the planting of risky species since I am marooned in the midst of agricultural Norfolk flatlands and watermeadows - the biggest environmental threat comes from herbicide run off and unmanaged ditches incubating Himalayan balsam

Japanese saws - what can I say except wow. I was introduced to pullsaws years and years ago and have been a convert ever since, particularly given my puny upper body strength, it is much, much easier on the pull than on the push, to cut through tough woody growth...and when that growth is damp and fibrous, even more so. Another massive plus for hand saws is their repairability. I had a very salutary lesson this summer when an idiot friend decided to strim one of the rides in my absence...resulting in the destruction of $800 worth of Stihl brushcutter. The repairs cost me another $550!...and because it was a fuel mix issue, it was not even under warranty (teethgnashing). And nothing is more attractive to thieves than those orange Husky or Stihl power tools - I know of not a single arbourist who has not been robbed, persistently (including us)...yet nobody glances twice at my collection of pullsaws. True, the pole is the least of it and you could almost certainly fasten a decent blade to any lightweight length of pole (although I am seriously struggling with anything over 13feet).

Oh yeah, reminds me - those ipomopsis I planted most certainly thrived - must have transplanted them quickly enough to develop taproots in situ...but I have already collected this seasons seed (weird looking stuff or what) from the allotment plantings and sown a whole heap with anomatheles lessoniana (pheasant grass). I also did some trades for the aristolochia fimbriata....

I just throw those ipomosis over the land and rake them in a bit and they are off and running. They will seed themselves after that. I find them very easy to move and transplant.

The buckthorn I am talking about is different , a CAROLINA buckthorn. Really big difference between Rhamnus carolinianus and Rhamnus cathartica.

Carolina Buckthorn (LBJ URL)

For one, no thorns and thicket making habit..I don't have them on my land , but I want them. I planted one but then killed it in the drought in 2011.

I know the wonders of the pull saw with woodwork . I just didn't know how their garden stuff worked. I have problems with the over head stuff, so I need a good pull saw. The throw chain is good but tiring and sometimes hard to get a good toss in a thicket habitat. Right now I have one tree that I cut down , but is hanging in the branches that I want to keep. Dang if I am going to pull a ladder out there Is there a big difference between the Hayote and the Hauyachi saw?. Have you used both of them to compare them and how the weight effects them . I will be carrying it across slanted slippery slopes.. I love this, A conversation between 2 60+ year old ladies about chains saws and pole saws . I have the upper body diminishment problems too.... and the wood chips in the braw and socks.

Well, I gotta get out there in the woods to make some berms.

I haven't used the Hayauchi but think there is not a great deal of difference apart from the fact that the hayauchi pole can be fitted with loppers. In truth, the pole is far more crucial on a longer length telescopic such as 7metres (I am only likely to go for the 2 part 3.8metre pole...but good weight and balance is essential and generally excellent on the light aluminium poles in the Silky range. Tell you what though - start off with one of the sheathed pullsaws such as a Gomtaro or a Zubat (or, if you have to do fine cutting in thickly branched trees, the Tsurugi) - for a lot of the calibre trees in your place, a Silky pruning saw will be faster and far less tiring than a chainsaw and absolutely brilliant at doing angled cuts. The blade doesn't get clagged up with resin either. At this time of year, my son and I are usually doing a lot of orchard work (although he is skipping off on a winter holiday for a few weeks this year) and our pullsaws are often the only tools we will take on a job.

My woods have lost most of the lower limbs over time and are also planted on regular 6m centres in lines so felling is fairly straightforward, even for me...but still inclined to pass the chainsaw over to sweetheart or the offspring. Same with an angle grinder although |I am more than happy to use most other power tools. I have an old brace and bit which I use with an auger drill for stump drilling - another one of those times when a hand tool is more controllable than a cordless drill...and after the brushcutter was knackered, I was forced to get the Austrian scythe out because we had a party deadline and loads of stuff to clear for camping (but bloody hell, that was hard work). Tell me more about berms? I generally burn a lot of the brash but am always up for creative recycling of all by-products of coppicing, clearing and thinning.

I am fast with a chainsaw. I can not see any pull saw being quicker, but I could be wrong.. And I can go all day with a saw. I move slowly but persistently. This is not pretty fine work. I am going for 1.5 acres of underbrush removal every year. This section is 1/4 acre but it has never been worked before and it is on a steep slant. Not only do I down the branches and the trees, but I need to cut them into 2-3'( less than meter) pieces to comprise what I call slash, that I build my retention berms and animal homes ( VW sized slash piles) out of. I layer the trunk and branch pieces in a level-ish rows that cuts across the slope. Then I put the leaf and needle bearing branch tips on the top side of the log berms. They will drop their greenery and the network of twigs will hold them in place and theoretically, there they will decompose and stop the runoff of soil and rock.. Remember the rainfall in Texas comes in huge gully washers. This year we had several rains more than 3" . We had a Two 7" rains that each fell in just a couple of hours. I try to place the rows where the downward movement of the water and soil need slowing down. I use the stubs of trunks rocks and backs of trees to anchor the rows to the slope.. The thinning of the canopy removes protection from these gully washers and the soil and rocks do move downhill.Erosion is a major factor in these woods. Thin soils (non existent soils are the norm. where clearing has happened. there is duff here and I would like to keep it. I make 3 berms on the stream bank. I also try to place them where some deeper soil will help a seedling. I will take left over slash and make V's and Y's to break up all the horizontality. I have Berms measuring 150' X 3 to build this year ( every year). There is a plan that I have to fulfill to get a certain tax right off. I will take some of the dead twiggy stuff to protect seedlings from brouzing.

I have a LOT more to do to finish the 1/4 acre. The 1.5 acres is done. More , I have a huge bite out of next years EASY STUFF that has already been worked once. It is the virgin to me stuff that is a head ache.

This is what is waiting for me. Another 6,000 Sq.' of this. Sheesh.

Another blown over oak resting on cedars that need to go. It does intimidate me.

Camp , I would love to see pictures of the work in your wood. Even messy progress shots. I learn a lot from those. On level ground I think that I would just put a thin layer of your slash all over to capture all the leaf fall. More and more I am mimicking the natural way that branches fall in the woods. They do such a good job of holding the litter. It does look like a bad haircut for a couple of years but I see animals living in the litter and seedlings spouting in it. The unfortunate thing about cleaning up, it makes things more accessible to trespassers and they leave a lot of empty bottles and cans.

Well, have just ordered a new Cannon s200 point and shoot thingy so hopefully, pics to follow. Sympathies with the hang-ups - I have a couple of dead poplars currently caught up in trees - one totally horizontal which I have been avoiding - will no doubt end up paying some fearless youth to scoot around getting it down...or alternatively, throw a winch over it, attach to towbar and keep fingers crossed as the truck slowly drags it out (we had similar 'fun' attaching ziplines under huge tension - one ratchet still stuck up there).

I find denial in the shape of an intentional blindspot to be a helpful tactic at times. The thing is that it is slippery and moving can not happen quickly in these spots. Stepping away when the "TIMBER" happens is more like a slippery scrabble uphill on ones knees through a tangle of branches. I am also not looking forward to getting a chainsaw bound in the cedars underneath that large hanging oak. . I can't get a truck down here but THANK YOU , Thank you for the suggestion.. I had not thought of a winch as a tool to use out in the woods. I have one. And I know just where I want to use it. I have a simpler dilemma than this one but a widow maker just waiting for the right situation to precipitate disaster. I have a 10' long , 16" diameter detached red oak log standing nearly vertical but leaning on two dead cedars , literally on the edge a a 12' drop off. There is a 6' bomelia tree (Bomelia lanuginosa) under this mess that I want to save. But it is not worth life and limb. I have been working around it gingerly but Maybe I can pull it off the cedars while I am conveniently many feet off to the side ratcheting the thing-ma-gig. There is a slew of troublesome rats nest in their section. I have been avoiding it for years.

I HATE DEER more and more every day. One jumped out and took out the drivers side front of my car, when I was driving at dusk last night. so there goes the money for the pole saw. LOL but not LOL.

Grief - I hope you got a dinner out of it at least (I have shamelessly leaped out of the truck to prise the remains of pheasant off the road since my rural education - unless totally squashed, I see casseroles....and had to learn how to pluck and draw geese since there are so many of them... after a diet of sugar beet, they are usually surprisingly succulent Even a fat stockdove made a choice barbecued morsel (although the pup stole the majority of pigeon breast, cooling on the side). Not that I do any shooting (dodgy eyes) but here in the boonies, game still forms a fair bit of the rural economy. Eyeing up marauding squirrels (if they were good enough for Elvis...)

No dinner. I looked for the deer but he magically got away into some thicket. I don't know how he missed the oncoming pickup truck. I am having a time with breaking things. I broke the one handle on my 37" Corona loppers today after 14 years of use. My husband has some hickory and will turn a new handle tomorrow.

The very first picture now looks like this. It shows the berms that I make.

Another example of the berm on a very steep slope that has some bad spots of erosion. There is a lot of regrowth coming out off a base of a downed Spanish red Oak, The old trunk has left a lot of spongy humus and I am fearful of the rain taking it away ,. now that I trimmed back the thick cedar from the canopy of the oak. I left the slash to hopefully stop this.

Couldn't be more topologically different from my flatlands...although given the floods which threaten to become an annual phenomenon, I am educating myself regarding berms and swales quicksmart.

Mmm hickory - have a couple of cell-grown seedlings on order - experimentally of course. Timber, yay!