Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2008 | Page 66

COUNTRYSIDE, WILDLIFE & FARMING

countryside
news

life

Compiled by Tony Ridd

DO YOU HAVE A
COUNTRYSIDE STORY?

what to
look out
for...

Baby Adders
Adders are the commonest snake seen wild
on the island, and after mating earlier in
the year will give birth to their young in
late August early September. Unlike most
reptiles, adders do not lay eggs. Young
snakes are born about the size and shape of
an earthworm, but a perfect miniature of the
adult snake. These young adders will tend to
hibernate in the areas where they are born,
with survival largely dependant upon the
severity of the winter.

back to nature
A countrymans diary
One of the best parts of our work is ’job
satisfaction’. Last winter we carried out a thinnin g
exercise at Lynn Common. This is good, traditional
sylvicultural practice, that allows the remaining trees
to improve, therefore becoming more valuable as a
timber crop over the next 40 or so years.
Unfortunately, the cost of work and extraction
requires grants to make it possible,
but probably not profitable. Even
the sale of timber can leave a
short fall depending upon species
of trees. In this case Corsican Pine
- not a great cash crop!
With some of the larger logs
going to Clifford J Matthews
Timber Mill, we decided that we
would start to mill the remaining
logs ourselves and use the timber
for our own clients. First up was a
barn wall that was damaged in the
winter winds that we had patched
up temporarily for summer repair.
We milled four inch square post,
4x2 rails and 6x1 planks. All pretty standard stuff,
transported it half a mile down the road and carried
out the repair.
The client’s are pleased with their new wall, and
even happier knowing that it was built using locaally
sourced material with minimum road miles.
What’s great for us is being able to make the most
out of our job seeing it through from felling to
building. That’s one job that appears to tick all the
right boxes. Right what’s next…

CALL TONY ON 07966 292334

66

www.wightfrog.com/islandlife