The Farmyard

Before

In the grounds and close to the chateau there are four outbuildings, consisting of old barns and animal pens making up a small farmyard area. Over the years it has become totally neglected  and nature has taken over to the extent that several of the pens and walls have been destroyed by trees. For

After

the last 4 days we have been totally clearing this area out, trying to get it back to a position where it does not deteriorate any further. We have had cherry picker in there every day as there were 8 or 9 very tall trees that were close to the main barns. Igor and I have been high up in the air cutting these down in sections - pretty much without incident or damage to any building. The only problem we had was when one large branch that we had sawn got stuck, we could not risk cutting

Igor & me

underneath it in case it fell on our heads! In the end we got it all done safely. The actual cutting down of the trees is quite easy, but then you have to cut them up, the trunks to sensible sizes to be stored in the barn, the branches ready for logging, the smaller bits for chipping into mulch

So high up

and then all of the rest has to be burnt - A tree comes down in about 20 minutes and then we spend an hour chopping to all up! If you check out the before and after photos you will see just how much we have done and what an amazing difference we have made to the area.