It's been a long time since I updated this blog as I got around to setting up our proper website so this took a bit of a backseat for a while, especially with all of the work that needed doing at the site.
We have now had 4 different Forest School sessions at the site and two family Den Days since late Spring.
This week I hosted our first public Forest School session with a lovely group of 5 year old boys and girls from Bideford. We did some exploring of the site, enjoyed playing in the mud kitchen, cut wood cookies, played pooh sticks, went on a rope swing and much more.
We now have 2 compost toilets in different parts of the site and I recently built the boys a "pee pit" as it's clear that boys beyond a certain age can't be relied upon to sit and make the most of the urine diverter or keep the toilet as clean as we would it to be for all of the visitors!
Last week I built a mud kitchen for the children to use. This was great fun and the kids really enjoy making a whole variety of meals including porridge, chocolate cake various other brown, chocolate based foods.
I'm also in the process of building another shelter in the riverside meadow. Along with the other fire circles that I am gradually establishing up in the mature woodland we will have a variety of options for base camps for sessions and places to shelter when the weather is on the damp side.

The First Compost Toilet

I spent today building a Treebog with the help of my father-in-law. These are a type of compost toilet stood on stilts. Around the stilts are 2 layers of chicken wire stuffed with barley straw. Apparently this method is pretty smell free and the deposits break down fairly quickly. Tomorrow I need to go and install the throne  and fit a door handle then we're ready to go. Putting this in is a really important part of our development as it puts us in a position where we can start inviting groups to visit the site. Here are some progress photos from today.

 Getting the final post in the right place and square (the first holes were much smaller!)

 Base constructed

 Bob stuffing the sides with straw

 The walls are up

 Bob checking out the view

 Door on, pretty much done now!

Temporary lock.

A day in the woods with my boys

Just back from a fantastic few hours in Hakeford Woods with my two boys. The mission of the trip was to cook sausages and have hot chocolate in the woods (7yr old). The weather turned out to be fantastic, I'd even say that I felt hot at one point! With my two willing assistants we managed to complete the mission, built a fire, cooked sausages and marshmallows all whilst trying to build a den. I now know for certain that Ezra likes building and Louis likes cleaning. Today he was cleaning out all of the badger (or rabbit!) holes to make it nice and clean for them.
It was great to be able to spend a few hours just enjoying and playing in the woodland, the boys loved running about, exploring and getting to know the woods more intimately.
Spring is definitely on the way, the primroses are out, the catkins are on the hazel and willow and the bluebells are starting to push up in the woodland, I even saw what I think was a celandine in one of the meadows.

 Marshmallow time

 The builder and the cleaner

 Checking out the big badger hole

 Making the most of the part built den

Knackered but happy boys

We are now incorporated!

I am very excited to announce that we are now officially a CIC!

Frogspawn, nestboxes and muddy feet

Just back from a great family visit to Hakeford Woods today. We're looking after a lovely dog for some friends this week, so we knew that she'd enjoy the space and smells, but we also had some important business to attend to.
Our youngest son Louis had been fascinated by the frogspawn at Arlington Court yesterday and we promised him that we would get some so he can watch the tadpoles growing at home. I'd spotted some last time I visited, so we collected a bit of it and have made it clear that the baby frogs will go back when they've grown.
I've recently been  building some nestboxes and as it's nestbox week I thought I'd better get them finished and put up. I put the 5 boxes up in trees around the riverside meadow, need to make some more to put around the rest of the site now! I'd also like to build a barn owl box as there's a perfectly positioned oak overlooking the first meadow.
We all had a great walk, saw loads of buzzards flying overhead, nearly lost the dog and Ezra our eldest son ended up with a muddy foot after his welly stayed in the mud when he kept walking! Need to get some more wood for nestboxes now, oh and get my handbook finished!

 

Nestboxes built and ready to go!

Helpful children!

Wren box in the Hazel

The pond and a couple of nestboxes if you look hard enough

Nibbled cherry stones

Beautiful snowdrops

A mass of frogspawn

Happy boys

First Visitors

Yesterday I was delighted to be able to show a couple of visitors around Hakeford Woods.
Becky Aston from Devon Wildlife Trust visited first, it was great to be able to get the opinions of a wildlife professional, she managed to successfully spot and identify lots of different plant species, many of them indicators of unimproved wetlands and pasture. With a bit of help and encouragement we should be seeing a great variety of wild flower species this spring and summer. She also found some likely otter tracks near the stream and gave me some advice about possible directions to take when trying to improve different areas for the species that we have.
Richard Irvine also came for a visit, Richard is a Forest School trainer and highly experienced outdoor educator who is based in North Devon. On our wander around the site he did a great job of finding various piles of hazelnuts and cherry stones left by some of the local residents. Richard is going to be bringing a group of teachers from the local area for a one day introduction to woodland management session later this month.
Many thanks to Becky and Richard for visiting, your advice and observations were hugely informative, interesting and encouraging. Just need to find the time to get everything done now !

A few photos from 2014

Here's a small collection of photos that I've taken of the site since June 2014.

 Hazel coppice in June

 Wildflower meadow in June

 Woodland stream in June

 Riverside meadow in June

 Forestry track and hillside meadow early December

 Riverside meadow early December

 Deciduous woodland early December

 Frosty riverside meadow late December

Icicles on the stream late December

First Blog Post

This is my first post to introduce visitors to Hakeford Woods Forest School.
 After 6+ months of fun and games with planning applications, waiting for and dealing with objections and resubmission, we are finally close to taking posession of our future Forest School site. None of this would have been possible without the generous support and encouragement of some of our (almost!) new neighbours.
Our site consists of a variety of wildlife rich habitats, including oak woodland, hazel coppices, wild flower meadows and a wet riverside meadow in a beautiful, peaceful and unspoilt North Devon valley.
 Over the next few months we will be preparing parts of our site for the first Forest School sessions, which we hope to start running this summer.
 I'll be updating this blog with some photos in the next few days to show some of the different parts of our site.