ceffylau gwaith Carnog working horses

17/12/2024

We are pleased to be able to share details of this very special opportunity. Come and learn the skills of horselogging with me and the team! It's a really fabulous location where you can join us to immerse yourself in the world of working horses in a Celtic Rainforest for three whole days. Only three places so please contact us soon to book your place. Any questions please ask here or send us a message. 07901741217.
Please share with everyone!

15/12/2024

Earlier in the year we were filmed along with Kara Mara as part of a series of films to promote working in forestry in Wales. Doing it for the Timber Jills !

13/12/2024

Another recent job took us over the border into Shropshire and to part of Gibbons Coppice, the woodland of green wood worker Michael Taylor We have carried out work here over a number of years helping Mike to bring this coppice wood back into rotation. Some years have been short steep pulls and bigger wood but this year it was a long, long up and down pull with lots of small material. Some people might think coppicing is an easy part of forestry but like a lot of what we do it is more complex than it looks to do it efficiently and well. To turn this twisted collection of trees into neat and tidy piles of wood ready for extraction as efficiently as possible is skilful. I helped Mike with the felling which was awkward as it was on a steep bank and the wood was all twisted round each other but it's such a pleasing challenge when you have started to make progress and it is all neatly presented on the ground. Then the horses came in to clear it all out. The extraction route was long, about 300m up and down and pretty tiring for all but we kept chugging on and got there in the end. When the ground was clear again we were able to fell a few of the larger trees and got them out for Mike too. All the wood will be converted in some way, either into his beautiful wooden products, charcoal or firewood. But also that area of his coppice can start anew and next time it is harvested it will be a lot easier and the product should be even more valuable. As always at Mike's a good time was had. It's a good feeling to use our skills in this way for someone who can make value of the wood and the cycle goes on as it would have done for many years before and keeping all these traditional skills alive. Plus Mike made me a lot of bacon sandwiches and tea which always helps.

03/12/2024

We have been a bit overwhelmed by interest in our artists charcoal. This has been amazing but I have been a bit slow at processing it out to people. My forte is maybe more with horses than packing and posting! But if you have ordered some don't worry I have got Mabel on the case and it will be posted soon. Here is Mabel helping with the wreaths we are also making! It's getting very festive here 😊 please still message me to order charcoal on 07901741217!

01/12/2024

Forget about Black Friday, how about buying something really unique that has a heart and soul instead!?
Our boxes of artists' charcoal are now ready for posting!
We have 13 sticks of charcoal in each box. 7 of our Rowan wedges and 6 of our traditional Willow sticks. All are handmade by me using wood harvested from home or on one of conservation projects. They are made in small batches in our small ring kiln. A box is £6 plus postage and packaging.
Please contact me directly on what's app or messenger on here with any questions or to order. Thanks Barbara 07901 741217
I know I tend to waffle as I really care about what I do so for those who may be interested in the details.
For this batch the Rowan wood was collected from one of our conservation projects on Whinberry Hill. Here we removed a few trees to help with the bracken control to aid the recovery of the heather on this site. The Willow was harvested from our home in mid Wales as part of our gentle management of our small patch of woodland, scrub and hedgerows. All wood is extracted using horsepower.
The wood is then prepared by me by either splitting it or just stripping the bark. It is then packed tightly into tins to go in the charcoal kiln. Then as part of our regular burns for making barbecue charcoal, the charcoal is made by a wonderful alchemy of fire and wood and air. Rowan is traditionally known as the Tree of Life, as a protector and a magical wood. Willow is a tree of enchantment and of immortality with a multitude of uses and is the traditional wood used for making artists' charcoal.
Making this charcoal has been such a great thing to do. As well as the process of alchemy and the making of something useful and sustainable, it has also made me have a go at drawing. I am not an arty person but the charcoal feels so easy to just pick up and have a go. Please don't laugh at my attempt at drawing Bluebell, it's a lot of fun and that's what counts! For better inspiration see the beautiful images Sally Duckers drew for us last year. I am still absolutely in awe of this one of Tyler and me.

30/11/2024

Another recent project was another great collaboration. We have found that by raking up the bracken litter months after we have rolled it, can really aid the recovery of bracken sites. Whether that is to increase the grazing potential of the site, or improve it for biodiversity. This site used to be a brilliant site for the Pearl Bordered Fritillary, also known as the woodsman's follower. Gentle disturbance is a good thing, as would have occurred in times gone by with gentle coppicing and low level grazing. Bracken would have been cut and cleared for bedding too. We can replicate some of these things with the horses. Bringing low level grazing by native breed cattle would also help and hopefully this will happen again soon too. We were helped on one day by a huge team of volunteers from Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust and it was amazing what a massive area we managed to cover. Work supported by Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru / Natural Resources Wales Photos by me and local photographer Cordelia Weedon.

28/11/2024

You may recall our epic adventures on a Welsh slate quarry last year. This year we were back for a much bigger task. We were to very carefully remove all these trees from the historic structure without damaging it or even touching it really! Due to the fact some of the timber was huge and the access very steep and slippery and wet we couldn't remove all the timber but we took what we could and the rest was neatly left on site for habitat. Working along side JBJ Tree Services Ltd and Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru / Natural Resources Wales and Cadw, we did an amazing job, if I do say so myself!

21/11/2024

Dashing through the snow on a one horse open sleigh! Oh Facebook when I don't post for a while you stop all my followers from seeing me! Hopefully this is an exciting enough video to find people again! Perfect day for dashing through the snow on a one horse open sleigh! Well actually it was moving some fire sheets and blocks and bits and pieces from a site we have been doing some bracken raking and scrub clearance for the butterflies. But it couldn't have been a better day for it! Thanks Hele for help and film. I decided not to go with the one where I burst into the Christmas song 🤣

19/11/2024

Hi everyone. We have been a bit quiet on here for a variety of reasons and shall update soon on some of our recent work as well as what's been happening. But I thought I had better get organised and let people know that our cards are still for sale. If anyone is thinking of sending any Christmas cards, they would be perfect! The price will be £6 for a set of 6 A6 size cards, 3 of each design. Plus £2 for 1st class postage. You can mix the designs up if you wish. Please can you message me directly for payment details and to send me your address and how many you would like and I will get them in the post asap. Design one is Barbara and Tyler and design two is Molly and Bluebell. The cards and envelopes are made from 100% recycled card/paper and printed in a local company. Also for anyone wanting prints, we can do A4 and A3 and I will let you know the prices asap. Thanks Barbara 😊 edit, extra info. If you would like two packs, the postage will be £2.70 total, so £8 total for one pack and £14.70 total for two packs.
These are the designs drawn for us in charcoal made by me by the wonderful Sally Duckers we also have a really special batch of drawing charcoal for sale, watch this space.

08/10/2024

We often get filmed and photographed by members of the public. Mostly I don't mind and am glad to showcase the horses. There were a few times this summer when I was being baked alive and falling down a rabbit hole when I didn't take too kindly to a camera being on me. Often no one sends me the photos either so I have no idea whether we are being shown off to our best or where our photos end up! Anyway we met Sue recently and she very kindly sent me a couple of videos of Molly and Bluebell working. So thankyou Sue for taking the time to send it through. Looks quite idyllic !!

03/10/2024

This was taken four years ago. And is a special photo for many reasons. I am grateful to all my animals past and present for all they give to me, work, milk, meat, companionship, joy. I think they have a good life in return. We live in a beautiful place and we are happy with our work and life, it all blurs into one really. Lots of gratitude for our life today!

28/09/2024

Some recent efforts by us in unseasonal baking heat instead of pouring rain! The video in the comments shows in slow motion the effort they had to put in to get up and out of what was an almost sheer bank out of the woods. Great fun on a great project, look forward to another building made by pony power!!

19/09/2024

This video was taken at the end of July. Unfortunately we didn't realise what a great video it would make until I had practically rolled all the bracken, so we are just picking off the last tufts. I do sometimes forget to lift my head and appreciate the view. We do get to some glorious locations and are very grateful to our choice of life and work for this. Thanks to Mark for the film and water and moral support too, on what was a tricky site, and hot day too. Hope people can see the video on you tube, it is better quality and we have a few on there now, sorry if you have to watch an advert or two!

It wasn't until we had nearly finished this patch of bracken that we realised what a beautiful site it was and captures the last few rolls on camera! Molly i...

08/09/2024

ceffylau gwaith Carnog working horses team meeting to discuss the week ahead! 🤣

03/09/2024

Some lovely photos of Molly and Bluebell on a recent bracken rolling task, thanks for sharing our work 😁

28/08/2024

That's all folks! All the bracken has been rolled and we can collapse (sort of!) It has been the most bracken we have ever rolled. It has all gone remarkably well thanks to Molly and Bluebell! Weather could have been worse, we didn't get too baked or drowned. Nothing too drastic went wrong, just one broken harness strap and a lot of bites and scratches. Quite a lot of swearing. A good suntan, better calf muscles (!) and feel like I could sleep for a year are my takeaways. Apart from amazing horses dragging me through again. And all the people who helped and gave us food and water and moral support and encouragement. Oh yeah, it's only a few days off before we are back in the forest and it's Autumn, argh!

11/08/2024

Glad the rain cleared so we got to do our annual pit stop, plod and splosh on the beach 😊 still blooming windy!

02/08/2024

Here is Molly making the first cut in some deep bracken. She is so bold as it's right up to her head. We are trying to make a parallel line to our last section to make nice bite sized and efficient areas to rolls. To minimise the turning for the horse and also it's quite cool to make the hill into a neat mint humbug if we can! Hopefully the helicopter pilots will be impressed! It's hard to see the line when you are in deep bracken. Very geeky excitement from me when we pop out exactly where we wanted to to join to our next bit! I think we should try and make a bracken maze next!