The autumn was a sad time in Comar Wood, as we learned that Steve, a long-term helper, had died. I hope he won’t mind if I write a wee tribute here to him and his contribution to the woodland.
Back in 2022, when I returned to working in the woods after having the twins, I put out an advert for helpers and Steve responded. He was keen to come and lend a hand. He was a retired policeman, looking for something useful to do and interested to learn a bit about forestry and woodlands. This was when I was starting to extract my thinnings with a winch. I had Donald Maclean come to Comar Wood to do a training session on the winch and Steve joined us. It was great having another pair of hands, as well as making me feel a lot more confident when we started winching by ourselves. After learning the basic techniques and safety points on Donald’s course, we discovered that putting this into practice efficiently to extract the first thinnings was a learning curve.
Steve started coming to help on a regular basis, once or twice a week, and I was very grateful to have his help to make progress with the thinning. He would put lots of effort into helping pull out the winch rope, chain and un-chain logs, sort the snatch block and stack the extracted logs after I’d cross-cut them. When we moved on to further felling, Steve tidied up huge amounts of brash (spruce trees produce a lot!) and he also spent time brashing lower branches off the remaining trees with a pruning saw. I think he enjoyed the physical exercise he got from the work, as well as spending time usefully outside. He was happy to come and help in all weathers – cold and wet or hot and midgy – he didn’t seem to mind.
Being a thorough type of person, Steve tidied the brash meticulously such that I frequently had to remind him that it was OK (in fact beneficial) to leave some sticks lying about to rot down into the woodland floor. Having Steve tidy the brash saved me a lot of time and his neat piles and brashed trees made it a lot easier to work in the woodland. As well as appreciating Steve’s efforts to help me with my cause, I also enjoyed his company. He had a very dry sense of humour and we had interesting conversations on many different topics from films and music to his motorbikes and rescue chickens, politics (occasionally), anecdotes from his time in the police and general goings on in our lives.
Steve came to help me in the wood regularly over the autumns, winters and springs of the last three years. During much of this time he was caring for his wife, who was undergoing cancer treatment, until, very sadly, she died in 2024. This was a huge blow for Steve, but he continued to come to the wood twice a week over last winter and this year he helped me finish extracting felled trees right through till June.
I was very shocked an saddened to find out that Steve had died in the autumn. It was a pleasure meeting and knowing Steve for the brief time that I did. His contribution of time and energy over the last three years has made a huge difference to the progress of opening up the spruce stands in Comar Wood. I will very much miss his presence and his company in the woods.