Oxfordshire Woodland Group

Following a very wet October and November work resumed on timber conversion. It was decided to move the long sills off the ground where underbark white rot was suspected to have started on one of the logs chosen to form long sills. Providing this is dealt with quickly white rot is not a serious concern since most of the outer surface of the log will be removed by hewing.

The log to be moved was very heavy (330kg / 730lb) and the ground was wet & soft and so an appropriate method was needed to move the log without resulting in the log being coated in mud (e.g. if dragged). The log was raised off the ground onto a layer of very heavy duty blue tarpaulin sheet by rolling using a technique known as "parbuckling".

This is a simple technique where a loop of rope is passed around the log and the lower chord fixed to an immovable object (tree) and then the top strand is pulled using a come-a-long pull lift causing the log to roll and move onto the sheet.

The peeled log revealed that the white rot was fairly localised (due to bark split) and as such the log was still sound for use as a hewn long sill.

Ken Hume OWG