Wednesday 31 October 2012

Nest box event and de-walling at Kettlesing: 30-10-12

Nest box event at the barn

We don’t usually start the day in the relative luxury of warmth spread by a wood burning stove; although we generally prefer to work out of doors the morning started cold and damp with occasional rain, and we expected visitors. We feel we’re entitled to a little pampering once in a while. The day before the NCV's barn had been cleaned and tidied in readiness for a Nidderdale AONB nest box making day for any member of the public who wanted to have a go.

Advance work by Jan – he’s a worker, that one - provided wood already cut to size, enough to keep about twenty birds in the height of luxury during the nesting season as well as providing roosting sites during the winter. All we had to do to prepare for the work was to gather the necessary tools and make access holes in the front panels. Five members of the public turned up: Rhianna and Dominick, chauffeured by their mother, formed a threesome while Pippa and Charlie came from different directions, all keen to make nest boxes. We were impressed that none of them needed any advice on the use of either hand or power tools so were able to relax – no hammered thumbs, drilled fingers or other hazards. 




Not only did they all make a box, some of them made more than one and in addition there was an attempt to make bird feeders out of plastic milk bottles. We discovered that none of us had any experience of this arcane skill so results were mixed. The box makers each left with a sturdy nest box and we got the impression that they would make more at home. A very satisfactory, friendly and enjoyable morning. 

Footnote: Some of our group were already hard at work at Kettlesing and we drove to  join them in the afternoon, The drive to Kettlesing was circuitous. One road closed, another under the control of a very slow convoy leader through road works. We even had time to play Eye Spy. I think John won.

Tony

Meanwhile at Kettlesing......

With the fencing training day coming up we needed somewhere to practise our skills.  Kettlesing School had approached us to erect a fence around a piece of land opposite their school which they wanted to use as a wild life study area – perfect!  After Paul had visited the site and met with the head teacher he found that the project was a little more complex than originally thought.  A field gate was needed to provide access to the field for the children and the machinery to maintain the wild flower meadow.  Fairly easily done if it was to be part of the fence but, no, the plan is to put the gate in a perfectly sound dry stone wall with a rather handsome castellated top known as buck-and-doe or cock-and–hen.

So, since Ros K, Chris and I were surplus to requirements for bird box making, we made our way to Kettlesing School armed with a few tools, a plan of the site and clear instructions as where the gate was to go.

After a quick coffee we set to work stripping out the 5 metre section marked.  All the copestones were laid out in the same order as they were on the wall.  The wall stones neatly lined up, smallest furthest away, largest nearest and throughs and infill put to one side.  By the time the rest of the team arrived at 1:30 pm we had had lunch and taken down most of the wall– just left them to dig out the foundations!  Amazing what three women can achieve in a couple of hours!


 
Job done and some rather rickety temporary fencing and tape erected to ‘secure’ the site. Once some dubious jokes were shared it was time to head home for a good hot bath.


Anita


Tuesday 23 October 2012

Old Spring Wood: 23-10-12

Weather-wise it was a really gloomy day but that didn’t stop 11 NCVs turning up all bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to do what was needed in Old Spring Wood.  Loyal readers of this blog will remember that we have been here before – more than once! Last time we spent the afternoon starting to clear or ring-bark the many sycamores that have encroached on the area and today most of us carried on the good work. One stand of these particular trees caused us some difficulty due to them having grown very close to an oil tank. However, with the aid of a rope we managed to get them down safely.

By 3pm we had just about won through. It was difficult to find a sycamore standing anywhere in the wood.  If you are wondering what we have against sycamores then you might like to follow this link to find out a bit more: http://www.ecotreecare.co.uk/woodland_management_sycamore.htm  Those of us that were still available even had time to prune back some of the holly bushes that were starting to grow across one of the footpaths down the hillside.

Three of the NCVs had a different task to carry out in the morning. The culvert that carries the stream through the wood and down the hillside had become solidly blocked by large stones, gravel and vegetation. Water was coursing over, rather than underneath, the public footpath and the surrounding area was completely awash. A good morning’s work put this right – lots of shovelling and the blockage was no more; the water passed through the pipe again with a whoosh!

Lunchtime was spent admiring Tony’s aerial photographs of Spring Wood, Bryan’s Wood and other local landmarks. It is surprising just how big an area the woods cover when you can see them from above. No wonder they take up so many of our Tuesdays!

Ros E.

Monday 22 October 2012

Hackfall Woods: 16-10-12


Editor's note - this is a second blog entry for Tuesday 16th October. Many NCVs had booked in for the farm buildings training at Pateley Bridge - see next entry below. Those who preferred a more practical option were able to re-visit Hackfall to work with another volunteer group.) 

There were two NCVs in attendance at Hackfall today, along with twelve "Firm Friends" from Wolseley of Ripon.  We were pleased to welcome new recruit Ryan from Washington DC, though as his wife is expecting soon he might be otherwise engaged on Tuesdays in the coming weeks.  As it happened, it "turned out nice again" and we had nary a drop of rain, though the wind threatened to blow us off our feet at times as we approached the woods, wherein it was much calmer.  

Once again we formed a chain gang and ferried stone to the lower reaches of the wood.  Some of the Wolseley lot complained in jocular fashion that they never normally lift anything heavier than a mouse, so they must have been aching all over by the time they got home.  "Anyone for the early bath?" as Eddie Waring might not have said.  Paul was active with the mechanised barrow, making sure that there was plenty of stone and that nobody had a chance to relax.  He did however let some of us off whilst he gave the Hackfall conducted tour.  All in all, a very productive day.  Many thanks to our friends from Wolseley.

Will


The Wolseley Team's perspective

Heavy overnight rain, strong winds and a couple of unfortunate last minute dropouts did not diminish our enthusiasm as we congregated at the office. “Be reet” we reassured each other, and with that we set off on the 20 minute drive from Ripon to Hackfall Wood. Meeting us there was Paul Mosley, Nidderdale AONB Volunteer Coordinator, who would be putting us to work maintaining some of the many paths that wind their way through Hackfall Wood.

As we donned wellies and waterproofs in the car park, Paul explained some of the history of the site and what our tasks for the day would entail. Pushing wheelbarrows and clutching spades we descended from the exposed car park on the top of the hill down into the wood below. Mercifully the valley and the trees provided us with perfect shelter from the bracing wind. We set up camp at Kent’s Seat next to Alum Spring, a small clearing cut by Grewelthorpe Beck which via a serious of waterfalls carves its way down to the River Ure. 

After the obligatory health and safety we started work shovelling gravel into buckets, transporting it down a steep muddy path, and then laying it to create a far more solid surface to walk on. After an hour we took a well earned break, sharing flapjack, brownies and biscuits. Refuelled and revitalised we got back to work and by lunchtime had all but worked our way from halfway to the River Ure back up to Alum Spring.

Having polished off our lunch in double quick time we were treated to a guided tour of the rest of Hackfall by Paul. Fisher’s Hall, the Fountain Pond, the ruin at Mowbray Point, each view more spectacular than the last. Our sightseeing complete and photos taken we got back to work.

In the afternoon there was time for digging out sand for use on the paths from the beck at Alum Spring, then more gravel laying. As they day wore on our physical exertions slowly caught up with us and the pace slowed. It was most satisfying to see tangible results at the end of a day of hard day’s labour,  however our aching limbs weren’t quite so thrilled, and were ready for home. We packed up and trekked back to the cars. Some members of the group found the energy for a spot of wheelbarrow racing en route, quite how I am not sure! One thing I do know is that we all will have slept well that night.

Ian (Wolseley Team Member)



Tuesday 16 October 2012

Heritage Training - Farm buildings of Nidderdale: 16-10-2012

Today was one of our monthly training sessions. A time of clean clothes and comfy chairs, rather than muddy trousers and tools; a morning of intellectual, rather than physical, challenge. Six of us were able to attend this session that was given by Sally Childes (the AONB Heritage Officer). 

It was a really interesting input which gave us an introduction to the various types of barns that are commonly seen in Nidderdale. Sally outlined their features - the different roofs, the types of stonework, the various parts of combination barns etc. One type of building that none of us had heard of before was the 'hennery piggery' - a small barn where the pigs were kept downstairs and the hens upstairs. Apparently the warmth generated by the pigs encouraged the hens to lay their eggs. Perhaps this is an adjustment we should all consider for our own houses in these times of rising fuel prices!

It was a session that opened our eyes to things that we had passed many times but never really thought about, or had noticed but never followed up. Even better - it has opened up the possibility of some additional voluntary work via joining in with the 'Traditional Farm Buildings Survey Project'. Sally is also going to organise a spring-time field trip for us to see some of the interesting barns in the area.

Thanks to Sally for this session! 

If anyone is interested in reading about the farm buildings of Nidderdale then you can download the document we were given by clicking here.

Ros (E)

Friday 12 October 2012

Hackfall Woods revisited: 9-10-2012



Editor's note: Today's task was the culmination of work carried out by no fewer than four volunteer groups. The sand and hardcore mentioned involved 2 days of track barrowing of material down steep paths a couple of weeks before by the Hackfall volunteer group. The Open Country volunteers previously played a part in helping to gather sand from Alum Spring.  

The NCVs' perspective:

What a stunning autumn day it was when 7 NCVs, Paul our leader and 12 willing volunteers from Wolseley UK- one of the AONB’s “Firm Friends”- met in the car park at Hackfall Woods in preparation for a combined task of the day. Doug Adamson welcomed the willing workers on board, then we gathered a barrowful of tools, buckets and spades (no, not the beach variety unfortunately!), and set off along the track to  Alum Spring, savouring the beautiful clear views before dropping down into the equally lovely wood.

We introduced ourselves one by one, together with announcing our favourite woodland animal. Oh how we wished later that we could have had that elephant that Sunil admired so much, to take the strain of the loads we had to carry up the hill, but at the time we did not know what lay in store…..!

Our task was to continue with the path upgrade that was started some weeks before. This entailed filling large plastic buckets with hardcore initially, later on with sand. 


The path in question was the other side of a small waterfall, which was crossed by teetering over large but stable boulders, then uphill along a pretty woodland trail. Wolseley UK and the NCVs quickly made themselves into a human chain, 3 gallant “Wolseleys” stood in the waterfall to get the buckets across the water, then the heavy buckets were passed up, up ,up, to the waiting wheelbarrow. 


The hardcore and sand were transferred from the buckets and wheeled- with enormous strength and muscle power!- up the final yards, where it was spread out by waiting NCVs who were to level the new surface, as well as constructing the wooden barriers along the path edge to prevent the precious materials from tumbling down into the steep wood again. A game of Chinese Whispers was introduced: “less in the buckets”, "no more hardcore”, "only sand now” were some of the messages that were relayed down the human chain. Surprisingly few messages were misinterpreted!!


The day was a fantastic effort of hard work, fun, friendship and teamwork. Our most grateful thanks go to the person who supplied the delicious “cake treats” at coffee break. They were very much appreciated; we did not realise, (the NCVs), that our cake habits have become so well known in the area!!

Ros K.

Thursday 4 October 2012

Bryan’s Wood – once more unto the breach! 2-10-2012

Ten trusty volunteers turned up at Bryan’s Wood today to tackle reinforcing the fence around the hazel coppice.  Heavy tools needed to be taken to the site and someone, who should remain nameless, suggested taking a short cut across the field to avoid the winding path and streams in the wood.  We will not forget the bull in the field, we will not forget the deep mud and we will not forget having to dig Paul’s boot out of the quagmire.  Having almost lost the will to live we finally reached our destination in time for coffee and flapjack.

The two extremely heavy 10’ posts, an 8’ post and a reel of barbed wire were brought on their final journey to site.  A team of army cadets would have been helpful here.


It was all hands on deck to erect the 8’ posts beside the existing rotting posts and team work was the order of the day.  As one person wiggled a metal bar to create the start of a hole, team two were ready to insert the post and post basher.  Turns were taken to bash and I for one have found some new muscles!  



Having got all the post in place we then had to attach them to the old posts - 6” nails bend quite easily!  String was in short supply, but we have left the fence in a much stronger condition.  

Team three were busy digging a 3’ hole to take the new gate post and with a few bashes and some hard core around its base it is solid as a rock.


At the end of a tiring day, in the green gym, all the tools had to be carried back to the car park and on to the barn.  Phew, job done and we’re still smiling! 

Anita