Editor's note - this week's blog has been written by two of the NCVs - the reason for this will become clear as you read on. Anita starts us off .....
"Here we are again, happy as can be.
All good pals and jolly good company."
14 NCVs (plus Paul of course) turned out to complete the task of
fencing along the foot path at the bottom of the site and also to attach the
barbed wire to the fences around the mini-woodlands at the top of the farm.
First job was to unload all the tools that Paul had managed
to squeeze into his van and then troop up the hill to bring the rest of the
timber down for the fence.
He marched them all to the top of the hill,
then he marched them down again!
Two groups were then formed and eight of us trooped back up the hill to renditions of “I‘m a
Barbie Girl” by the blokes. (I think they were reliving their youth or something - check out the tune and the words on Utube).
Since there were two sections of fence to barbwire (that may be a made
up word) we divided into two smaller groups, Barbie’s gang and Ken’s team. Team work was definitely the order of the
day with sounds of a well-honed operating theatre drifting across the
valley. "Up a bit, down a bit, stop. Rock man ready to push, take the strain,
staple, hammer, go! How’s that, job's a
good un. Next!" Repeat……
Barbie's team hard at work,
barbifying (another made up word) the fence.
barbifying (another made up word) the fence.
Very soon it was lunch time, not just any old lunch
time. A little bird revealed that it was
Paul’s birthday so, after a rousing Happy Birthday song, we tucked into loads of
cake (thanks to Tony (the new) and Julia) and yummy biscuits (thanks to Paul)*.
(*Editor's note - as for our previous visit to Sparrowhawk, the owners kindly provided cakes during the afternoon. This week, having already eaten our full of confectionery, we decided to freeze these and bring them along to our next task - hopefully this will act as an incentive to everyone to turn up next time!)
Paul thought we
may be hyperactive after so much sugar, but we just felt like a sleep. He wasn’t having any of it, so he whipped us back up the
hill to finish our wiring.
(*Editor's note - as for our previous visit to Sparrowhawk, the owners kindly provided cakes during the afternoon. This week, having already eaten our full of confectionery, we decided to freeze these and bring them along to our next task - hopefully this will act as an incentive to everyone to turn up next time!)
Just two of the many sweetmeats available
(the one on the right had got rather squashed)
Paul demonstrates how to play a digeridoo using the squashed cake.
Apparently the trick is all in the way you hold your mouth.
The current line-up from the all singing, all dancing
'Ken and Barby' show (about to tour the West End and Broadway).
(Note the completed barbification [another made up word] of the fence
and the little mini- fence to protect the one tree that just wouldn't toe the line.)
It didn’t
take Ken’s team long so, while we waited for Barbie’s gang to finish, Graham gave
us a demonstration of water divining or dowsing. It looked very convincing and it did work to
a certain extent for me at the farm, but I couldn’t locate the water in my pond
at home. It seems you have to have
certain magnetism and muscles. Maybe we
could go on the course run by The British Society of Dowsers (yes there is one)
and then we can add this to the list of our many attributes.
There was still plenty of time left in the day so we decided to make a
start on rebuilding the dry stone wall.
It came down easily, with plenty of stone retrieved from
underground. We managed to put in the
foundations and a couple of courses complete with a cheek–end before our
enthusiasm started to wane. Our bodies were telling us it was time to tidy
up and head for home and that oh so welcome hot bath.
End of the day shot of the wall - didn't they do well?
Anita
Meanwhile - at the bottom of the hill - Ruth takes up the story:
I thought that by sitting behind the boss at lunchtime she wouldn’t notice me, but she was fully aware of my pathetic attempt to avoid ‘volunteering’ for this week’s blog, so here I am.
A once over of the previous post and rail work was met with disapproval by Jan - before long it had been completely dismantled and we were measuring out from scratch again.
End of play last week Start of play this week
Now you see it - now you don't ! Let's start again shall we?
Our problems began as soon as we started digging – stones which refused to budge, thick tree roots, dusty soil and heavy clay contributing to the blood sweat and tears, not to mention the awkward slope in places.
7 NCVs split into two sub-teams: Same old, same old.....
"We're gonna dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig the whole day through...."
Tony (the new) sees if his experience of hunting for seals
on the ice cap has given him transferable skills to help shift immovable rocks.
By lunchtime only a few posts were in, but at least they were solid this time and basically in a straight line. Revived by the cake produced for Paul’s birthday the group struggled on, but did not finish all the posts. Our final shot was to fix one problem post-hole with Postcrete - and the rails will have to wait for the next exciting instalment....
An end of the day shot - a fence even less advanced
than it was last time. We'll be getting the sack!
Ruth
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