Tuesday 30 September 2014

Return to Fishpond Wood: 30-09-2014


Eleven NCV's, six Heritage Skills students and their two Tutors arrived at The Barn on another magnificent September morning.  Today 3 tasks beckoned: 
  • continuing the scrub clearance at Fishpond Wood, 
  • moving the walling stone and earth mound near the car parking area at the entrance to Bewerley Park Outdoor Centre, 
  • preparing/ cutting wood for making bird nesting boxes, an event being held at half term for members of the general public to construct their own bird houses. 
Will and Dave gallantly took on the heavy stone moving work, Jan instructed Ruth on the art of cutting wood for bird boxes (see photos lower down), and the rest of us set forth with the normal barrow loads of loppers, saws, spades, waders and the chain saw, leader Paul's prerogative.

The big guns are brought in to cope 
with the large tree trunks.


Suffice to say rhodies were cut down, brash piles moved and tidied, and a large  "bonfire" built with the surplus. (Well there are only so many brash piles that can occupy space away from the path and the "pond".) 

The NCVs get busy with their bow saws and loppers.


Ros K. tries to use magic to lift a branch.

Julia approaches a rhododendron with caution, 
unsure if the ground will turn out to be boggy.


Charlie and Tom hack a path through the vegetation.


Lunch was a celebratory affair as Jan had brought delicious birthday cakes to share with us (many thanks "Mrs Jan" for your contributions). Happy Birthday was beautifully sung.
[NB Thanks must also go to Julia for providing the coffee time cake.]

The NCVs take a welcome break.

Jan did some fraction work in order to share out his two birthday cakes.

After lunch we tried to light the bonfire. With only Leo's lighter and a helping hand from burning his glove (an accident initially but nearly quite worthwhile!) we were just about to give up when some flames showed up - only an hour too late. Now we were concerned that the flames would be lighting up the night sky so we had to smother this little outburst, with the promise of fire-lighters and getting it started earlier next week.

A wheelbarrow full of dry leaves is taken across to help start the brash fire.

Joy of joys - the Island was discovered, as were some slabs beneath the marshy pond that we had been promised would be there.

Stonework indicating that the edge of the central island 
has been reached. At last - dry land to stand on!

Osian starts to sink into the mire as he digs a 
trench to investigate how deep the silt is.

Joanne and Ed join in with the trench task in a bid to 
find the promised slabs. 

Back at the barn Jan and Ruth cut up planks 
of wood to create some bird box kits......

 ...whilst Dave and Will had to shift tons of stone to ensure the walling group 
had a clear area to start work.

Oh, and the other highlight of the day has to be when we nearly lost Osian (not for the first time) to the sucking, oozy mud - only 5 minutes before we finished for the day. Quite a comprehensively wet welly there! Fortunately Osian saw the funny side of things too, once he had been pulled out.

Ros Kemp

Wednesday 24 September 2014

Fishpond Wood: 23-09-2014

This week eleven NCVs, along with six heritage skills students and their two tutors, joined Paul for a day in Fishpond Wood. We first listened to a short talk by Paul Burgess about the AONB's position on the conservation of Hen Harriers before setting off, with our tools, to start on our main task. 

The task? Just a bit (!) of undergrowth removal to prepare the ground for the diggers to come in to remove silt from the top end of the Fishpond Wood lake. One of the students now takes up the story......

Today, the Heritage team lucratively completed their objective, in Fishpond Wood. The task was relieving the marsh terrain of the obstruction of trees and brash plants to allow the rest of the conjoined lake to flow into that space and add to the overall mass of the lake itself. 
The bottom end of the lake is as it should be. 
However - the top end is a different story....


A hard task lies ahead. 
So much rhododendron to clear. So much mud to brave.


Team work was definitely the order of the day.....

 
Paul passes to Ros E.....

 ... and then she passes to Carl.

Osian bravely tests out the bridge that was 
constructed across the bog of eternal doom. 


Ed and James reduce the size of a branch by half....

... whilst Tom, Carl and Charlie double the size of a brash pile.

During a much enjoyed intermission, the team took the liberty of using the clay oven at the Bewerley Park Centre to prepare lunch.

Leo

The lunchtime pizza bake off begins with a demonstration by Paul.

Then it's every man for himself.

Into the oven go the pizzas and out they come baked to perfection.
No soggy bottoms here!

Joanne gets stuck into her pizza....

... whilst Terry takes a more genteel approach.

Whilst most NCVs worked at the lake during the morning, Terry and Jan opted for a different task - that of tending the pizza oven fire in readiness for lunch and fitting a security bar to the inside of the barn door....





...and here's the bar. Very secure.

Tuesday 16 September 2014

Stone shifting at Bewerley Park Education Centre: 16-09-2014

This morning 12 NCVs joined forces with Ade Fagg, the Bewerley Park Education Centre facilities manager, along with a group of 5 heritage skills students and their two tutors, in order to take  down and move the centre's demonstration dry stone walls. The stone is to be used to construct a new wall  at the entrance into Bewerley Park.

 The NCVs view the walls to be demolished and listen to Ade and Chris's plan of action.

Hiding behind the big wall was this little wall.

Within no time everyone had sorted themselves out into two teams. One of wall demolishers and another of stone receivers stationed at the entrance to the park. The stone was stacked according to Chris G's cunning plan and all the infill was barrowed across and stored in large bags.

Back and forth go the barrows. Ships that pass in the night.

Dave and Graham tend to their infill storage bags.

Tom delivers yet another barrow of infill.

Jim on the Gator made numerous trips. Thank goodness for Jim - barrowing the infill was tiring enough. Having to barrow the walling stones themselves would have been just too much!
The Gator is carefully manoeuvred into position 
to allow NCVs easy access.

Within minutes the vehicle is full.

"I think we can just fit on one more."

By 2:30pm the job was complete and the only evidence of there having been any walls at all were two long stretches of bare soil in the field.

Everyone gets stuck in and the walls start to come down.....

....going....


....going....

....going....

....gone!
(This week's award for most enthusiastic stone shifter goes to Ed - centre.)

Meanwhile, back at the barn, a second small fire was lit in the bread oven to dry it out. Next week - pizzas for lunch!

Carl sits and warms himself by the bread oven, dreaming of pizzas.

Ros E.



Wednesday 10 September 2014

Guisecliff Wood and Fishpond Wood revisited: 09-09-2014

Seven volunteers and Paul, plus six lads and their two supervisors, gathered at the barn to collect bashing sticks for a beautiful, late summer's morning of bracken bashing in a corner of Guisecliff Wood.  

The walk up the hill to the site was rewarded with a fabulous panorama of Nidderdale - though there wasn't long for gazing at the view before we set to work bashing bracken regrowth.  


And they're off - Anitia moves into an early lead. 
Can she maintain it all the way to the top?

Stumps left after previous bashings could be seen and were a good sign that our bashing efforts have been working.  

Take that. And that! Maybe that will keep you in check.

Don't be downhearted - we can do it!

The large rocks amongst the bracken were becoming more visible and revealing some of their intriguing cup marks.  

Lovely assistant Anita points out a cup mark.

The five lads with us had an introduction to bashing but were generally more energetic with the afternoon rhododendron clearing session at Fishpond Wood.  We completed the clearance of the last two or three big patches near the entrance to the wood and made a couple of big but tidy piles of brash at the edge of the wood. 

The NCVs and their new assistants lay waste to the rhodies.

Meanwhile Graham, Alistair, Chris and Ruth carried out a tidy-up of the remaining sand and bricks left over from the clay-oven building at the barn.


Now that's looking better. Not long to go to the first pizza bake off.

Laura