Happy Valentine's Day
Roses
are red
Violets are blue
Footpaths are muddy
NCVs too!
How did you spend Valentine's day? Well - the NCVs didn't spend it exchanging flowers and chocolates. Dear me no. None of that soppy stuff for us. Instead 7 of us drove miles up to the very top of Nidderdale to Low Riggs, above How Stean Beck. There we met with our very own Valentine - AONB's footpaths guru, Peter Lambert - in order to finish path edging and steps from our last visit, and to construct a stile.
Before we could start work some of the group had to take the long walk from Middlesmoor car park to the work site, across some extremely muddy fields. This particular Valentine was playing very hard to get! Once there we split into three teams - the path edgers, the steppers and the very stylish stile makers. We beavered away until 3:30pm to get the job done then started on the long walk back in glorious sunshine.
We arrived at long last...
...to be faced with the job of carrying all
this wood down to the work site.
So this is what you do to edge a path....
First use the spikes to start off the post holes.
Then knock the posts in with the post knocker,,,
...or the mell.
Mind your head Graham!! 😱
Then have a lie down while Tom attaches
the plank to the post with a couple of nails.
Sometimes the nails entered the wood easily....
....but sometimes they didn't!!!
Finally - the top of the posts were sawn off....
...Occasionally in stereo.
Click HERE to see the video and find out who got through first.
Julia and Graham had to deal with some tricky angles....
.....but worked perfectly in step with each other.
And where were the stilers?
There they are - on the other side of the beck!
What a good job. A two step stile in all its glory.
Poor James was tasked with digging out a
very wet section of path to insert a drainage pipe.
By the time he left the water was already trickling through.
Job's a wrap....
....so it's time to head home.
Down in the valley, after a morning of tool sharpening in the barn, three other NCVs did a spot of hedge laying at Longside farm.
Peek a boo
Nothing like a bit of pleaching to warm you up.
Ros E.
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