Tuesday 29 August 2017

Hackfall Wood: 29-08-2017


This week took the NCVs a bit by surprise. Usually it is at the beginning of the month that we go into Hackfall Wood for our regular maintenance visits, not the end. However - as next week is going to be our annual summer walk we needed to earn our day off by getting busy and undertaking various tasks such as summertime path pruning, bracken bashing and clearing the stream down to the Alum Spring. Wellies were on the 'must bring' list!

The 11 NCVs split up into teams and off they went to do their various deeds - and this is what they did....

Tom slashed away with great ferocity at the bracken.


Ros K. picked a nice bouquet of Himalayan 
Balsam to match her wellies.


Angela used her loppers to prune a bit here and there. 


Way down at the bottom of the valley the silt shovellers got started.


When does the show begin?

Half the group had lunch at Fountains pond...


... but the silt shovellers, wanting to conserve their energy for
 the afternoon stint, stayed down at Alum Spring.

After lunch the desiltification  job became more and more challenging.


Keeping your wellies on was difficult. 
The gloopy, smelly mud stuck to your legs and wouldn't let go.


Of course, Melissa managed to get caked 
in mud from her toes to her waist.

Throughout the day various species of fungus were spotted:
                                      Bovine Bolete                              Fly agaric

                                   Honey fungus                                    Sulphur Tuft

Small Stagshorn fungus

Ros E. practised her Nordic walking on the long haul up to the car park.
Please note - shovels are definitely too heavy for this sport.

Additional News......

Last week a group of NCVs met at their workshop on Wednesday to build no fewer than 33 nest boxes. The boxes are going to be put up on trees in various parts of the Summerstones estate, near Scarhouse Reservoir, to help the small bird population in the area. The task was a daunting one but was made easier by the work put in a couple of weeks ago by Jan and Tony when they did all the initial cutting of the timber. The resulting 198 bits of wood and 33 pieces of rubber hinge then had to be organised to ensure that sides, lids, backs, fronts and bottoms didn't all get mixed up. No mean feat!!
The production team got busy - few factories 
would be better organised than this!

 Jan took on the task of drilling four drain holes in the bottoms.
We don't want the birds' nests getting damp.

 John sanded and sanded and sanded.
No splintery panelling for our birds!

Ros E decided to take advantage of the lovely afternoon
and moved her work station outdoors to make the all important 
notches in the lids to keep the wires in place.
  
And there you have it. 33 boxes - all identical. 
Well done chaps!

All that remains now is for a large owl box to be constructed and then the job lot can be delivered up-dale. Lucky birdies!

Tuesday 22 August 2017

How Stean Beck: 22-08-2017


This week the 14 NCVs who turned out had yet another date with footpath officer, Peter Lambert, at How Stean Beck. Although it’s a beautiful place to work we were reminded that it's an area where there are plenty of horseflies and midges; so insect repellent was a must have!

Will went for the lathering on of 'Skin So Soft'...

...whilst Osian adopted the full body armour approach.
(By the way - nice to have you back in the fold Osian. We've missed you while you have been involved with the 'London to Edinburgh and back' cycling event. Well done for completing the trip in the five day time limit.)

This time (we were assured) the work would be less gruelling than of late. Apparently the footpath needed us to "prune and cutting back branches & brambles, bash bracken, and improve the path surface in places". Well - this last task could mean anything. We were 'improving the footpath' last week at Toftgate and all went home shattered. We were 'improving the footpath'  at the end of July at Wath and that consisted of shifting 10 tonne of gravel!  So you can understand why we tried not to feel too complacent as we arrived.

 And one group was right to do so.
A set of stone steps had to be made and drainage had to be improved.

Mud had to be shifted...

...and stones had to be lifted.

Melissa got down to the serious business of getting muddy (again) 
and made sure that the stepping stones were laid without a wobble.

What a team - excellent steps guys!

Meanwhile - further along the footpath - the other  
members of the group were faced with walls of very high bracken.

There was only one thing to do - bash it.
Gradually the footpath became visible again.

James returned a volley to Jan with a nifty back-hander.
Game, set and match!

Every so often loppers, instead of sticks and slashers, 
would need to be deployed.

After coffee time it was noticed that there 
were tree tubes hidden amongst the bracken.

 Well - you just have to do something to free them, don't you?

Suddenly there were tree tubes visible all over the hillside.
However - this wasn't actually part of the task brief 
so we couldn't spend too long doing it. 
Many more trees still lie hidden in the bracken.

We needed to go and have lunch where we had a real problem; namely
 - exactly which cake to choose? Today we were spoilt for choice. 

 Osian's brownies or Julia's chocolate cake?

Alwin's lemon drizzle or banana loaf?
The only answer to the dilemma was to have some of each.

Then began the walk up to Low Riggs farm to continue bracken bashing.
At least this helped us to walk off some of the calories we had consumed.

As we made our way downhill, once again the footpath was revealed.
This was a path that we'd made in February.

Back then it was virtually bare of vegetation.

Not any more!! 
We found some of the wood we'd used that had got forgotten...

...so this was rescued and taken to the top of the hill.

 Back down at river level the stepping stones,
put in back in February, had to be negotiated.

Jan prepared to give us a song.

Gentleman Dave lent a hand.

Job over, all that was left to do was walk
 up the 2 mile track back to the cars.

This part of the path was rich in different species of fungus.
Anyone know the name of this giant one?
(it was found under a birch tree - porous underneath rather than gills).


Ros E.
Additional news:

Last week five of the NCVs joined James for a two day stone carving course with Sculptor Joseph Hayton. According to Tony K.:

"Joe is an excellent teacher, kept us supplied with coffee, biscuits, advice and encouragement and we all enjoyed the two days. We started off on day one with a piece of stone on which to carve letters and then progressed to whatever it was we wanted to produce. Joe gave help with ideas ..., as well as practical intervention and cleaning up errors and messy work. Mine was supposed to be a raptor but it kept changing shape as I knocked off bits I shouldn’t have."


Colin's engine
(Perfect for outside his house - an ex-station house!)
James' celtic knot
(A complicated design for a beginner to attempt.)

Tony's raptor
(Looking good in spite of the missing bits!)

 Andy C's Green Man
(This is Andy's second course with Joe - 
no wonder his piece was so advanced!)

Jan's bird
(No missing bits on this one!!)

Tony's lettering.
(This would go nicely outside our barn!) 

Andy P's lettering.
(At least he knows his vowels!)

Superb work chaps. You are all very talented! Thanks go to Joe for all the instruction and support.