Nought Moor, Glasshouses verge and the NCVs' barn: 10-10-2017

Decisions, decisions.

It was another one of those 'which task shall we choose today' days for some of us this week.

For the three NCVs present who were trained in the nifty use of a scythe there was no choice. Our skills were needed to complete cutting the remaining vegetation along the verge at Glasshouses. The students didn't need to worry about what to do either. They were tasked with raking up the results of the swishing blades.

However - everyone else had to make a decision. Did they want to:

(a) assist Peter Lambert (the AONB's Footpaths officer) to finish off positioning  flagstones on the Nought Moor footpath above Bewerley. 

OR

(b)  help Louise Brown (the AONB’s Historic Nidderdale Officer) to sort out the assorted materials that have recently (and not so recently) accumulated at the NCVs' workshop.

AND/OR

(c) accompany Tara Challoner (the AONB's wildlife officer) to Low Riggs farm, Stean to plant some wildflower plug plants in an upland hay meadow.

All tasks had their different charms. In the end this is what went on......

Down the road at Glasshouses:

The vegetation that was in need of a hair cut.

The Demon Barber of Glasshouses got busy.

Jan saw the job through to the bitter end.

Students Conor and James wielded  the hay rakes.

They then developed a good pitchfork technique to 
carry the waste away, so that it wouldn't enrich 
the ground too much for the wild flowers to grow.

This haystack grew legs and walked to 
the dumping ground by itself.

Jan gave Angela a spot of scything training.

And there it is - a bald grass verge.
Next spring and summer Ros E will survey the site 
to obtain a record of which wild flowers grow. 
Hopefully the list will grow each year. Watch this space!!

Meanwhile - up at Nought Moor:

First job was to extend the paving up to the bridge.

Here and there a bit of extra drainage work was 

required to lower the water level around the stones

Almost at the bridge - 

but Graham decides that it's time for lunch!

Finally the bridge was reached - 

that should keep the walkers happy.

A second task was to level up the large paving stones,
 laid last time, which had settled into the bog

Yep - they look fairly level to me.

The final job was to fill in some of the ruts left by the 

large tractor that had delivered the paving slabs. 
(Well it is the rutting season!)

And along at the workshop:

 This was the barn at the start of play.

So much stuff!

And this was it at the close of play.
Still a lot of stuff but at least now it is tidy and 
there is a space on the floor!!


Removal of the trailer from the end room showed 
that something just had to go - namely the upstanding canoe 
(left hand side) that has been hanging around for years.

So go it did. This freed up space for some of the other 'stuff' to flow into and fill

(We really could do with an electric light in this end room.
 Even the flash photography doesn't help much.)

Apologies to Terry, Sally, Kath and John who toiled hard all day without any photos being taken to show them at work. At least we can see the results of your labours in the barn. Claims of you having been involved in the planting of the wild flower plugs remain unsubstantiated!!