Whinney Hill: 27:03-2018

Once more with feeling!!

This week the NCVs visited Whinney Hill, Warsill for the last time. Their task was to complete the rhododendron removal job they started a few weeks ago, burn all the brash and rake up the rhodie leaves that were lying around and likely to be eaten by sheep (not good!!)

8 turned out, in spite of a rainy start to the day, (four others were deployed elsewhere - see lower down) and the job was efficiently done by 2:30pm, despite a rather slow start to the bonfire in the damp conditions.

The pictures below show the final stages of the rhodies' demise.....

State of play at 9:30am.

Andy decides to go straight for the jugular.

Gradually an oak tree trunk was revealed.

 As rhodies were cut so Alistair...

 ...Ruth, ...

...Ros K,....

....Anita and Andy started 'conveyancing'.

As brash piles slowly built up so Alistair switched roles....

....and turned into (drum roll) Superhero FIREMAN.

The rhodie patch shrank and shrank and the fire grew and grew..

Break times were periods when important choices had to be made.

The flapjack or the Yorkshire tea loaf?

Thanks Anita - and  a very Happy Birthday. Hope you enjoyed the singing!

After lunch everyone was busy either 
processing brash for the fire or...

 ...taking it in turns to try to achieve an impossible task...

...namely raking up the individual rhodie 
leaves that were lying around. 

By close of play the site looked 

very different to what it did when we first visited.

Three good days' work.

 The final log is thrown onto the fire...

...and FIREMAN is happy with a job well done.
Everyone set off for home smelling like kippers.

ADDITIONALLY

Four other NCVs spent the day erecting two of the four tawny owl boxes that NCV nest box makers to the gentry, Jan and Tony, constructed two weeks ago. They were monster sized and needed to be put very high up, so not an easy task. Tony takes over the story:

We started at Heathfield, a small wood on a steep slope. Phil was the star of the day, bringing his climbing gear and doing all the high tree work secured by harness to each tree with the ladder also tied on. Carabiners and ropes were needed to haul the boxes a minimum of ten feet up as required by tawny owls and Phil did the laborious work of aligning the boxes under the branch and securing them with rope. David and Will were the ladder carriers and steadiers, and the haulers on ropes.

All very enjoyable and very successful, with the bonus of a green woodpecker calling repeatedly at Heathfield and my first singing chiffchaff of the year, perhaps newly arrived from Africa? 

 The box at Heathfield was the first one erected.

 It all looked a bit hairy but everyone was safe.

Well done chaps - a very des res for a lucky owl.

 At least the ground at Mayfield Farm was much flatter.

 However - a tree is still a tree when you are up it!

David uses his head to hold the box in place 
while Phil ropes it onto the branch.
Des res number 2!

Hackfall Wood: 20-03-2018

Half Day Closing at Hackfall

Although the NCVs were told that they had to work a longer morning than usual, there were no complaints this week as, thanks to Tom Ramsden of the Hackfall Trust, they had been invited to a lunch at the Crown Inn at Grewelthorpe. 

There was a good turn out of 19 - could this be due to the promise of a meal? No, of course not. Everyone loves working in Hackfall. even if you do have to walk up a steep hill to the car park!

To earn our feast we first needed to remove encroaching scrub just below the ruin, start to de-bramble around Fountains Pond, prune down saplings on lovers' leap, put chicken wire on the bridge at the Grewelthorpe Pond end of the wood, collect any litter we found and check the culverts. The photos below show the NCVs at work....

Firstly the rental van had to be unloaded....

...and everyone allocated to the various tasks.

A sad sight on the way down to the woods 
- a beautiful (but deceased) male sparrowhawk.

Death defying Dave made his way down Lovers' Leap....

...and got busy with a saw.

 Not to be outdone David M. descended 
to do some extreme litter collecting...

...which was then hauled up on the rope.

Further along the top path the Ruin was shrouded in tarpaulin and scaffolding.
It is having to be repaired since the theft of the lead from its roof.
Was it the same criminals that stole the tools
 from the tool store and our wheelbarrows?

Immediately below the Ruin another team of brave souls 
got started removing the fast growing saplings 
to stop them spoiling the view.


Bottom shuffling had to be deployed to stay safe.

This one has to go!

And this one here...

...and that one over there.

 Deeper down the wood there was a lot of mud 
removal happening with a mattock...

 ...and spades.

This team took their coffee break on Kent's seat 
and Jan showed off his muddy trousers to prove
 how hard he had been working.

At the Grewlethorpe end of the wood chicken wire, hammers 

and staples were deployed to keep the walkers safe.

The bit left over was put to good use on a stile.

Throughout the morning bags of litter started to accumulate.

By lunchtime there were half a dozen, plus three tyres,
 the corrugated iron, old chicken wire and three rusty spades. 
Why do people fly tip?!

A much nicer sight to see was the plentiful supply of frogspawn in the pond. 
Let's hope that most of the eggs can successfully make it to adult frog stage!

At last it was time to finish work and get ourselves around to the Crown Inn. The lunch was excellent - thanks go to the staff at the pub and to the Hackfall Trust for laying on this treat for us.

Everyone was feeling glad they didn't need to go back into the woods
 and bend over during the afternoon. They were far too full!

One table got distracted catching up with our 
previous volunteer co-ordinator Paul Mosley.
Lovely to see you again Paul!