Longside Farm: 03-12-2019

Last week it was to pastures new, to plant a new hedge.

This week it was a return to old pastures and the laying of an old hedge, namely that at Longside Farm. 
Regular readers of this blog will know that it is almost 2 years since the NCVs took this hedge to task and managed to reach the half way stage (possibly a bit further than that). Now was the time to get a crack on and make a bid for the end of the field. This hedge just wasn't going to lay itself. If left to its own devices it would just grow tall and thin out at the bottom. 
So - NCVs - Are you ready? Are you steady? Let's go.....

BUT WAIT!! First a hedge has to be prepped.

Lots of forward facing branches had to be pruned out .

This, of course, led to the generation of 
heaps of  brash to be transported out of the way.

By the end of the day the brash pile stretched out - 
almost another hedge in its own right.

First out of the blocks when it came to pleaching was Tom with an axe.

Others were close on his heels wielding billhooks.

The cutting involved precision engineering rather than speed.

Liz's chain saw got a lot of use on the 'too thick for a saw' stems....

...although this team decided that they would stick to the old fashioned way.
Luckily they had the mighty Osian in their tool kit

The stems started falling right, left and centre - 

some more willingly than others.

Dave decided this one required a warrior pose to assist in its laying.

Lump hammers and mells were deployed to insert the posts.


Much trust was put in the person hammering by the one holding the post.

Coffee time and lunch time were spent lounging on the picnic tarpaulin....

...which gave the NCVs some fun and games 
when it was time to fold it away in the strong winds!

Eventually railings started to be attached to the posts.

It was starting to look like a laid hedge!

Some of the blackthorn suckers that were sprouting up were dug up 
in order to harvest them to fill in any gaps.

By the end of the day the NCVs felt that they 
had done a good job, though there was still a long way to go. 
Back next week for more!