You're as young as you feel!!
March 22nd is 'You're as young as you feel' day and this morning there were a lot of youthful looking faces working at Brigg House Farm in Pateley Bridge. The NCVs were obviously all feeling about 21 years old. Spring is all around and there was another hedge to plant - usually a nice easy job with no prickly brash to drag around, nice little sapling plugs to insert and just canes and spirals to add for protection.. So - let's have a look at those youngsters in action shall we?
This is the area where the hedge was to be planted,
namely a double row of trees, on each side of the footpath,
to provide a good corridor for birds across the field.
There were at least 1,300 trees to go in.
"OK," The NCVs thought - "there are 12 of us.
We should get this sorted by close of play."
For some reason 2000 tree spirals had been sent.
Hmmm. Right then. We'll carry all the boxes down
in case there are more trees than we think.
The boxes were very heavy.
Oh calamity - the trees were all bare rooted in the bags
and the bags were dry as a bone. "Water!! Water! Quick
- some NCVs on water carrying duty please."
While some fetched the water the rest started
pushing bamboo canes into the soil along 3/4 of the path.
No. That makes it sound far easier than it actually was.
Try instead - "The canes were forced with great difficulty
into the hardened ground which was thickly
covered with impenetrable turf."
To do this you had to take great care not
to skewer yourself at the same time.
Right - now the planting could start. As the trees
were removed from the bags it became evident
that the root systems were enormous.
No easy slit planting today!
Even the spirals had to be wrapped around like bandages,
instead of just being popped over. as many
of the saplings were quite bushy!
Again - care was needed with those canes.
You could take your eye out if you bent forwards
or do yourself a nasty injury on the rear end
if you squatted down carelessly. Careful Paul!!
Everyone was well ready for a break when
coffee time was called. The majority sat at the wayside cafe.
However, these two refined ladies preferred the Ritz next door.
At 2:30 there was a frenzied episode to
plant up any trees that had already
been unleashed from their bundles....
...but the rest (probably about 500) were left
in wet conditions ready for planting next week.
Tim did a final sweep for any unused tubes lying
around and was captured posing as the 'Man from C&A' .
Very debonair!
In spite of the difficult conditions the gang got a long way.
However - none of them felt as young as
21 by the time they left for home!!
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