Right everyone. Enough of this time off for walks and picnics - it's time to get back to the serious business of doing something useful. And what better time to do that than the first Tuesday in July?
And do something useful the NCVs did. This time controlling the bracken and balsam at Hackfall - in the 8 tree cages at the Mickley end of the woods.
And here they are doing it. Very usefully.....
Upon entering the area it
was a case of hunt the cages.
Luckily Liz (marked with
yellow arrow) had brought
the strimmer.
She strimmed pathways to
some of the cages.
Reaching a cage did not
do anything for the NCVs'
spirits. They were packed
with bracken.
Fearless, Friedy (marked with
yellow arrow) entered and
started work.
As the bracken was bashed
the tree trunks became visible.
Coffeetime, with Amy's packet
of custard creams, gave
everyone some respite.
Apart from the very
annoying flies. Luckily
some had brought their
Ascot hats to help keep
the flies at bay.
Friedy preferred the
more mysterious look.
Liz felt the natural look
would not do for Ascot
(nor did it do anything
to solve the fly problem)....
...so got out her more
up-market fascinator.
After coffee everyone moved
onto their second cage.
Besides the 3Bs (balsam,
bracken and blackberry)...
...they also had to deal with
the horrendous overgrowth of
wild rose - a species that
had inadvisably been liberally
planted on purpose. How foolish!
Eventually the 8
cage fights were at an end.
Time to go home?
No! Time to continue to
the Dropping Well to slash
the HB. Groans were heard
echoing around the woods.
However - amazingly a
huge swathe of HB was
slashed and trampled
out of existence.
NCVs 1 - HB 0
Time to go home.
Hurray!
Actually - the July tasks began for the rights of way team last Thursday, when they visited the lay by at Burnt Yates to install two finger posts - not unlike this one:
not being installed at the layby. Instead the workers had
to carry everything
a very long way.
Two pairs of heavy Giant's tweezers were carted
down, only to be found
to be almost useless.
More useful were the heavy
metal spits that were used
to break up the underlying rocks.
Liz used her cake mixing
skills to make sure the 2 bags of
postcrete were well mixed with
the water.
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Hopefully the 2 posts should remain upright for many years.
The walling group was even quicker off the July starting block when they went back to Thruscross on Wednesday 1st, as Barry reports.......
WALLERS' UPDATE
Seven wallers gathered at Breaks Fold Farm on a calm, warm morning. The lines were set on the working stint while Dave, Rob & Simon began dismantling the next 10m section. Andy, Barry, Duncan & Rod continued the build which was raised by another 5 courses by the end of the day, much of the stone needing hammer work. The dismantlers having set out the stones very tidily, then put in very substantial foundations with a satisfying completion by the 3pm finish as can be seen below.
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New build section by 3pm.
foundations by 3pm.
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