Tuesday 24 September 2013

Hackfall Woods: 24-09-2013

Editor's note - Joanne, one of our newer NCVs was volunteered to write the blog this week. It is clear from her entry that she realises just how privileged she is to be given this honour.......

My homework…

Just when I thought I had escaped office life, a tyrannical boss and administrative tasks, I am volunteered to write a blog. It is enough to make you go and do a shift on the cash out at Morrisons.

So..17 volunteers and Paul, cheered by the thought of free cake, dressing up and a day’s Autumn sunshine, set off to Hackfall, where the tasks were pond cleaning, path clearing, vista enhancing and sycamore sapling removal. The dressing up party were soon assembled in waders and (bizarrely) life jackets and attacking the reeds with skill (well enthusiasm anyway).

 
Ruth tries on some full body waders for size and Ros E. swaps her waterproof 
trousers and wellies for the far more chic look of thigh high waders. 
Meanwhile John scorns such footwear and opts for an early coffee break.

Mike wields a mean rake and Julia dons a life jacket in order to win this week's 
'Health and Safety Conscious' award.

Once dragged from their watery home the reeds 
lie in a layer of black and stinking mud. Sorry chaps - 
we now need to move them away from the edge of the pond. 

Julia is less enthusiastic about this part of the job ....

.... whereas Dean sets to with the wheelbarrow and a big grin!

There were so many heaps of reeds to be shifted
 that some of the path clearing gang had to be 
drafted in to help (thanks Howie and Pat!)

A second group were soon busy on paths and sycamores, having to eat their way through the blackberries to achieve their task.

Angela creeps off to the back of the bushes 
where all the best blackberries can be found.

The third group tackled the stream and vista from the folly; this was a difficult and dangerous task involving bill hooks and sickles, and - more unbearably - one member of the team singing.

The vista clearing group - the three wise men. 

Inspired his surroundings Tony (the new) gives Jan and 
Dave L. an impromptu lesson on tree identification.

Lunch was a jolly get together, where the cake was eventually produced. The fountain did its stuff regularly and impressively, although this did cause some consternation and the need for some rapid removal of fancy dress outfits…
There she blows (again and again...)

In total this was an excellent day’s work with visible results, and 18 volunteers, tired but satisfied, returned home to remove the mud from their finger nails. 

No amount of wet wipes will remove this much mud from a pond clearer's arms. 
We all went home smelling to high heaven of Channel's new fragrance 
("Eau de Hackfall" *)
*registered trademark

Joanne (Hopefully after such irreverence I will not be asked to blog again!)

Editor's second note - Joanne has done such a good job, and did it so speedily, that I feel she should become a regular contributor!

Friday 20 September 2013

Fencing at Sparrowhawk Farm: 17-09-2013

Today we continued with a task that has been ongoing for a while now - fencing at Sparrowhawk Farm. Ten NCVs (including two new members, Sue and Mike) walked up the hill to join Paul and his van load of tools near the farm at 10am sharp. Once the equipment was all in place we split into two teams and got to work.

Team A used the straining equipment to pull the wire fencing into place on the stretch of posts inserted last time. They also added a strand of barbed wire to the top of the fence and some rails to join the end to the gate post. This was a highly skilled job and also needed careful handling of the barbed wire if they wanted to finish the day without a nasty injury. 
Sue and John hunker down after being 
sent into the corner for being naughty.

Wire fencing all strained into place and 
barbed strand added without any blood loss.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the field, Team B started erecting a post and rail fence. This required a lot of careful measuring to decide where the post holes would need to be. We eagerly started to dig holes and then realised that we were getting too far ahead of ourselves. Remember your fencing training day folks - you put the first and last post in place first  to get the line in THEN decide where the others go and insert them ONE AT A TIME. Hmmm. One of the holes we'd already dug turned out to be OK but the other was too far to the left so had to be re-done. We won't make that mistake again.

Digging the holes was far from easy. As usual at Sparrowhawk there were lots and lots of pieces of rock just where we had to dig. This meant that we only managed to get three posts in by lunchtime (it would have been four but one had to be taken out as it was far too wobbly). Luckily Dave B. was in our team and, thanks to his very beady eye and high standards the three posts were inserted in a straight(ish) line.


A tiny frog decided to sit on Hannah's boot 
at lunchtime. He sat patiently, awaiting crumbs.

Paul does his usual regal lunchtime lounging pose whilst his loyal subjects 
sit and await his signal that they can start eating.

The weather remained dry until we finished lunch and then the rain started. In spite of the resulting quagmire we managed to get six more posts in place, and added two of the three rails, by 3:30pm. 
Dean decides to do the difficult job of 
watching everyone else dig the holes. 
(Only kidding - he was stone collector in chief.)

Mike tries to squash his head in the giant tweezers.

However, it was when we started to nail on the rails that we found standards had slipped somewhat after lunch. There was a call for "a bit of packing" to be added to one post in order to ensure the nail wasn't being hammered into thin air. Then we realised that one rail would need to take a 30 degree turn - not even a lot of packing would bridge the gap if it was to remain straight. 

Everyone gathers at the end of the 
fence to discuss the problem.

We decided to make a feature of the error and go with a definite corner. Mike pointed out that it would allow the nearby oak sapling room to grow without any constraints. In 100 years time passers-by will assume the fence was built around the tree. Mind you - the likelihood that the fence will still be standing in 100 years is highly unlikely. We'll be lucky if it is still there in two weeks time given the wobblyness of some of the posts!

Unfortunately it was a lack of sufficient materials, rather than the weather, that stopped the job 10m short of its end. Yet another day of fencing at Sparrowhawk is needed!

Ros E.

Wednesday 11 September 2013

GPS mapping training day: 10-09-2013

Today was another of our treats - a training day without any work to do. Hurray! This time we were being instructed on how to use a GPS receiver, something that many of us will find invaluable in our AONB work. The number of places was restricted, but five NCVs were able to join three AONB staff to take part. The event was held in the NCV's workshop at Bewerley and, as soon as the fire was lit (yes - the day was a very cold one), we all got down to work.

The training session was led by Peter Judd from GRS training, a Cumbrian based company (see http://www.gpstraining.co.uk ) Peter is a Lake District National Park Authority volunteer and has been running GPS training sessions for ten years, so he knew exactly the kinds of things we would be likely to need to do with a GPS.

The NCVs listen intently whilst Peter explains 
about way points, tracks, routes and WAAS 
(wide area augmentation system for the uninformed - 
it simply gives extra help to the GPS receiver to know where it is!) 

During the morning he explained to us how a GPS works and how to set up a new receiver. We also learned about many of the features that are available to the user. We then went outside and had some fun using the handsets to find a location and mark a way point. The way point selected was a particularly interesting one - a telegraph pole along the roadside. We had to enter a note to provide some additional information and give it a symbol. Everyone chose different symbols from the many available - I selected a shopping trolley just because I could!

The NCVs get busy marking this 
interesting telegraph pole.

By lunchtime we had learned a great deal and had enjoyed following the compass readings, mapping our tracks with wiggly red lines on the electronic maps. We retired to the barn for a bite to eat and a warm by the fire.

During the afternoon we heard about how to set up a route and then went back outside to follow a route that Peter shared with us all via the wireless facility on each handset. At one point we measured the area enclosed by our track and then way marked some interesting trees. 

At the bottom of Peat Lane the trainees do some 'housekeeping' with their receivers, clearing out track data in order to prepare for measuring the vast area about to be checked (it turned out to be 0.03 acres!)

My handset was a whizzy one that allowed me to take photos of each item, so no need for any irrelevant icons any more. 

Trainees get busy way marking a tree stump that Paul has selected as a worthy candidate. 

One unfortunate outcome of the event arose from the overwhelming urge to keep your eye on the receiver as you walked along. In the case of four participants this led to them arriving back at the workshop with rather unpleasant deposits on the soles of their boots!

Back at base camp we finished off the day finding out how to integrate the handset data with the 'Basemap' software on a computer. I discovered that there is no further need for me to draw in grid reference points on a paper map when preparing our bird box monitoring maps - the GPS and computer will do it all for me. How cool is that? Of course I would first need to buy a GPS - this is something I intend to do tomorrow!

Thanks for a great day Peter.

Ros E.


Wednesday 4 September 2013

Fencing at Sparrow Hawk Farm: 03-09-2013

12 volunteers turned out for today's task. The weather was perfect – sun, breeze and not too warm. Views across the Nidderdale were perfect too.

Job - erecting 50 metre of posts and stock fencing + 30 metres of post and rail fencing.
These two NCVs were raring to go and 
ran up to the site carrying a number of rails.

Sounds easy enough? Then add a slope of approx 15% for the stock fencing, a flagstone covered river on one side joined by 2 streams and soil varying between dry and wet, full of stones of mixed size.

Hannah and Dean play 
follow my leader up the slope.

Osian and Ruth practise synchronised 
standing on one leg.

Dave B. uses a spit to start off a post hole. 
Easy - until it strikes a rock! Dean watches in admiration.

Three heavy straining posts, a gate hanging post and numerous lesser posts had to be dug in – all in a straight line of course and to a minimum depth at least. At the bottom of the field old fencing was removed to be replaced by posts and rails.

New NCV Ruth shows off her skills with a hammer.

It was a tough job which we did not finish - shame on us, I know, but we were done in. Actually a (part) job well done and we look forward to finishing it off!


Jan