Wednesday 28 May 2014

Himalayan Balsam pulling in Hackfall Woods: 27-05-2014

I think that the invitation to pull Himalayan Balsam sounded less than inviting to many NCVs today as only a hard core of 8 turned up to join Paul at Hackfall Farm this morning. No matter - it is amazing what a group of 8 willing NCVs can do in a day. 

Down into the valley of balsam rode the 8 NCVs.

The good news was that the plants were much taller than they were three weeks ago at Fir Tree Farm, when it was more like pinching out cress. This time there was sufficient to grab hold of and pull whilst remaining reasonably straight for some of the time. Soon we had armfuls of the stuff.

NCVs' enemy No. 1.


Anyone care for some balsam with their lunch?

The bad news was that other plants had also moved skyward and so NCVs had to move through nettles and brambles to reach the balsam. At one point a tall nettle flicked back and hit me on the nose. I thought that I might have to put a poultice on it when I got home to relieve the sting. 


Artist's impression of the nettle sting and nose poultice event.

We started on the innermost reaches of the balsam and worked our way backwards towards the perimeter wall. The plan is that we should at least aim to prevent further spread of this invasive species into the wood. More good news was that we could actually see a real difference in the areas we worked on last summer. The % balsam cover is definitely a good deal lower than in previous years. Hurray!!!!


NCVs take a lunch break on a handy picnic bench.

Ros K. has trouble getting into the right position for sandwich eating.

It was a quiet task - I kept thinking that I was all alone with only the birds and insects for company. But a quick glance to the side showed that at least two other NCVs were not far away. We were all just enjoying the peace in the wood. 


The NCVs move quietly through the undergrowth 
leaving a trail of empty earth behind them.

By the end of the afternoon there were heaps of balsam festooning a nearby fallen tree. So much more satisfying a result than the small heap we harvested at Fir Tree Farm.


 
This is one lot of balsam whose invading days are over.

For three of the NCVs there was a little treat in store. As the AONB were running a pond dipping event at the main pond in the centre of the wood help was needed, during both the morning and afternoon, to supervise the children that dropped by to investigate the invertebrates to be found.

The pond before the arrival of the dippers.

This was a lovely experience (if somewhat muddy!) and the following animals were found:


                            
           damselfly nymph                                                        dragonfly nymph
                 
                           
              stonefly nymph                                                     caddisfly nymph
                
                           
             rams horn snail                                                      freshwater shrimp
                               
                      leech                                                                          newt                           
  
                      
                 pond skater                                                               bloodworm                 

                                                                  water boatman
Ros E.

Tuesday 20 May 2014

Duck Street Quarry and other tales: 20-05-2014

Today the 11 NCVs that joined Paul and Colin Slator at Duck Street Quarry split into two groups. A larger one of 8 to work with Paul in the quarry itself (see Laura's account below) and a splinter group of three to work with Colin (see Ros E's account below).

The Quarry team's perspective:
Here we had to complete the steps and bridging work almost finished last week, plus some new work to help make the access even easier and safer for visitors to the quarry in the future (including an AONB 'Wildflower and Butterfly Walk' on Saturday 12th July).

Finishing off the Bridge over the River Kwai with a top dressing of gravel.....

... that had to be fetched from afar...

...and then carried up the slope.

Terry was very prompt to get cracking on the flight of wooden steps with Hannah in the morning. 

Terry watches carefully to check that Hannah does the job properly.

NCVs emerge from the gloom to help out.

Other volunteers got stuck into realigning the old stone wall at the quarry side to make a wider space between the wall and the drop on the other side.  

Laura plugs up a hole with her finger whilst Dave 
casts about to find an appropriately shaped rock.

After lunch they were joined by two more in path widening and filling some gaps under the wire perimeter fencing to stop any adventurous sheep squeezing through into the quarry. Some cairns were also constructed to help visitors spot the pathway.

Three sets of perfectly cut steps lead to the cairn at the top.
A few volunteers hadn't been round the whole site last week (probably due to dashing off to escape the rain) and so enjoyed a sunny tour and admired the marvellous displays of early purple orchid, mountain pansies, avens and cowslips, particularly at the top of the site.

Pretty little mountain pansies.

A Green Veined butterfly was spotted amongst the flowers.

Laura


Meanwhile - out and about with the splinter group.......
We have two other jobs to do today - the first involves moving a small flock of eight Hebridean sheep from a field near Boroughbridge to another grazing area just below Duck Street Quarry. First we have to collect Colin's trailer from his home - coffee and cake (and a tour around his lovely garden) makes this into a real treat.


Ruth meets one of Colin's more unusual animals - 
a mere youngster at 86 (the tortoise that is!)

We then have to do a lot of shifting of metal fence panels into, and then out of, the trailer. These are to be used to funnel the herd into the trailer.


Fence panels in transit.....

...and being put in place for funnelling.
NB The sheep have not been playing tennis.

Next the sheep have to be rounded up. Past experience has taught me that this will be far from straightforward and involve much running around and being shouted at by the head shepherd. However, today it is remarkably easy. The first attempt fails miserably and the sheep run off around the back of us laughing. However, after this warm up we just show them that we are in charge and into the trailer they go (followed by all the fence panels).

All packed up and ready for the trip.
(Unsurprisingly there are no photos of the round up as it is impossible to use the camera whilst racing around.)

Back at Duck Street the job of letting them loose is nice and easy - just the fence panels to move yet again. 

The herd investigate their new abode.

Once the sheep are out of the trailer we then see what the next job is - cleaning it out! Lunch first though.

The sheep pay us back for rounding them up.


Both teams get together for their picnic.

 Hannah hopes nobody notices that she is taking 
more than her fair share of the flapjack.
(Thanks to both Audrey AND Terry's wife for this!)

Lunch over,we fetch water from what Colin assures us is a nearby (?!) pond and swill out the yucky trailer. 

Julia sets off in search of water - can you spot her?

The water carrier arrives from afar.

Next up - off to Greenhow Quarry to get togged up in high vis jackets. Here we collect the corrugated sheeting that we had spent a day putting into place a couple of years ago when we set up four bird feeding stations. These were meant to encourage Twite into the area but completely failed in their duty. Not a twite in sight.

This is what should have been visiting 
the feeding stations, but didn't.


Julia drags up the sheeting which was getting overgrown with vegetation.

Once lifted the sheeting has to be bagged up.

Off we go again to Duck Street quarry, just in time to help the rest of the gang bring the tools down to the van. However, as we reach the bottom of the hill Paul finds yet another job to do - clearing the two branches off the sycamore tree that he had lopped off earlier. 

Many hands make light work. The unsuspecting NCVs beaver away, 
not realising that they are being spied on from on high.

Right - that's it. All jobs done so home we go.

Ros E.

Tuesday 13 May 2014

Duck Street Quarry - the story continues: 13-05-2014

Today we had a good turn out of fifteen able bodied NCVs, meeting Paul and Colin Slator up at Duck Street Quarry, to continue the work started four weeks ago. Before leaving the car park we:
  1. gave Colin STRICT instructions that he was not to even consider starting to burn off the thatch on the adjacent field again (see entry from 15.04.14 to see why!);
  2. frisked him to ensure he had no matches concealed about his person in case he ignored point (1) above.
Health and safety talk's over and everyone's ready to start. 
Colin's smiling a secretive smile.....has he got some 
matches hidden away in that trouser pocket?

The group split up into two teams - the first to create steps in the steep sections of path and to finish off the rope fencing; the second to build a bridge across a ravine to ensure visitors to the quarry did not have to endanger themselves at the top of the cliff.

Making the steps involved cutting toe holds into the hillside and then inserting slabs of rock and/or gravel into the exposed soil. Luckily the soil was wet and of a heavy, clay consistency which could be squidged  under and around the edge of the large stones to keep them level. 

The steps are slowly cut into the hillside and tested for safety, 
for both walking up and walking down.


Colin  elects to carry out the difficult task of watching the ladies' team at work.

Rather less fortunately, the rocks and gravel had to be collected from a good distance away at the bottom of the hill and barrowed across, before being carried uphill to their final resting place. 

Gravel shovelling was made difficult as it had to be salvaged 
from compacted spoil heaps.



The land owner takes time out to survey his patch....

... and makes sure that the step cutters don't slack in their task... 

..... before going off to do some early 
flowering purple orchid spotting.

One section of steps required a higher level of engineering - wood had to be used to make boxes to hold the gravel. Hannah, Laura and Terry made a good start on these but further work is needed to finish the job.

Angela and Julia worked to re-site some of the iron rods and then got busy threading through the two lengths of new rope from the point at which we ran out last time. Unfortunately even these were insufficient to reach the end of the path and an extra piece of old rope had to be found to finish off the job.

Julia practises her needle threading technique.

Whilst all of this was going on a major construction event was taking place at the top of the quarry. One of the group working on the high level walk-way tells me that the design 'evolved' but to me it looked like a very well planned bridge that Isambard Kingdom Brunel would have been proud to put his name to. Apparently Graham's expertise was useful here but Dave B. did a lot of the stone laying, Graham, Colin and Dave L. the sawing and Alastair and Tony most of the stone collecting.

A band of busy bridge building beavers.

Graham had a yodel to try out the quarry's acoustics.

The team decide to run off and hide 
whilst Alistair counts to 100.

Was it wise to dig that far down?

 A bridge that would not look out of place over the River Kwai.

The bridge team hold their breath as they test out the construction for strength.

At 2pm the heavens opened but the determined NCVs toiled on, after a quick dash for some waterproofs. However, after a while, as the water started to permeate the most private of parts, everyone decided that enough was enough. It was time to pack up!

Anita and Ros E. "singing in the rain"

Hey Ho; Hey Ho; it's home from work we go....


Ros E.