Hackfall Woods for path work and pond dipping: 26-05-2015

Today was an AONB events day at Hackfall and two of the 8 NCVs that turned out spent some of their time supporting the children's pond dipping activity that was taking place at Fountains pond. This is always well attended and the participants really enjoyed themselves, learning a lot about fresh water ecology into the bargain. Especially interesting to some was watching one great diving beetle larva eating a damselfly nymph!

The dippers get busy dipping 

in the beautiful surroundings of Fountains pond.

 What can we see in here?

All kinds of interesting things in this net full.

Whilst all this was going on the rest of the NCVs were busy working on footpath gravelling (now that makes a change!) with the help of wheelbarrows and the track barrow. With all the path work we have been doing recently in Fishpond wood we are now experts.

Mike worked hard at the top filling the track barrow ...

...then driving it down hill.

A new pile of gravel was then created 

ready for transfer to the barrows.

John (and Sally) got busy 
filling up the barrows that kept arriving.

Down the NCVs went at speed......

 

.....then up they trudged at a slower rate.

Mid-morning everyone met for a bit of a chat.

The path looked better at close of play.....

...but some of the NCVs didn't! 
This one was in dire need of a sit down and a cuppa.

Ros E.

Fishpond Wood footpath work continues.....19-05-2015

Today's blog is a photographic record to show progress made in Fishpond Wood this week. In addition to the dumper truck we had two other pieces of useful kit - a whacker plate and a quad-bike with a trailer attached.

The 12 NCVs were split into three teams:

1. The gravel shovellers who had the unenviable task of filling the dumper truck and the quad bike trailer.
2. The path edgers (at two different points along the trail)
3. The gravel layers (deployed at the lower edging station where some major woodwork was going on to install three large steps up to the footpath).

And here's what was going on....

The gravel loaders were working their socks off to 

provide the gravel layers with the necessary material.

The all ladies team were a prime example of 

what can be achieved with a bit of co-operation.

How many NCVs does it take to 

install an edging board?

Graham and Colin checked the levels of the steps 

with a patented AONB level checker (aka a bit of wood).

Not convinced they checked again with their eyes.

Paul provided the gravel to cover the path and fill 

the step boxes.

So did Peter with his trusty quad bike.

Then the gravellers emptied out 

and raked the gravel....

....before compacting it  with the whacker plate - 

something that was very strong willed!

The two edging teams got closer and closer until.....

....the boards finally met at a convenient tree to bridge the gap.

Things are looking good from afar.

One more day should see the top and bottom gravelled sections joined up.

Ros E.

Upland birds training and more work at Fishpond Wood: 12-05-2015

Work at Fishpond Wood continued this week with a rather reduced workforce of 8 (including Paul) owing to:

a) The Heritage Skills students attending a woodcraft day at Thorpe Perrow Arboretum

b) Seven of the NCVs taking up the offer of attending an 'Upland Birds Identification' training session run by Tara Challoner, the Farming and Wildlife officer at the NAONB office.

Whilst the Fishpond Wood crew toiled over more gravel laying and footpath edging, we had the much more civilised option of listening to an interesting presentation from Tara, followed by a trip to both the Lofthouse and Scarhouse areas to spot upland birds. Unfortunately the high winds at Scarhouse meant that we only saw one crow, rather than the ring ouzels we had hoped for, but down at Lofthouse we managed to spot the following:

• a curlew
• lapwings and their gorgeous little chicks
• a snipe
• greylag geese
• meadow pippits
• a wheatear
• a grouse
• pheasants

Two of the group went on to Fishpond Wood to lend a hand after their training only to be regaled with "What time do you call this?!" Hardly surprising really.

Ros E.

Some photos from the day.....

The birdy people out and about enjoying the sun and the birds...

...whilst poor Paul and Osian were busy with 

their shovels and dumper truck.

Graham and Colin had to double up as path edgers and 

gravel spreaders until the cavalry arrived just before 2pm.
Their edging boards soared high above ground to take 
account of a steep slope where a step was needed.

Meanwhile, up at the ice house end of the path other NCVs were also grafting. 
They had the harder task of having to bury the boards into the ground.

They made a see-saw bench for their coffee break.

Didn't they do well? All those boards secured already.

Well done those girls!

Fishpond Wood footpath continued: 05-05-2015

In spite of the adverse weather conditions, no fewer than 11 NCVs and students turned up for another instalment of fun in Fishpond Wood. Our aim was to continue upgrading the footpath from the car park to the ice house. 

Our first job was to shift the enormous pile of edging boards that had been delivered to the far end and lay them along the length of the path. This was easier said than done as each one was very heavy - especially given that they had all been soaked with rain over the last few days.

Everyone waits eagerly to pick up a plank.

Instead of wheelbarrow relay, this week 'plank relay' was the order of the day.

Will and Osian decide to carry two at a time.

Tom passes his plank on to Anita and Andi in the pours of rain.

This job took all morning - even with the help of Colin who had the bright idea of fetching his trailer to help move the wood at least part of the way. 

Not quite so far to carry them now Dave!

The planks had their uses at two very important points in the proceedings:

- it provided a mobile bench for coffee in one place 

and lunch in another to keep us off the muddy ground.

(Thanks for the flapjack Audrey!)

Carl models this season's new style in rain wear - the bin liner.

(Available in all high-street supermarkets.)

 Once the wood was in position there were three jobs to be done. 

a) The rest of the huge pile of gravel needed barrowing into place. Thanks to Paul organising a dumper truck the number of loads that had to be shifted by wheelbarrow was very much reduced. Hurray! 

1 dumper truck load was equivalent to 15 barrows full. The job really started to move on.

The gravel shovellers, happy in their work,

once the sun showed its face.

Paul enjoys playing with the dumper.

An action shot - Colin directs operations from the front end.

b) In certain spots along the path the top layer of slimy mud had to be scraped off with shovels. 

c) A start had to be made in fixing the wooden edging planks into place. By the time we stopped for the day 9 of these were firmly fixed.

Up at the ice house Karl knocks in the pegs with the mell...

 ...and Ros and Julia attach the boards to the pegs.

Further down by the lake Dave and Colin do much the same thing.

Plenty still to do so read next week to find out how we progress.

A question for you to ponder....

What is likely to be the cause of this foam?

Ros E.