Ellington Banks: 20-02-2017

"Pancake Tuesday is a happy day

If you don't give us a holiday we'll all run away."

But, of course, we are NCVs - so would do no such thing. We don't need holidays. Every Tuesday is a happy day - pancakes or not.

This week a band of 15 NCVs met at the MOD training area of Ellington Banks on a beautiful sunny day. Here we were having a second go at helping ecologist John Black reveal and open up the newly discovered pond at the edge of the SINC site that, we hope, will become a residence for Great Crested Newts. The photos below tell the tale.... 

All's quiet on the western front.

And then the NCVs arrived for their briefing.

Now, before I get started, let me just adjust my hat.

Graham the Fire-starter got busy on the most important job....

...and soon had a blaze hot enough to make the tree trunks foam.

The pond was just visible at the start of the day.

By 2pm it was easy to spot....

....especially from this angle. 
Hopefully the newts will notice it.

Graham the fire builder was kept busy 
feeding it with the oncoming fuel.

Now THAT is a bit of a tall fire.

In fact it's taller than a 6' tall Will.

James - the fastest chainsaw in the West.

Coffee time for the troops - everyone enjoying the sun together.

By lunchtime these two were outcasts.

Osian and Ros E.

Longside Farm, Ramsgill: 21-02-2017

Anyone who reads the blog regularly knows our esteemed investigative journalist from the Pateley Post, A. Hack, has been infiltrating a hardcore group of volunteer hedge layers this year in the pursuit of gossip and scandal from up t’dale. Could the rumours of A. Hack being on the trail of other news items in southern parts have contributed to a turnout of 12 volunteers and their glorious leader for today’s instalment of laying? Or was it the prospect of rain? Who knows, but the volunteers soon got into the swing of it on a fair start to another day in Upper Nidderdale.

And in the beginning there was a partially laid hedge.

During the steady progress of pleaching, laying, tidying, staking and rail affixing, volunteers were treated to a murmuration by a good size flock of starlings which formed a near perfect circle at one point.

The hedge layers got to work.

James helped out with the thicker stems to hurry the job along.

A well laid hedge with some of these hefty trucks.

The hedge gave good protection against 

this menacing Dutchman.

AONB  hedge support system

(Patent pending)

Everyone enjoyed a Nidderdale picnic whilst 

Alistair offered up a prayer to the weather gods.

COMPETITION CORNER

Who's knees are these?

Answers on a postcard.

A small dispute between the ten axe / billhook / bow saw wielding volunteers and the lone road re-surfacer about traffic cone ownership was good fun too. By lunchtime the rain bearing clouds were moving in and efforts were redoubled to tidy today’s portion of laid hedgerow. Just 5m still needed to be finished by close of play - a job for an elite group tomorrow. Once this is done we will have completed 70m!!

Here comes the rain, doody doody,

Until the next time, hedge laying enthusiasts.

Osian

Low Riggs, How Stean Beck: 14-02-2017

Happy Valentine's Day

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Footpaths are muddy

NCVs too!

How did you spend Valentine's day? Well - the NCVs didn't spend it exchanging flowers and chocolates. Dear me no. None of that soppy stuff for us. Instead 7 of us drove miles up to the very top of Nidderdale to Low Riggs, above How Stean Beck. There we met with our very own Valentine -  AONB's footpaths guru, Peter Lambert -  in order to finish path edging and steps from our last visit, and to construct a stile.

Before we could start work some of the group had to take the long walk from Middlesmoor car park to the work site, across some extremely muddy fields. This particular Valentine was playing very hard to get! Once there we split into three teams - the path edgers, the steppers and the very stylish stile makers. We beavered away until 3:30pm to get the job done then started on the long walk back in glorious sunshine.

We arrived at long last...

...to be faced with the job of carrying all 
this wood down to the work site.

So this is what you do to edge a path....

First use the spikes to start off the post holes.

Then knock the posts in with the post knocker,,,

...or the mell.
Mind your head Graham!!  😱

Then have a lie down while Tom attaches
 the plank to the post with a couple of nails.
Sometimes the nails entered the wood easily....

....but sometimes they didn't!!!

Finally - the top of the posts were sawn off....

...Occasionally in stereo.
Click HERE to see the video and find out who got through first.

Julia and Graham had to deal with some tricky angles....

.....but worked perfectly in step with each other.

And where were the stilers?

There they are - on the other side of the beck!

What a good job. A two step stile in all its glory.

Poor James was tasked with digging out a 
very wet section of path to insert a drainage pipe.

By the time he left the water was already trickling through.

Job's a wrap....

....so it's time to head home.

Down in the valley, after a morning of tool sharpening in the barn, three other NCVs did a spot of hedge laying at Longside farm.

Peek a boo

Nothing like a bit of pleaching to warm you up.

Ros E.

Hackfall Woods: 07-02-2017

The months are passing quickly and the end of winter marches on. The first Tuesday in February marked yet another monthly visit to Hackfall. Here we continued clearing vistas and maintaining water features. At Ellington Banks last week we were working on a magnesian limestone site of importance for nature conservation (SINC). Hackfall is also a magnesian limestone area but is a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) which means it has even greater levels of protection by law.

(I hope that you are keeping up with all this as there will be a test set at the end of the year and any readers failing to meet the required level of acronym competence will be set additional homework! Click on the links above to find out the difference between the two kinds of areas.)

The photos below show the kinds of things the 19 NCVs got up to this week.

The Great Lord James spaketh unto the hoards.

"And Lo. We shall go forth into the wood and create order out of chaos."

Yes - your eyes did not play tricks on you in the previous photo.
Hangman Osian loomed larger than life.

Now - I wonder what is dangling
 from Osian's rope?

Daring Dave dices with death above Fountains pond.
Let's hope Osian's knot tying skills are up to scratch!

Well you seem to have cleared the vegetation 
encroaching on the view from Lovers' Leap Dave. 
Pity about the mist spoiling the view!

Meanwhile up on the path to the car park a team were 
busy snipping at this prickly mass of brambles. 

Student Tom made sure that the plants were cut off at ground level...

...whilst Angela took an overhanging hawthorn to task at a higher level.

By coffee time the brambles had almost gone.

If Angela's hat had slipped any further 
down we'd have had three wise monkeys.

Unfortunately we came across a lot of dog poo bags 
in amongst the vegetation and gathered them up to take away. 
Why do people do this?
Tony has written a poem about this horrible problem - 
I'm sure you'll enjoy reading it HERE.

On the way to the next area that needed work we discovered 
that Big Foot had got there before us.
Or was it a piece of Dover Sole? Or a riss-sole?
Or a Beatles album?

Will decided to play some soul music on his improvised saxophone.

Let's prune this holly as we go.

Ros K. improvises and makes a broom 
 from twigs to sweep the steps.

These fungi look like something from inside the dog poo bags!

On to the other pond at the very end of the woods - 
here the bank was checked for brambles.

Tom and Ros E. start damming the gap in the pond 
wall with stones and mud to stop it overflowing.

 That should just about do it Tom .

Yes - that looks good.

Apologies to:

a) the team that slaved hard dredging the feeder pond to the weaping rock. The one photo I have does not seem to be able to be downloaded from the text message inbox on my phone.

b) the team that cleared the view from Turner's bench to the river. No photos are available but we know that you did a good job!!

Ros E.