Journal of a volunteer
April 2009
| Wed 1st |
Six volunteers worked with Chris near the boathouse, where the path had recently been upgraded. We spent all morning and part of the afternoon hammering home a revetment to prevent the bank slipping down onto the path again. The giant hammer needed to be lifted above head height to have any real effect on the posts. I limited myself to banging in the nails, not always successfully.
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| Thur 2nd |
On yet another glorious sunny day I went with Maria and Tom to work on the pond dipping station under Chris' direction. I worked on landscaping the spoil heaps at the side of the decking. Most of it was clay dug out from the bottom of the ice pond. It was either rock hard and more akin to concrete or wet and sticky, ideal for moulding into pots. Maria and Tom worked on digging a new hole for the gate post, but encountered much the same problem a few inches down.
In the afternoon we were joined by Ray, who tackled construction of an additional barrier with Chris. Maria and Tom tried using the shoveholer with its scissor action to achieve grater depth to their hole, finding it still frustratingly slow. Even more frustrating was the realisation that they had dug a couple of inches too deep. Chris wielded the mighty hammer to fix the posts for the new barrier. My most useful function, after supplying the pencil, seemed to be to place my considerable weight on the rails, so that Chris could cut them to the correct length with his chain saw.
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| Sat 4th |
Jim and I had volunteered to help Steph with the caravan as a base for the Cheshire Athletic Association Youth Event. She met us at the gate to the yard with her instructions. Jim was to help her put the caravan out, whilst I was to investigate reports of stray cattle at Witton Mill Car Park. I found the gates locked and a broken fence. Two heifers were on the adjacent land. I phoned the news to Steph and turned away any visiting cars. Steph and Jim arrived and together we persuaded the cattle across the car park and into the meadow field. We opened up the car park and headed back to Marbury somewhat puzzled as there weren't supposed to be any cattle on site. Before we'd finished our lunch the phone rang, reporting a cow on Witton Mill Car Park. We set off to return it to the field, baffled as to how its escape had been achieved. We checked that the fences were all secure and went back to Marbury. Steph had been told earlier that there were the remains of a party near the Mere Hide, so we did a litter pick. Apart from a fairly usual amount of litter we found 16 full cans of lager. Some party. (The two heifers had originally escaped from a field behind B&Q on Saturday morning and were safely returned on Monday morning.)
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| Thur 9th |
Ian, Diana, Ranjit and I were the only volunteers and whilst Ranjit busied himself in the workshop the rest of us went to Marbury's entrance archway armed with industrial strength sandpaper, ladders, brushes and paint. Diana and I left Ian and Chris to do the ladder work while we got to work removing the grime and old varnish from the lower levels and the benches below. We dodged the drips of paint as Ian and Chris managed to put a coat on the arch before lunch.
We joined a contingent for the unveiling ceremony of Roger's two sculpted benches on Marbury Lane before returning to our sanding and painting. Once complete the archway looked as if it had been given a new lease of life.
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| Sat 12th |
It was a bright sunny day so Jim and I went to Marbury to see if we could sell some charcoal. We set up a table under a gazebo and sold three bags of barbecue charcoal and some artist's charcoal. After lunch I went with Steph to investigate reports of a homeless person on Carey Park. Steph tidied up his/her belongings amongst the scrub.
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| Wed 15th |
Dave had a group of volunteers digging holes on the edge of Anderton Car Park to replace damaged barriers and a notice board. As usual at Anderton it required the use of a sledge hammer to break up concrete and I decided I would be of more use litter-picking. There was a surprising amount, especially around the top of the site. Along the Fishermen's Path contractors had been strimming the length of the pipework, revealing empty cans that had been idly tossed aside. I returned to the car park in time to help tidy up the tools ready for our lunch break. Work was to continue up at Anderton, so Elna joined me in litter-picking, this time at Marbury, where we cleared up the remains of bank holiday weekend activities. Some items, such as children's clothing had been carelessly left behind, but others had been more carefully abandoned. There had been fine weather to attract the barbecue enthusiasts, some of whom had made considerable efforts to minimise the effects. Unfortunately others had left us a great deal. Disposable barbecues had been neatly disposed of under a picnic table, alongside a dropped sausage. A kebab had been kindly left for me on the table. However, the party that had presumably packaged all their rubbish into a bin sack, left us with the most disgusting mess on the overflow car park. Some time during the intervening two days a fox, a badger or two, had got the scent of a meal and, with help from the wind, the contents of the sack were strewn over a wide area. We were not happy bunnies. |
| Wed 22nd |
The fine spring weather continues, not a bad day for a bonfire. There was already a pile of unusable timber, fence posts, rails and picnic tables, which had been cleared from the yard. Dave and Pete were planning to take out more fencing during the day. Vernon and I rallied to the call. The fire quickly burst into life, a benefit of the last few days without rain. We heaped on more wood, carefully keeping the flames away from the trees. The heat built up until we could no longer stand any less than ten yards away and passers-by were no longer envious. We still got the quips about baked potatoes and small children came, with accompanying adults, to see what was going on, looked wide-eyed and pointed. It had died down somewhat by lunchtime and we left it with a warning notice. Vernon had already got it glowing again by the time Dave dropped off the morning's load. Ray and Ranjit had claimed the reusable pieces for their construction in the yard. Pete brought more an hour later, but Dave's second load will have to wait to be burned another day. We were rather alarmed to see that sparks had caused smouldering in some sawdust and a stump beyond the fire, but we left them all safe before retiring to the cabin, so no need for the fire service.
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| Thurs 23rd |
Dave wanted to take out more fencing, so "another day" had arrived. Elna and I headed off to burn the last load from yesterday. We had no difficulty getting another fire going and by lunchtime we were ready for the next load. We spent some of out time trying to extinguish a secondary that had continued to smoulder overnight after all. Frances replaced Elna at the bonfire site after lunch and we finally put out the sawdust fire. We burnt the last of the fence posts and rails. I kept my holey fleece on to prevent my shirt being damaged by stray sparks, but it meant that the job was even warmer. We managed to extricate a barrow load of metal (nails, barbed wire, etc.) from the ashes that will go to be recycled.
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| Wed 29th |
We were a team of six digging a trench from the Rangers' Cabin to the steps behind the Café. No such luxury as soil, we were working through ash, bricks and stones, but the worms were still surviving. The fitter members of the crew wielded mattocks. It took us an hour to reach a spade's depth, but Mark rewarded us with cups of coffee. We took our tools around behind the yard to remove the remaining tree roots with the help of Chris in the tractor. The area is to be levelled to make a more suitable parking space for volunteers.
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Mary - Volunteer
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Nothing's straight in nature
How to do it
Roger's job's done
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