Journal of a volunteer
March 2009
| Wed 4th |
Peter, Jim, Ian and I filled in some of the gaps in the hedge along Marbury Lane by planting hawthorn. We were en route to Carey Park, where we continued to remove old fencing in preparation for the contractor's replacement work. A buzzard circled overhead as we began our walk up the hill. It was a bright, sunny day, but at the top of the hill we felt a biting edge to the wind. Jim took a barrow load of barbed wire wreaths down to be recycled. Peter had to saw off the posts at ground level so that grazing cattle would not injure themselves in any post-holes. We stacked the posts in piles ready for later collection and recycling.
We were surprised by a snow shower over lunch, but the skies cleared as we drove down Marbury Lane again. This time we stopped off at Witton Mill Bridge to carry planks down to the reed-bed to improve access for the reed-cutter. We completed the fence clearance on Carey Park, just leaving the collection of posts and sheep fencing rolls for Peter. Returning to Marbury we stopped at the Arboretum for Peter to examine a dangerous Scots pine. Back in the yard we gathered the gear for Peter to fell the pine. This included a winch to prevent the falling tree doing too much damage. Once down, it was clear that there wasn't much life left in the tree. It will now lie where it fell to provide deadwood habitat. We ended our varied day by helping the other group of volunteers to finish chipping Turkey oak branches on the terrace.
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| Thur 5th |
A dusting of overnight snow was already melting by the time we started work at Marbury. A group of us walked down to the scrape to load Turkey oak logs onto a trailer with Chris. Some were far too heavy for me to handle, but before long a call on Chris' mobile was to bring a change of activity.
Peter had got the reed-cutter stuck, when a wheel had slipped off the planks. Elna, Frances, Diana and I were detailed to go to his aid. He was waiting for us by Witton Mill Bridge and hardly looked pleased to see the arrival of pensioner girl power. We were not prepared for the severity of his predicament. One wheel was almost submerged in the mud. Two of us on each rope and Peter in charge of the machine failed to move it anywhere but deeper into the mire. The winch, which was back in the yard, was the solution to the problem. Diana and Peter set off, while Elna, Frances and I tried to get more timber under the planks.
Reinforcements in the form of Chris, Ian and Jim, arrived with the winch. This was set up using a hawthorn tree to take the strain and it did its job, leaving a deep hole, which quickly filled with water. We returned to our cars and left Peter to continue on his way to the far end of the reed-bed. We hadn't got far down the lane when Chris, clutching his mobile, waved us down. Peter was stuck again. We parked our cars and walked back to Witton Mill Bridge and along the banks of the brook, only this time we had to cross the stubble of the reeds cut last week. I was last to arrive and heard a cheer go up from deep in the reeds. Apparently it wasn't because the reed-cutter was unstuck, which it was, but because Peter had declared that he was giving up. It had been his last chance to cut the reeds before the arrival of summer migrant birds, so it was frustrating for him. We trudged back to the first hazard and abandoned the cutting machine to go for a late lunch.
Chris cut a new escape route higher up the bank with his chain saw and the day began to improve. In the time remaining we filled in potholes in the car park at Marbury and tidied up the yard and also cleaned some muddy equipment.
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| Wed 11th |
My first job at Marbury was to clear the out-of-hours car park of litter. Jim and I then helped Simon, who had left his Little Budworth patch to join us for the day, to load some Turkey oak onto his trailer, although I mostly stood and watched. The logs are to be converted into bollards. The rest of the team were already well organised on the sand martin bank project. There was a sand/cement mix being prepared in the yard, while brash was dragged to the site at Haydn's Pool. The tractor followed us down the lane with its bucket loaded with the dry mix. We all got involved in transferring the mix down the bank, along the planks across 'Vernon's Moat' and into the gabions. The chain gang approach was most effective. When the tractor returned to the yard for more dry mix, the rest of us switched to moving brash to create a bank at the back of the gabions. By the end of the day the gabions were full and there was a layer of brash forming the basis of a bank. There was just enough time and energy, but mostly enthusiasm, left to put some turf on top of one of the gabions.
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| Thur 12th |
Frances and I collected bow saws and loppers from the container at Marbury to continue laying the brash on the back of the gabions at Haydn's Pool. Our first task was to improve access with an additional plank over Vernon's Moat. This doubled the width and our confidence. If our efforts had been filmed, they would have been reminiscent of Penelope Keith as Margot in the muddy garden of The Good Life, although we did manage not to finish up on our bottoms. We reduced the pile of brash before turning our attention to a silver birch lying in the reeds. It had clearly been there for some time, as the reeds had grown up through it and anchored the top branches securely. Unable to move it we thought we we'd have to call on Vernon, Jim M and Ray to pull it out. They were busy working on the nest holes at the front and out of view and earshot. To ask them for assistance would be a last resort. A rope was Frances' idea and Pip's lead served as an adequate substitute. On the count of three we started to move it and once on the move we soon had it out. Having cut the birch into manageable lengths we added them to the bank, we switched to some untidy blackthorn that had been laid on the pile yesterday. Today, with tools at hand, we were able to sort that out. We began to think that we wouldn't finish the job by the end of the afternoon, when four tall people arrived, Diana, Ian, Maria and Chris. They made it all look much easier as they cleared the remaining brash and piled it on top. It was now a race against time for the project as the first sand martin had been circling around the pool for much of the afternoon.
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| Wed 18th |
We all went down to Haydn's Pool with Dave to put the last pieces of turf on top of the gabions and generally tidy up the site. This meant removing all the planks and other timber that had given us access to the sand martin bank. We also reinstated the fence. After lunch Vernon, Jim M, John and I helped Dave unload all the unusable timber at the bonfire site. The sight of such a huge pile proved too much for Vernon and me. He went back to the yard for paper and lighter. We soon had a good blaze and stood guard in the heat. Much to our surprise a fire engine approached along the drive with blue lights flashing. Out stepped five men in full gear. Once they were assured that we were in control, they began the long reverse back down the drive.
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| Wed 25th |
Jim and I joined Chris on the edge of Big Wood to reinstate the fencing that was put to one side when the Turkey Oaks were felled by the bridle path. We had to uncoil the wire and barbed wire and hammer in the staples to secure the wire to the posts. I allowed myself to be fenced in, so that we could fix the last of the bottom strand of wire. I began the long walk to the nearest point at which I could climb over, only to see Chris, with his added height advantage, reach over and hammer home the staples from the other side.
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| Thur 26th |
Most of the jobs on offer involved digging, but Frances and I opted for something that seemed to be more in line with our skill level. The front of the sand martin bank needed naturalising. Dave said that we would need shovels, buckets and sticks. He had listed cow muck on the task list. We loaded the equipment into the car and drove to Haydn's Pool and parked at the foot of Stannah Steps, so called because they are so steep that a stair lift would be appreciated. We climbed these and the two gates to reach the meadow. It was cold, wet and windy, so we were suitably clad. We duly followed Dave's instructions and filled our buckets with cow dung. The cow pats had been lying on the grass for a few weeks and were thankfully dry and not smelly. We were laughing all the while at our ludicrous situation. We carried our buckets down to the sand martin bank, treading carefully over the soggy ground.
Things got sillier. We tipped out said excrement and put water in the buckets, then added the cow muck and stirred with the sticks. We found this to be not very successful and reluctantly got in with our gloved hands, not having a blender, to create a suitable consistency. We removed some of the brash to gain access to the front of the potential nest site. We paddled and balanced to edge along the narrow strip of firmer ground to begin plastering the base gabions. We had several bucketfuls and experimented with various consistencies, but failed to make it stick very well. My patience ran out when I bent down for a handful and the previous load landed on my hat. I threw the next lot. That stuck. Then it was right handed and left handed throwing. Our university degrees had all been worth while. We wondered whether it had all been a pensioner volunteer initiation task or perhaps it was April 1st. Job done, we retreated. It was after 12, but we couldn't leave without replacing the brash. Back at the cabin the others had finished their lunch, so they were not put off their sandwiches by our accounts.
The afternoon was more sedate. We teamed up with Maria and Di, who were helping Pete strip the turf ready for the positioning of one of Roger Day's sculptured benches on Marbury Lane. There was enough time left to clear the leaves from the steps leading down to the Mere Hide and then quietly watch the birds.
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Mary - Volunteer
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Stick in the mud
Nothing else to do
Winch power not wench power
After a hose down
Chain gang
Pooh, but no pooh
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