Log splitting at Edale on Sunday 31st May 2015

Seven of us met Shane (NT Area Ranger) and his team of Rangers and dogs, in the Sett Valley Trail car park at Hayfield as usual.

Shane had already let us know that, because of the heavy rain that was forecast, he had found us an indoor job at Edale instead.

When we met he told us we were going to be log splitting at the NT bunkhouse at Dalehead and we could either travel there in convoy or get a lift in their Land Rovers. As most of us would be travelling home to the Stockport area afterwards, it made more sense to travel in convoy so we could get home quicker.

At the bunkhouse we split into 3 groups and worked in the wood store. One group were cutting down  old fence posts and other random surplus pieces of wood into shorter lengths (approx. 12inches/30cms) which were then passed onto the second group who were splitting these using billhooks, into thinner pieces for use as kindling. The kindling was bagged up so it could be carried more easily into the bunkhouse when needed.

The 3rd group used the log-splitter to split the lengths of tree trunk that Miles (NT Ranger) had chain-sawn into shorter pieces. Once the trunks had been split by the log-splitter into more manageable pieces for the bunkhouse log burner, they were stacked against the wall of the wood store for when they were needed.

We rotated the jobs so we all had the opportunity to try everything and learn new skills. I think everyone's favourite was the log splitter - which was great to use and amazing to see how easily it could split the tree trunk pieces with minimal effort from us.

We had the added luxury of being able to use the bunkhouse for our 11's and lunch break. It's a fabulous place and we had a look round to see the latest improvements. It also mean that we had access to the toilets, which is a real treat on our workdays:-)

Woodland work at Styal on 17 May 2015

This week, nine of us travelled to Styal estate on the airport side. We split into two groups, the hardcore fencing group and the balsam/laurel bashing group. The fencers were working on a very narrow path with a bit of a drop off down to the river. The rest of us wandered down the edge of the Bollin, some working on an extremely steep hillside and some by the path surrounded by masses of wild garlic.

We had toffee cupcakes sitting on tree stumps and later lunch by the river. After lunch some of us went for a walk to "the bridge to nowhere".

The fencing team finished the very difficult section that John the ranger wanted replacing and joined us chopping down laurel for the last hour.

We drove back along the perimeter fence of the airport and arrived back at our cars before the rain started. We will be back at Styal on the 7th June. Hope to see you all soon.

Lisa

Fencing at Lyme Park on 10 May 2015

13 of us spent today at Lyme Park removing an old post and wire fence from a field behind the stableyard.  There were several jobs to be done - destapling, removing and coiling the two barbed wire strands at the top of the fence, destapling and removing the wire netting and, hardest of all, digging out the posts.  The posts had been put in mechanically when the fence was built 10 to 15 years ago and took a lot of excavating using mattocks, spades, shoveholers, iron bars and strops.  Some fenceposts were sawn off below ground level and the holes filled in - the stumps will rot down underground.  The last task, supervised by ranger Gary, was to install a new strainer post.

The Bowmen of Lyme were shooting in the field adjacent to ours.  One of them was hitting the bullseye on the target 30 metres away with arrow after arrow!

We finished work at 3:30pm and on our walk back to the cars an air-raid siren sounded.  We assumed it was to mark VE day in some way but it turned out to be the fire alarm in the hall out of which visitors were streaming!

We are back at Lyme on 14 June and 19 July and might well be erecting a new fence on the line of the fence that we removed.