Hedgelaying at Alderley Edge on Sunday 26th February 2017: The Day of the Sheep

This was our third visit of the year to this hedge, and the last time before spring replaces bare branches and dormant sap with leaves, growth and nesting birds. The end of the winter’s hedgelaying had a sting in the tail, in the form of a very wet worksite to rival (and occasionally out-soak) the nearby and notorious hedge of January 2016. 11 volunteers remained undaunted by the conditions and the potential for rain later.

The hedge before ...

The corner of the field we were working in didn’t look too wet, but the last few yards around the hedge were sodden, including one nasty dip hidden under the water, where Neil very nearly overtopped his wellies when he stepped in it. Nevertheless, we soon got cracking on several sections of hedge, while Neil, Adrian, David and Andy started the fire.

Lisa had been drawn to the workday not so much by the prospect of laying hedges, but by talk of some very friendly sheep in the area who might come up to say hello. She fed us some marvellous chocolate brownies for morning break, and then went off in the direction of the flock, which was scattered across the far side of the field. Sadly, the sheep showed little interest in saying hello.

The fire, with DIY brick damper

The hedge moved on apace, with the area becoming wetter and wetter, and muddier and muddier. However, the fire was slowly growing, with early difficulties in the wind having been overcome by using some bricks to make a damper. By lunchtime, there was enough warmth to offset the cold of the wind.

The hedge after ...

After lunch, the separate sections of laid hedge were all joined together, and we could see just how much progress was made. And after a couple more failed attempts to entice the sheep to come closer, Lisa was finally rewarded at home time when some friendly noises and a handful of grass coaxed one sheep to come over the be stroked (and to try nibbling our wellies). Lisa has wanted to hug a sheep ever since she was a child. MNTV makes people’s dreams come true!

A slightly informal group photo

Look how much happiness you can get from conservation (ok, hugging a sheep)

Rhodybashing at Lyme Park on 19th February 2017

Lantern Wood at Lyme Park was in cloud for the first part of the morning with 14 volunteers trying to decide if it was actually raining or just wet dripping off the trees.

The tangle of rhododendron branches posed a challenge to the group, but by the end of the day there was daylight in parts to the clearing by the lantern.

Looking back down the hill a substantial amount has been removed and the wood is starting to breathe again. Next year the woodland flowers should start to return.

Mick (photos by Adrian)

Wood processing at the Styal wood compound on Sunday 5th February 2017

Eight of us joined Ashley, one of the Styal estate Rangers, at the wood compound, to help split and stack wood, so it would be undercover and a suitable size for to fit into the wood burners in the Styal village cottages. Once the split wood was dry, seasoned and suitable for burning, in about 3 years time, it would then be sold.
The wood was mainly from the many trees scheduled for felling around the estate, a number due to the ongoing carpark extension, which had been felled and cut into sections using chain saws. There was also some fencing and other timber that needed recycling. The felling of the trees, cutting them into sections and moving them to the compound, was too big a job for the Styal Rangers to do entirely by themselves, so contractors were drafted in, to do a large chunk of the work.

learning to use the log splitter

Our task, to split the sections of logs and tree trunks into more manageable pieces, was done in a number of ways.
We had the use of 2 large mechanical log splitters. The largest of which(see photo), an orange horizontal splitter, needed two people to operate because it was so long; one to put the log in place and, once split, pick up the pieces and place them into a wheelbarrow, the other operated the machine by pressing the handles, moving the ram forward which then pushed the wood onto the steel structure, splitting the wood into either 2 or 4 pieces - a great piece of equipment to use!
The other log splitter was of a vertical design and could be operated by one person, who would put the log under it and bring the 'arm' of the machine down to split the log, although it was easier if 2 people used it, one putting the wood in place and moving the pieces into the barrow, the other operating the splitter.
We alternated the tasks but, those of us not using the log splitters, would either use hand axes to split the smaller logs or would barrow the split logs over to the wood store so they would stay dry.

Any pieces deemed likely to be too long to fit into the wood burners were stacked separately, to be chain sawed into shorter pieces in the future.

WOW! - what a lot we split and stacked!!

The weather stayed dry although cold. We all really enjoyed the various tasks and would be very happy to do this another time.

Tired - but happy:-)

(photo's by Adrian)