Installing/repairing steps and splitting logs at Lyme Park - Sunday 20th March 2022

Ten of us met Ranger Chris in the main car park at 9.30am, on a cold but glorious morning. He drove back down the main drive to the steps leading into Crow Wood that we would be working on today and we walked to meet him there. Ranger Flo and Ranger Chris showed us which steps were rotten so the front-facing wood needed replacing and which steps were a bit too high and could do with an extra step installing to make them easier to climb.

Once the Play Area refurbishment is completed in a few weeks time, it is expected that many people will then be able to start walking through Crow Wood again and using the steps, so it is an ideal time to get them sorted before then. 

After a safety and tools talk: 

Ranger Chris gave 3 of our group a lift to the Wood Yard as there were some logs that needed splitting.

We all stopped for a break mid-morning, when the 3 from the Wood Yard joined us. After Sue's home-made fruit loaf, another 4 of our volunteers were then taken up to the Wood Yard, whilst the rest of us continued removing the rotten wood from the steps, and the step supports, cutting the new timber to size and digging into the soil at the sides to help give the step extra support. We had problems with the nails we were using as they seemed quite soft and weren't going in as well as expected. Screws were later provided, but these weren't quite long enough so we reverted back to the nails.

After lunch, a final swap meant that another 3 volunteers swapped in and went up to the Wood Yard. Rumours before they went that the easiest wood had already been split proved to be true as they found it very difficult to split any of the wood that was left. Fortunately Christine was in the group of 3, and she proved invaluable at being able to find the slightly easier pieces of wood for the rest of us to split!

Yes - we even used spirit levels!

Group photo taken showcasing our handiwork:-)

We all got together at the end and had a group photo taken on the 'new' steps. It's always nice to see a task completed by the time we leave. As we walked back to the car park, we passed by the MNTV tree which was planted in 2016 to celebrate 30years of our group. It's looking really good and we hope for many more years of workdays for ourselves:-)

Photo's from Adrian and Sue