Tree guard painting at Hare Hill on Sunday 25th Sept 2016

Six volunteers had a bit of a lie in this week before meeting John the ranger at 10.15 in the car park at Hare Hill. The job was tree guard painting, a task familiar to many of us, as this is an ongoing project and the fourth time this year the group has participated.

The tree guards are of a wooden construction and look a lot smarter after a good scrubbing with a wire brush and the application of the green preservative. Unfortunately after painting the first guard the heavens opened and after the deluge had to be redone, the rain having washed away all our good work. In total we painted ten guards a bit of a record for such a small group.

The weather was reasonable for the rest of the day with just the occasional light shower, so it was a happy if slightly paint speckled group that called it a day at three thirty. However one of us had a slight accident with the paint and left looking like a bedraggled green smurf.

John the ranger has been in touch since to say thanks for a job well done and promises us more painting in the future, so maybe I’ll see you there. 

Text by Tim. Photo's by Adrian.

          

Quiz at Victoria Baths on Thursday 22 September 2016

For September's social six of us went to a fundraising quiz at Victoria Baths in Longsight.  We do one or two workdays each year at the Baths and this was the second time we had visited for a social (the first time being to see Romeo and Juliet in September 2014).

Teams were limited to four and so Sue and Neil supported Team MNTV (Daniel, Megan, Kate and Uta) from the bar.  The quizmaster was Anne Hegerty from ITV's The Chase, the 1000th episode of which she said is airing very soon.

Kate, Megan, Anne Hegerty, Daniel and Sue

The quiz was hard and we didn't do particularly well (we were nearer last of the 12 teams than first) but were chuffed to know an answer that Anne confessed she didn't know (that 'uncle' is a slang word for pawnbroker).  By happy chance we did very well in the raffle that followed the quiz and each of us took home a prize!

Before leaving Neil took us on a short tour of the Males Second Class pool and the Turkish Baths where we saw the beautiful Angel of Purity stained glass window and the Aeratone (the country's first jacuzzi).

Thanks to Neil for bringing the quiz to our attention and to Sue for organising our participation.

Daniel

Fencing removal at Styal on Sunday 18th Sept 2016

Ten of us were removing fencing around the fields on High Bank Farm, which is a new purchase to the National Trust on the Styal estate.

The Trust is expanding the woodland edge around the fields and a new fence had been installed further into the fields in the morning.

We finished removing a fence near the river which we started a few weeks ago, and in the afternoon we went into a field on the other side of the path and removed a length of fence there.
It was a great workday and a lovely day to be outside working hard:-)

Text and photo's by Adrian.

Tree and brash clearance at Lyme Park on 11th September 2016

We accomplished two jobs at Lyme today: in the morning we removed a fallen sweet chestnut in Crow Wood and in the afternoon cleared Corsican pine logs and brash from a plantation near the main carpark.

The Crow Wood job was necessitated by last week's winds toppling a 50-year old sweet chestnut.  It demolished another tree on the way down and since then the rangers had chainsawed the trunks and branches into small pieces.  By forming a fireman's chain we moved the debris up a small slope onto the tractor trailer that Jamie drove to the bonfire pile.  Three trailer loads were needed to clear away the whole lot.  During the log removal Tim disturbed and caught a toad!

Sweet chestnut cuttings in Crow Wood

After lunch we moved to the 'second plantation on the left of the main drive' - passing MNTV's 30th birthday oak and plaque - and spent a couple of hours moving Corsican pine logs and brash out of the plantation.

Fallen logs made a comfortable perch for lunch

The pines have recently been heavily thinned out and we were clearing out the cuttings.  A few trunk stumps have been left in place for the stags to rub their antlers on.  The maturer trees that the rangers want to become established further have all been protected by wooden tree guards to prevent damage by deer.  During the afternoon Tim disturbed and caught another toad!

Corsican pines in the second plantation

The weather was beautiful all day and everybody enjoyed themselves.  We are next at Lyme on 2nd October.

Daniel

Tree guard painting at Hare Hill, Sunday 4th Sept 2016

Nine enthusiastic MNTVer's turned up at Hare Hill today ready for painting more tree guards.

John Mann, the lead Ranger at Hare Hill, met us in the car park and explained that we would be continuing the painting of tree guards, this time in North Park. The Rag Wort had already been pulled so it we just needed to wire brush and then paint as many tree guards as we could.

We really got stuck in and, after lemon drizzle for coffee break followed by more tree guard painting and a well deserved lunch break, by the end of the day 12 tree guards had been wire brushed but we only had enough of the water-based Cuprinol to paint 10 of them - shame!

Tim modelling a wheelbarrow 'chair!'

John also entertained us telling us of how he was trying to make an orange wheel out of equipment he had on site because the Tour of Britain was going past Hare Hill on the Tuesday afternoon; we left him pondering what best to do.

A lovely day was had by all:-)

Wharfedale Weekend - burning laurel in the Yorkshire Dales: 26-28th August 2016 (Bank Holiday weekend)

A fire, a storm and a Lentil Stew - 6 travel to Wonderful Wharfedale

Participants: Sue B, Tim O, Louise L, Neil B, John W and Ally H. Rangers were Peter and Roisin.

Staying at the Town Head Barn in Buckden.

It started on Friday night with a meal in the Buck Inn, 4 of us sat down to a very tasty meal and just after we had ordered John appeared so we added his order to ours and set about swapping stories. At a just before 8 pm Neil, Sue and Ally headed back to base as Louise was due to arrive at that time. Tim and John W stayed at the Buck Inn and tried the Cider and Beer.
Saturday dawned bright but cloudy and the task was lopping and burning laurel in Redmire Wood.

Redmire Wood was a short walk along the river from the basecamp and was created for Buckden House which was the residence of Sir John Charles Ramsden and his wife during 1831-1879.  The wood was cared for by the Stansfield Family until 1938.  The woods were used as a pleasure park and so had lots of interesting trees from all over the world.  There are carriage tracks going up the side of the hill for people of yester year to enjoy views of the valley.  It was this we were trying to get back.  It will never be as it was as there are some very large trees, some of which are quite rare.

The laurel had been left for quite some years and was out of control and so we were getting rid of it.  We did this by lopping and sawing our way through the big and small bushes and burning it. We spent the morning chopping, sawing, dragging and burning the laurel. 

We ate our lunch by the fire on a flat area of ground and swapped stories, during the afternoon we carried on lopping, sawing and burning. We put the larger branches in piles to form wildlife habitats or insect hotels. The thinner longer branches were piled up and cut up  with loppers and then put on the fire.

At about 2.30pm we decided to stop cutting so we could burn all the laurel that we had lopped and cut. Some of us headed back to the base camp shortly afterwards Neil and John stayed to tend the fire until it had burnt down enough to be left and wouldn’t set the rest of the forest on fire. Once we were all back at the basecamp we decided a trip the pub was deserved so the 6 of us headed for a swift pint. Ally, Sue and Neil headed back to base early to make the dinner and were joined just as dinner was ready. We dined that evening on Lentil Stew and Pasta with Salad, desert was Meringue with Strawberries and Cream.

Ally "chillin' "

That night there was a thunder storm which woke some people up but others didn’t hear and didn’t believe had happened.

Sunday dawned cloudy with moisture in the air it didn’t stay like this long though.  We breakfasted on cereal and toast with bacon and eggs available too. Our Ranger today was Roisin, she met us at 9.20 at the barn with two other Volunteers Simon and John.  We spent the morning carrying on with the work we had started the day before, but because there had been rain during the night and the ground was slippery we split onto two levels. John W and Neil got the fire going and we started lopping, sawing and dragging. The fire didn’t really get going with all the prodding and poking so we had a coffee break during which Roisin produced some of her cakes she had entered into the competition at Malham Show where she had been the day before with a stall for the National Trust. Unfortunately she didn’t win any prizes for her cakes we of course gave her first prize, during our break the Fire finally got going so we carried on burning. At about 12.30 Roisin took Sue, Louise, Ally, Simon and John to see five very tall Giant Redwood trees and den area.

We finished working at 1pm ate our lunch and then headed back at the basecamp. Cleared up and Tim, Louise and Sue headed for home.  That left Neil, John W and I as we were staying Sunday night we ended our weekend with a trip to the pub for our evening meal.

Many thanks to all who came and the Rangers for not cancelling the weekend due to small numbers. I look forward to seeing more of you next year.

Text by Ally.

Bracken clearance at Hayfield on Sunday 21st August 2016

Three staunch volunteers turned up at the Sett Valley car park to meet Vicky the ranger and her boss Matt. After making the short drive to Kinder reservoir we alighted the land rover and made the short but steep climb to the first worksite, the hill side overlooking the reservoir, and affording spectacular views over the moor towards Kinder downfall.
The job was to clear the bracken that threatened to swamp the trees that had been planted three years earlier. We had carried out the same task last year and, as we waded through the chest high bracken, our previous efforts were in obvious evidence; the growth of foliage surrounding the saplings being only half the height of the untouched plants.
After completing the first stage we stopped for a brew before walking ¼ of a mile to another area of planting.
Unfortunately the planting here had been less successful with many of the young trees succumbing to the harsh conditions of this more exposed site.
The weather was changeable varying from heavy drizzle to dry but very humid and sticky, so it was a happy but slightly soggy group that made the return journey to the cars.
Thanks to Vicky and Matt for organising a great workday and providing loads of interesting info on the area and the ongoing conservational aims for the property.

Text by Tim. No photo's this week!