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| I'm down there in the fog, apparently. |
Dave and I planted all Saturday's leftover plants (nearly 200 of them). It was foggy where we were, but only yards p the lane it was sunny, as per pic.
Totals planted so far 450 Hawthorn, 150 blackthorn, 15 each of Hazel, Dog Rose, Crab apple and Field Maple.
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| My feet, and a load of plants, resting. |
Today we were up above Slaithwaite, beginning some hedge planting.
We were; myself, Jess, Tanya, Stephen K., Stephen M., Steve, Hap, Dave, Geoff, Philip, Michael, Heidi, and Matthew. Plus the owner and two colleagues.
We planted approx. 300 Hawthorn, 100 Blackthorn, 10 Hazel, 10 Crab Apple, 10 Field Maple and 10 Dog Rose.
From now til Christmas it'll be Christmas tunes!
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| Kayleigh and Tanya |
This morning we were in the woods alongside Marsden golf course this morning. Stephen, Dave, Philip, Kayleigh and Tanya were practising with the chainsaws and winch, thinning some small nurse species larch, and felling some leaning and falling over trees. I was across the other side of the clough moving some tree stakes to where they will be needed when we replant some of the wildfire areas.
All the woodland management team were appropriately dressed, to the max.
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| Dave applying tension. |
Afterwards there was the pre-season meeting, and we were joined by Richard, Cath, John, Hap and Jess.
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| Jess sees through us. |
A day of a few parts. Geoff, Stephen, Dave, Hap, Kayleigh, Jess, Tanya and Peter were at the nursery cross cutting and splitting logs.
I met up with Philip and Duncan to go visit a prospective new site.
Then I went up to Scammonden to do a soil depth survey for a planned planting area (required by our patrons, so that they can safely rule out the presence of deep peat).
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| Peter and Geoff admire their own work. |
https://youtu.be/7YvAYIJSSZY
A small crew chopped up wood for wood fuel this morning at the nursery: Dave split some of the big stuff with the hydraulic splitter, Peter, Geoff and Jess chopped logs and Michael stacked them in the wood store. The logs will be seasoned and ready for sale in six months or so. The dense and sinewy cherry proved especially difficult to split and chop, but we three-quarters filled an empty bay by the end. It rained steadily most of the morning but was not unpleasant, though our departure time coincided with some heavier stuff, so was prescient.
Just a crew of three this morning, sawing, splitting and stacking logs.
Myself, Hap and Dave.
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| Kayleigh, Julia, Jess, Dianne, and Tanya. |
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| Golfers, and Stephen. |
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| The end result. |
Today we were at Marsden Golf Club, felling some alder trees that were planted over 20 years ago by the Society, but were now deemed to be shading out one of the tees. We were; myself, Dave, Matthew, Dianne, Kayleigh, Paul, Tanya, Hap, Philip, and Stephen. With very valuable extra help from Mick and his son. And help from the club grounds staff. That was a lot of logs, and hard work.
And we all had our helmets on, when it was appropriate.
Further safety note, the camera lens makes those golfers look closer than they actually were.
Back to Meltham Cop again for more guard removal. The weather seemed to deter folk so just 5 of us this week; myself, Michael, Steve, Dave and Geoff. The sun did appear occasionally, but so too did wind and showers.
This week we (Geoff, Dianne, Peter, Michael, Dave and Stephen) were back at Meltham Cop for a relatively gentle session completing the de-guarding of the easterly end of the site (ME18/16). There is one working session left to do nearer the western, road end, at the top. Geoff found a heavy mallet sticking out the top of a tree guard of a twelve foot high birch amongst a small, dense grove of them; must have been put there for safe keeping after banging the stake in and then forgotten. It is in excellent condition considering it must have been there ten years or more and seen the tree grow past it towards the sky.
We retrieved a few stakes and guards for re-use and returned them to the nursery (along with the mallet) where Jess had spent the morning sowing 500 acorns she gathered locally for future tree planting stock (having done a further 500 at home). Dave took the rest of the rotted and now useless guards straight to the nearby tip.
This sunny Saturday we were at Meltham Cop, gathering plastic tubes and stakes from lots of rowan and whitebeam! We were: myself, Geoff, Cath, Jess, Hap, Dave, Kayleigh, Joanne plus dog, and Steve.
A blogs a kind of diary, so that's my excuse to feature this fried gold one finger synth pop classic.
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| Shelter belt foliage. |
This week we were up above Butterley Reservoir, removing stakes and guards from a farmland shelter belt. Pleasant morning with 300+ tubes reclaimed. Though not so many stakes.
We were: myself, Tanya, Geoff, Hap, Stephen, Paul, and Dave.
Top quality photos by Tanya (as usual).
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| Me and Dave |
We spent the morning processing some of the timber we acquired this week. Cross cutting with chainsaw, spliting with axes, mell, and grenade. We were; myself, Geoff, Kayleigh, Dave, Philip, Stephen and Peter.
Once dried, the wood will be distributed locally in exchange for appropriate cash donations. The money will pay for more trees planted, while keeping people of the Colne Valley warm.
This morning we were at the upper end of the Colne Valley removing plastic tubes and stakes from a mature planting site. We were: myself, Hap, Baljit, Dave, Geoff, Stephen, and Michael.
Stephen, Hap and Baljit had also been collecting felled timber from a site in Fixby.
My favourite tune of the month
A few hours spent at the nursery this morning. Clearing paths that some didn't even know existed.
https://youtu.be/_6ZPVxnBxq0
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| Best time of year for heather flowers. Bit of rain would make the colours pop though. |
Back to Scout for more plastic gathering. We were; myself, Paul, Geoff, Tanya, Kayleigh, Baljit, Hap, Dave and Stephen. Pictures by Tanya. It was pretty hot.
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