Saturday, 8 December 2012

Green Hill Clough, Marsden

Cath, Andrew, and Philip hard at work. 
Today we were up above Marsden, with almost a clear view east to Selby. We were planting more trees on a Forestry Commission Woodland grant scheme funded site, in an attempt to bring it up to the necessary standard. We were: Andrew, Philip, Geoff, Cath, Hap, Julia, me, Ben, Stephen, Dave, Duncan and Guy.Because of a mix up on my part we only had 115 trees to plant, which we did, but we were supposed to plant 150 so will have to pop back up there sometime to finish off. Philip, Geoff and I then visited a householder in West Slaithwaite, with a view to planting some hedging and trees for them later in the Season.

Saturday, 1 December 2012

Finishing up at Butterley

Trevor and Dianne. You can see previous weeks new
planting in the shade on the opposite side of the clough.
Our last week (for this year) at Butterley, and we planted 136 trees exactly. 16 Oak, 30 Rowan, 15 Hazel and 75 Scots Pine. Trees and stakes guards were again provided by the Woodland Trust and Marsden Cuckoo's nest charity shop. We were: myself, Trevor, Geoff, Remy, Ben, Cath, Jess, Dianne, Dave and Hap. Cake was a very nice apple flapjack, made with the last of the apples from the nursery. Glorious sunny morning, and not too cold at all. Dave did some more pruning work on the Larch in Golf course phase one, and disturbed an owl. We ate more of the cake when we got back to the pub.

Saturday, 24 November 2012

(Butterley) Reservoir dogs

Trevor, Duncan and canine friends.

Second week at Butterley Reservoir, planting Woodland Trust Trees with Cuckoo's Nest shop stakes and guards. We planted 120 Birch, Oak and Hawthorn. We were: Remy, Ben, Hap, Trevor, Peter, Stephen, Dianne, Philip, myself and Duncan. Dave was the other side of the reservoir doing formative pruning. Cake was a very nice pecan nut and fruit cake. Late on in the morning we were joined by a pack of errant hounds, we don't know where they came from or where they went, but they were friendly enough while they were with us. Memo to self: 5 trees on site still need deer guards.
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Saturday, 17 November 2012

First day of planting of the season

Some of today's trees stakes and guards. Dianne digging. And in the very far top left, some other volunteers on the far side of the clough.
Today we were at Butterley Reservoir for the first day of planting of the Season. We were..myself, Philip, Dave, Duncan, Dianne, Jess, Cath, Geoff, Remy, Hap, Ben and Peter. After some organizational two-ing and fro-ing we settled down to plant on two spots facing each other across the clough. There were some attempts at shouted communication across the divide, but mobile phones worked a bit better. We planted around 150 trees total, and have a similar number left to do next week, but the heavy carrying and stressful organisation is done. Trees were provided by the Woodland Trust, and the stakes and guards used were funded by the Marsden Cuckoo's nest charity shop. Cake was provided by my mother, as usual, and was cherry sponge.