More fencing, and a plague of flies

Myself, Dave, Geoff and Ben met at the nursery. We put up a bit more fencing, then split up. Dave and Ben stayed on to tidy the nursery, and myself and Geoff went up to Scammonden. There we removed 48 deer guards and 21 hare guards from failures, from the area nearest to the pines and start of the Scout hut track. We piled up the stakes and guards nicely, and can return to replant using those this winter. Geoff and myself only covered small area of the hillside, but still found 70+ failures that can be replaced. Re-using the stakes and guards in this way will save us a great deal of money, meaning we will be able to plant 2 trees on site for every £1 donated. A £250 pledge from the Green Building Store will enable us to plant 500 trees.

 There were a lot of flies up there though. And lots of nettles. We were very brave.

Fencing masters

Dave despairs of the standard of our workmanship.

So, a Saturday morning spent working on our new Nursery fence. Myself, Remy, Dave, Ben and Philip. Cake was apple flapjack, made with Nursery apples no less. Remy still wasn't impressed. Philip went and bought some post-mix and we erected six posts. Sometimes it was all a bit Eric Sykes, but mostly we got the job done. Then we went to the Sair, and discovered that the jukebox has been re-stocked with stuff like obscure Magazine tracks and Killing Joke songs. Peculiar.

One of the muppets at work, and a soft toy we found in the bushes.

Wood, weeds and woolly hats

Hats for all!

A game of two halves this morning. With myself, Geoff, Jess and Dianne going to Fieldhouse to weed. And Guy, Mandy, Neil and Julia staying at the nursery to do cultivation, weeding and cutting up logs. Homemade oat biscuits were provided for all, and the sun shone for most of the morning. New CVTS woolly hats were snapped up by all, including Trevor who came to the pub afterwards.

Three men in a field picking wild flowers

Me and my bouquet.

Philip, Geoff and myself went to Fieldhouse to strip out Ragwort, and a do bit of weeding. It was stupidly humid and I lost about half my bodyweight in sweat, but there are worse ways to spend a Thursday evening. Almost all the trees are growing despite vigorous competition from Ragwort and grass. Some encroachment by brambles and knotweed along the top edge of the field though. Need to keep an eye on this.