Acorns! Acorns!

In an ongoing effort to cut costs and be more sustainable, I have planted 360 plus acorns, all gathered in the Lake District this week. Half of them were already rooting. The main danger now is that mice will get them, I lost half those I planted last year to mice. For this reason they will be kept above ground level until growing. The root trainer trays have been in the Society's possession for some years, but haven't been used, and the compost to fill them came from expired tomato grow-bags on local allotments. So there were no costs at all. If they all grow then this will save the Society £190.

Nursery work

The start of tree planting is still a couple of weeks away, when we can get all our financial ducks in a row, and get trees delivered. In the meantime we have been doing essential work at the Nursery.

We spent the morning moving vast amounts of wood chippings created by the contractors who cleared the site for fencing. Also we acquired a large number of big, heavy, slightly broken paving slabs from the local cricket club -these will be used to create an area of hard standing for us to work on and store materials on. And we began to clear and level off the area for that hard standing.

All very, very, hard work. But very gratifying in its way (I hope I still think that when I am aching tomorrow morning)

Should Heidi be forbidden from wearing that t-shirt again though? Sober environmental types us.

Nursery work

This morning we busied ourselves tidying the nursery, and discussing the groundworks that need doing. As you can see, we had a bit of a play with the blue drainage pipe, working out how much we had and how far it would go. We also cleared rubbish, and gathered rocks from the cleared area, to use as hardcore for over and around the pipe. Picture below is of me trying to pull up some of the vast amounts of black liner which was buried in the soil. We intend to install the drainage pipe and sort out the hard standing work area on the first day of the season, Saturday 30th October.

Button badge design

More photoshop fun. I designed a button badge, using some of Dan's artwork.

Huck Hill signs and waymarkers

A lovely morning, a lovely morning to carry very heavy bags of cement, signs and fenceposts up a big steep hill. Good workout that.

We were at Huck Hill installing signs and waymarkers for a permissive path joining two public footpaths. Iain the landowner joined myself, Philip and Neil.




Dave, AKA Private Frazer, was there too early on, warning us of the Tree Society's impending financial doom. But, just like in Dad's army, we think he is overstating the matter a bit.

Cake was a very nice coconut and chocolate cream thing.

While on site we also took a look at the scrapes and the liner that will form ponds to encourage biodiversity. Scrapes have been done, though the landowner would like to enlarge them. The liner is on site (as pictured) but has yet to be installed.

Now that the scrapes are done, liner on site, and waymarkers and signs installed, the Kirklees Environment Grant Scheme parts of this project are now complete - barring final approval. There is a small amount of money left in the budget, which we hope Kirklee's will agree can be spent on replacing some failed trees on this site.

Nursery developments

The palisade fencing has now been completed, it runs continuously from the main gate round the top and far edges of the site until the boundary meets gardens. There is no longer gate access from the top far corner. The shipping container has been levelled. The old sheds have been moved, and damaged, so we might need a bonfire at some point, with all the wood and rubbish in there from the work, then we could have a pretty good November 5th bonfire. Plus we have room for fireworks? Just a thought. Anyway, the new gate is still a work in progress, and further landscaping might be in the pipeline. All looks a bit bare at the moment, and could benefit from further tidying.

Fieldhouse site visit

A Thursday evening site visit to Fieldhouse, to meet up with Luke from Beneficial Tree Care. Beneficial have recently cut down a lot of the dead trees at the back of the site for us, part of the process of making the site safe for public access. There were a lot of dead trees, and so, as you can see, there is a lot of timber. We discussed Luke removing timber from the site, and the possible use of the site in the future for a community woodfuel project. Access to the site seemed to be the main sticking point. There is no access for any medium to large vehicle. A quad bike and trailer would perhaps be the answer. Funding for the project did include some money for improved access, but only enough to pay for a new gate and stile.

Nursery carnage

Got call from Dave about 4pm this afternoon. He had seen tree work being done at the nursery. So I whizzed down there and found Luke and his Beneficial crew razing the top half of the nursery to the ground. According to Luke the allotment grant money that Julian had said we would be getting, was got, and needed spending pronto. So the area designated for the storage containers had to be cleared. All the top area of the nursery has been deforested, including the copse by the entrance. The sheds are now somewhat exposed. The horse tail bed at the far end of the top has also been destroyed, along with the small trees that were planted there. I phoned Philip and he and Ali zoomed up to have a look, Luke and crew had gone by then though.

On the whole, though a bit of a shock, it looks like a positive development, as we should now get the secure storage and fencing that we asked for.