Another reason why it’s called Green Gym

By ‘C’:

When you get home again, and peel off outer layers of clothing, to find they have been re-designed by Mother Nature with her own range of green beading – that is when you know you have been at Green Gym:

Our gym-site today was one we had visited before.  Last time, we were clearing vegetation from the fence-line – rather a lot of small trees, as I recall, and branches overhanging from bigger trees nearby.  That had allowed site staff to examine the fence more closely, and determine its condition.  Not good was the verdict: too many places where wire was holding up posts.  (In most fencing systems, it is the other way round!)

So at session-start we looked once more, for the last time at this stretch of fence:

Our task: to remove it – “no 5-minute job” – ahead of a sparkly new fence being put in.

Hunters, armed with shears and slashers, went out to cull the vegetation which had in places started to make a come-back along the fence-line:

Staples were then removed.  Where possible, with fencing-plier and hammer:

  Otherwise, fence and layers of wire were separated by wire-cutters:

The first strands of wire to be removed were the barbed wire, to obviate any injury from a worker falling on to it by slipping, tripping, or simply losing balance:

Then the stock- and rabbit-wire could safely be removed:

Thankfully, the very warm weather of the previous few days was over.  The odd spot of rain landed from almost as soon as we had got together at the start of the session.  Mid-morning, sporadic precipitation developed into definite warm drizzle:

This reminds me of summer camping holidays with the kids.

– You’re having that good a time?

By tea-break, the experienced Green-Gymmers had to admit that what was falling out of the sky could reasonably be described as “rain”.  Some even experimented with seeing if there was any spot in the vicinity which was a tad drier, while others just wondered who’d stop the rain:

Actually the rain did stop for several breaks during the second half.  Which gave more opportunity to appreciate what a lovely spot today’s gym-site is: