Jobs (and tools) for the Workers

By the Session Leader:

How much was there going to be for us to do this morning?  Last time we were at today’s site – just a month ago – we thought we had completed most of the work.  So we’d be done in a jiffy, and would we need the fancy new piece of equipment we had acquired for digging fence-post holes?

The suggestions initially given for what we could do today were much the same as last time:  

Build up the dead-hedge fence where it is sagging, and cut back nettles
– oh and could you please remove the low tree growing across the woodland path? 

Then we asked, ‘Shall we cut back the ivy and branches over the footpath outside the wall by the road as we did a couple of years ago?’  Answer of course was: ‘Yes please!  And the ivy on the trees’.  So we had plenty to do after all.

At session start, most of the group donned hi-vis jackets, gathered tools, and went outside to investigate the wall.  Some stayed inside the wall, and one or two started on nettles.

Regrettably the photographer [not me this time! – Ed.] failed to take any pics of the group working outside, but did go back afterwards to show how tidy the wall now looked: 

There is still some, Green-Gym-resistant ivy on the top.  It is managing to hold out because it is difficult to access from either inside or outside the perimeter.

Most of the fence was still holding up well, but here was one section needing a lot of TLC

There was little in the way of brash ready to build up the fence, so dead and overgrown branches had to be found:

Sometimes strength rather than tools was all that was needed: 

The usable brash was dragged along to the collapsed fence, some of it a very long way:

Small brash was piled up and ended up on the bonfire that someone else working on site had kindly lit:

At tea break we thought we had lost one member.  Last seen heading off on the other side of the site to tackle nettles:

Company restored to its full complement, we (session leader, especially) could relax!  Once more the plane tree seemed to attract admiration:

Tea-break was also an opportunity to admire the splendid new fence post digging tool, to the chagrin of our Frenchman, who had bought a similar, but more expensive narrow spade for his own use in France.  [‘Un louchet’?  And dare one ask which piece of equipment is ace among spades? – Ed.]

In the second half, nettle bashing continued:

By session end, a good open path through the woods had been cleared:

Instead of finishing early, as some of us had expected, it had been a full morning’s work.  And still there is more to be done: more ivy and small trees to be cleared to open up the woods, and allow the better trees to grow more freely.

Our work is never finished, thankfully.