Creative recycling

by 'C':

“Perfect Green-Gymmers’ weather” this morning.  Note our session leader on the right, in her shirtsleeves:

It may have been the bright weather which led us to make an unusually bright start to the session the moment most of us had arrived, rather than waiting for the hour of 10 to strike.  Indeed it was such a prompt start that the first pass-by of wheelbarrows had happened while some of us were still getting our kit sorted:

The main task – as usual at this site – was removing excess watercress, so that the water channels run freely.  With 14 of us on site, we managed to work a whole stretch, from road- to footbridge:

Not that the water flowed very fast, even where channels were cleared.  The site warden told us that the water level in the stream is “almost dangerously low. ” (Or was it “disastrously low”?)

Extracted watercress (of a length which caused several volunteers to liken it to “spaghetti”) was removed to the nearest compost heap.  The heaps too were under active management.  Here the duty officer, compost-heap is trampling one down to an even level:

The secondary task was recycling willow rods into makings for a model dragonfly:

Very versatile stuff is willow – and we like processing ‘risings’ into usable materials, for any purpose that’s legal and decent.  We were glad to hear that all the willow bundles harvested last time we were on site here, have found good homes.

The local robin also clearly believes in making the most of by-products from Green-Gym.  He patrolled the areas around our wheelbarrowing, snapping up any tasty bits from the heaps of vegetation.  Thus, Robin met robin (“We make a good team”):

Among the litter we (sadly) expect to find on sites, including portable Faraday cages, was one piece which made me smile.   

In the undergrowth: a mug discarded by a worker (not one of ours) on a previous occasion.  It had emblazoned on the back, a neat health & safety message, ‘Maintain a clean and tidy work environment’:

We did: the mug was taken home, scrubbed clean, and re-used.

Mini Green-Gym

By ‘C’:

We knew we hadn’t finished the job the time before last.  We left the scene at session end, secure in the knowledge that another group would come along after us.

They didn’t in fact finish the job.  So, here we were again:

It was brighter than last time.  Also considerably colder.  (“Why was the snowman looking at the box of carrots?” – “Because he was picking his nose!”)

It did not take us long to decide that today was going to be a 2-tea-break day.  Warmth from within was very much required, when for the most part we could only work in turns, fresh pairs of hands taking over as volunteers grew weary.  For that reason – also because this was an extra, ad-hoc session – it was only some of us who assembled of a Thursday morning to see if we could complete the replacement of gate-posts begun on 14 November.  (How will we remember tomorrow that it’s Friday, not Wednesday?) 

The ‘hanging post’, which we had left temporarily in place, had been finished off.  As far as we could make out, however, no further progress had been made on the ‘clanging post’.  So our first task was to deepen the hole, to 3 feet, and extract remnants of old post.  Having learned from experience, we deployed an even greater variety of tools and methods. 

As the hole deepened, among the Green-Gym chatter was some speculation about the effect this was having on the test match in Australia.

Some of the extract was chalk.  Other bits, although small, were clearly remains of previous gate-post:

It’s wood!

– Yes, but is it Norwegian wood?

After a good hour’s toil, we had still not managed to get down as far as the bottom of the previous post.  (“There’s plenty of chalk, but where’s the blackboard?”)  Time for a first round of refreshments, courtesy of Mr Kipling:

Do you like Kipling?

“I don’t know: I’ve never kippled.

Almost as soon as work resumed, the breakthrough came.  This may not look spectacular:

But it was the first lump of wood to have come out which showed the bottom edge of the former post. 

The end is in sight?

– That’s beginning to sound like a song: ‘The end, my friend …’

After that, the rest of the post seemed to surrender without a fuss – or at least without insisting on being taken out in fragments not much larger than a splinter at a time:

Ah, the caffeine effect!

– No, CAKE!

Meantime, some anxious gazes had been cast at the other post.  It didn’t look quite straight, even allowing for the slope of the ground:

If it had been ‘out’, then we would have had to align ours similarly.  In fact, the spirit level showed that it was perfectly true in the plane which mattered: in relation to the gate.  It was leaning only slightly in the other direction, parallel with the gate:

(In due course, ‘ours’ – the clanging gate – would do exactly the same.)

A couple of items appeared to missing from the fixtures on the hanging post, which seemed odd.  Had the other group run out of time, or been missing a complement of components?

Investigations were undertaken:

Findings appeared to indicate that two of the bolts had sheared off.  That spurred the team to work carefully, so that we did not do the same.

Positions of post and gate were carefully measured:

Then, and only then, was it time to fill in the hole:

This was done with a combination of materials – stones, smashed brick, gravel, and chalk –all tamped down, one layer at a time.  Until at last it could be declared, with confidence, that the post had been properly set:

That’s not going anywhere.

– Well I hope it goes round with the rest of the planet.

– It won’t go round: it’s square.

It was at this point that the work became more technical, with the fitting of the latch.  That called for a change of tools, and even the use of a (battery)power-tool:

“Sounds like being at the dentist”

For the finishing touches – plugging the gap between gate and fence line – it was back to hand tools.  Nails were levered out of a length of timber, straightened, and used to re-attach the rail with its notice to dog-walkers …

and three staples hammered into place, to fix stock-wire to the new post:

All this just gave us just time to admire our handiwork, before knocking off at normal Green-Gym time.  – Except that we did linger a little while longer to let the duty warden in the office know that we were done, and to have another round of re-invigorating caffeine and cake.

Now all that is needed is for someone to re-attach the small green plaque with the field (or is it gate?) number, which we had so carefully salvaged from the old post.