A whole lot of straw

Two trailer-loads of straw, to be precise.

Last week we were tree-planters.  This week, farmers – or rather hands working in a farmyard, to make it a regular farmyard again after hosting members of the public during open days.

Weather: aaargh, awful for photography!  Not so great for the workforce either, but we enjoyed the luck of the draw with tasks today, for many of them had us working in a straw-yard, under a roof.

Let’s start with some pics from last Tuesday, now Editor and computer keyboard are reunited, to remind ourselves of what Green-Gym weather is supposed to be like.  First stop last week was the village green.  We had trees, we had volunteers aplenty – and one spade between us.  So our first move was to ‘hurry up and wait’, and watch a demonstration of how to plant a tree:

When the missing spades arrived, it was not quite all hands to work, for there was a bit of a disparity between number of volunteers and number of tasks.  Work around the green took us up to tea-break.  It was not quite the hedgerow-planting which most of us had anticipated on the basis of planting done in previous years on other sides of the site:

After the break, at our second site for the day, it was hedgerow planting.  We had volunteers aplenty; and we had spades – but no trees.  So our first move was to ‘hurry up and wait’, and watch while volunteers discussed which old trees could be taken down to make room for fresh planting:

“That’s not a tree.  It’s an ex-tree.”

When the missing treelets arrived, then it was down to work again:

So on to this week’s session.  A damp, miserable start to the day that even beautiful apple blossom couldn’t brighten up!

Never mind, everybody came well prepared for the weather.  All of us kitted out with weatherproof jackets and hoods …

and some of us steel-toe-capped as well, courtesy of new safety boots:

This was the scene outdoors before we went into action.  During the ‘lambing weekends’ open to the public, this had been a children’s play-area:

The big task was to collect the small-size straw bales and move them via the trailer to the lambing shed.

Shifting even small-size bales by hand provided a good work-out.  “This is the exercise of which you write!” commented one volunteer.  It also gave the site warden a chance to demonstrate her reversing skills:

Inside the shed, 300+ ewes and lambs were enjoying the comfort of the dry warm straw:

The mini-bales were unloaded and spread around – all by hand, of course.  (“I’ve never thought of myself as a straw man before!”)  And this was all very exciting:

For the younger animals in particular, straw bales = play opportunities:

Then our versatile warden brought a tractor load of hay for their feed.  This had to be spread in the feeding racks:

Volunteers also had the opportunity to learn a bit more about the various breeds of sheep present.  Most of them – the sheep that is, not Green-Gymmers – were Lleyns, a breed originally from the Llŷn Peninsula, which sticks out into the Irish Sea from north-west Wales.  Lleyns are popular with British farmers for their sweet temperament, also a marked tendency to produce twins.  (But there are not too many of those this season: pasture too poor last year because of the drought.)  The other sheep in the shed were Texels (short tails, stocky) and Poll Dorset (short legs, “spongy” wool).   

Occasionally there was the odd sheep to be moved out of the way first:

Mums were soon tucking into the new hay …

while hopeful lambs looked up and waited to be fed by mum:

We humans enjoyed another lucky break in that our own tea-break was also under cover, but away from the livestock.  Our tea-crate volunteer did a splendid job improvising a service-bar inside one of the log sheds:

In the second half of the session, there were several tidying-up jobs.  Some Green-Gymmers seized hold of brooms and rakes, and swept out trailers and the walkways inside the lambing sheds.

Others headed back to the erstwhile children’s play area, to take down the safety barriers.  These were loaded on to the now straw-free trailer.  First the concrete blocks, then the barriers themselves:

Another job was to construct some more temporary fencing the other side of the shed.  Wire was put in place around an enclosure:

No, what one volunteer is holding there at arm’s length is not a dead rabbit.  It is the leader’s lost glove:

Finally, the trailer was closed up; and we all went home to get warm and dry again.

Cake and Cocktails

By ‘C’:

“We all have our melting point!” declared one volunteer.

Fortunately, no melting point – of either volunteers or victuals – was reached today.  For the north wind doth blow, and in May here that typically means blue skies horizon-to-horizon, without it getting too hot.

Today was no exception.  It was a lovely day to be out in the countryside: blue sky, fresh-faced leaves, cow parsley on the verges now bordering on 4' tall …

Perfect Green-Gym weather in fact, ordered specially ;) along with the cake, to mark a member’s birthday:

“Not quite sure what state the emoji is meant to represent!”

And the ‘cocktails’?  Mocktail jellies: piña colada, cuba libre, and watermelon daiquiri flavour!

Today’s location: an undulating section of the Chilterns scarp.  Task: fencing.  With plier, hammer, and spade, of course, oh and one or two other tools, rather than mask and foil. 

Many of us recognized at once the particular spot, as one we had worked on before.  Some knew one side of the corner to be the end of a long perimeter-fence-line, the upper section of which we had cleared of encroaching vegetation before starting on the business of replacing old timber-posts and wire with shiny new metal posts + fresh wire:

Others knew the short length, set at 90° to the main fence-line, to be one where in the past we had carried out ‘first-aid’ work, replacing some of the posts to give the fencing a few years’ extra life:

So part of our work today was to undo work which we – or previous WGG-teams – had laboured on!  [I think this is the first time this has happened – Ed.]

This morning, one group concentrated on putting in the new posts to complete the line for the perimeter fence.  The larger force made a start on the field-end fence-line.  Rather a lot of vegetation clearance was required first:

Inevitably this meant that some ambulant creatures had to find a new habitat for the timebeing:

Why did this creature not just fly away?

Interesting specimens of plant-life, which naturally cannot relocate, we were careful to work round, eg orchids and wild strawberries:

Some of the posts we could readily identify as WGG-handiwork: newer timber; sunk in solidly; and wire attached by staples which had been left proud.  Where the work had been done by our Green-Gym forebears, this made life much easier for those engaged on the intricate task of removing staples:

It made life much more difficult, though, for those tasked with lifting a post out again:

At half-time, we demonstrated how to recycle fence-posts.  Those already extracted, made an excellent low work-top for the tea-crate volunteer:

By session end we could see that we had surprised ourselves with the amount of progress which had been made on both fronts. 

The perimeter fence was particularly pleasing.  It will look even better when it is finished, including a garnish of a single strand of barbed wire along the top:

The other section had been prepared as far as the eye could see, for the next work-party to continue with putting in fancy new posts in all the places marked: