Up the hill, down the hill

What more idyllic spot could there be than an English chalk-grassland meadow in June?  Actually, that rather depends on two factors:

• the weather – it is the wettest June in Britain on record; the land needs rain, but there are parts of the country that are copping seriously excess quantities.  We, however, were treated to an (almost) dry, warm morning
• the gradient – the incline on our hill felt like 1 in 3

The task was: ‘upgrade fence enclosing sheep pasture, Pt 1’, ie remove old fence.  Happily, the sheep were busy grazing on the far side of the site – indeed on the other side of the motorway – so we could demolish the old fence with impunity.  (‘We’  = WGG + community-volunteering team from the Environment Agency.)  Other parties of volunteers will come along IDC to hammer more posts in the ground and erect the new fence. 

Removing staples from posts was job enough, but removing the posts themselves ...

The fencing itself, of course, had to be peeled off the posts; and redundant wire and posts carried down to the landie to be taken away:

Inevitably tool wanted was at bottom of hill, so we were well carting old material down and the new up.  One roll of fencing (“Just roll it to the truck, it’s easier than carrying”) took a bid for freedom (Oh no! D-d-d-d-dive!) and a Green-Gymmer was seen chasing it down the hill, only to schlepp it back up to the landie. 

Thanks to the help from our friends from the EA, it was a very productive morning.  With 19 of us working away, we had most of the old fence and posts out before the half-time break.  Tea time featured a feast – and discussion of knee support?

Afterwards, back to work.  Uphill.

The priority now was to dig holes for the two new strainers and get them in.  Even with half a dozen workers in attendance on each post, this was no mean feat.  They sunk one, and got the second well on the way.  [Session Leader says, “Well done teams” – Ed.]

The rest of the party tackled some rabbit fencing, cutting it away at ground level on hands and knees, so as not to rip up the precious turf.  While others trimmed the hedgerow - a thorny mass/mess of rose, brambles, hawthorn - to give line of sight between posts one and two.  

So now it’s over to the next crew.  It has all been nicely set up for them – though they may still get that Grand Old Duke of York feeling: it comes with the territory.

A thorny time

We can be real spoilsports at Green Gym.

Remember last week, when one of our jobs was to fix a gate?  There was good reason for it: to prevent cattle leaving their assigned pasture for another, greener field.  But they had been having such fun, playing with the loose mechanism of the gate-handle!

Since then?  A pattern of fresh cowpats leading up to one side of the gate, but not the other promised well.  The Green-Gym photographer got some ‘direct looks’ when next exercising human privilege of walking freely across the site:

We hope the gate now ‘foxes’ the steers sufficiently that they will stay put until the hay cut in the other meadow is done.  Pin and latch on the gate certainly now engage properly.  (Open doors soon shut!)

 

Meantime there are other objects in the field to explore.  This, you might think, is an information board.  But that is only from the human PoV.  Actually, it is a scratching post.  How well it will stand up to being used like that is another matter.  Maybe our next repair job at WCM will be to fix the visitor-information display?

And if, gate having been neatly fixed, other less careful human visitors leave it open anyway? – Overnight, it appeared, on one occasion.  This was the scene played out early next morning:

“Bother!  There’s no way I am going to get to the gate before them”

“Have we met before?”

“I’m sure I recognize you two …”

“I can at least shut the gate behind you before the others cotton on”

“You’re doing a great job on those thistles, but could I persuade you to go back where you belong?”

  

Answer to that last was: “NO!  Not on my own.  Not even with help from a couple of very willing passing members of the public.  I/we could not steer steers back through a gate they did not want to go through – had to leave it to the professional(s).”

At least the rest of the herd had been obliged to stay put.  So it had been worthwhile, Green Gym fixing that gate:

So much for last week’s efforts then!  Today’s session was also with Earth Trust, but at one of their own sites, near their HQ at Wittenham: North Farm, River of Life project, around one of the backwaters which had been re-created.  Task: “keeping on top of the thistle burden which comes with any excavation work.”  

Volunteers were assured beforehand that “It’s a lovely time to be there as it’s buzzing with dragon and damsel flies.”  So it probably is, on a sunny day.  As on our previous visits, in 2018, when it was lovely blue sky, warm/hot, and very hard ground from which to pull thistles.

Today was not a sunny day.  Grey sky, cold wind, damp with added drizzle at coffee time, and long wet grass.  But the task was the same: to pull up the ‘naughty’ thistles and leave the ‘good ones’ behind!  [Is there such a thing as a ‘good thistle’? – Ed.]

 

Tim briefs the team

We were a small group today: just ten of us.  Unlike previous weeks, when we were spread out over large sites, this week we seemed to be huddled together quite a bit of the time – perhaps in the hope of keeping warm!

The good thing about the recent rain was that the ground was much easier to work with, and we were able to pull many of the thistles up by hand.  Some Gymmers still like to use Lazy Dogs, either to loosen the roots of the thistles or simply to lean on.

The offending thistles were chucked into large buckets and then unceremoniously dumped over the fence at the edge of the field.

Thistle stew anyone?