A thousand trees!

This week signalled the change over from thinning & clearing to planting and 'less intrusive to wildlife' activities. So earlier in the week, with Martin, the completion of the fence clearing at Clump farm was the priority. Prior to this an apple tree at the Broadway end of Clump Farm needed cutting back. So having done this we moved back up the hill to complete the fence clearing. True to form the sheep moved in hoping for some food and once again we disappointed them. Have to say the weather was a great improvement on the previous week and we finished clearing early afternoon. This enabled Martin to tackle some much needed thinning of some sizeable ash trees which were impacting the boundary fence of a mixed plantation, close to where we were fence clearing.  Required some nifty chainsaw work but all in a days work for a skilled Ranger.

The Clump!

 Mike back from holiday this week so was pleased to hear we were to start planting ash trees in the East belt. Was quietly confident given I had some experience of planting the odd tree during my work in NT gardens. Began to suspect I had underestimated the scale of tree planting when we loaded up the trailer with stakes and tree protectors.  A quick count of the ash trees to be planted revealed 1000+!, I could hear a stereophonics song forming 'it takes 1 volunteer to plant a thousand trees ...?'. Fortunately Mike revealed we needed to 'heel'  most of them in a temporary trench in the Sherborne nursery area and start the multi phase planting  task with a 100 or so.  So armed with mini 'drivals', spades, stakes and protectors we set off for the East belt.  After a quick briefing from Mike on the approach { he's only planted ~50000 trees in his work for NT}, we began. Not ideal terrain with some thick tree roots and stony ground to combat but we completed the day with 80+ new ash trees planted. Ok Mike planted a few more than me! but I lack the practice.  Couple of interesting statistics came to light in this industrial scale  planting. The first is the funding,  where a Forestry Commission grant contributes towards the costs of the materials & trees  purchased. The second is that of the sapling trees planted only ~ 20% may reach maturity given environment conditions, animals and the need to thin out so only the best ash growth is selected.

Heeling- selection of young ash prior to soil covering

First batch of ash planted,  Mikes in there somewhere

The natives are getting restless!

I'm making another escape attempt as soon as it gets misty!

 Earlier in the week,  Matt the stockman for the Belted Galloways at Crickley, had phoned for Martin's assistance. One of his cows 'specialises' in breaking through weaknesses in fences and had spotted an opportunity in part of the stock fencing adjacent to the wooded area down from the 'fort'. So instead of completing the fence clearing work at Clump Farm Martin and I headed for Crickley Hill armed with the required fencing tools. The approach over two long stretches of stock fencing was to take out the top wire and replace with barbed wire to act as a greater deterrent to the rogue cow pushing at the old fencing posts /fencing. A new fence would eventually be required but for now this would suffice. Some basic clearing with loppers was the first step before some neat work with hammer, staples and the all important Myti Strainer braced against the straining post {not the 'monkey strainer' this time!} to get the required tension in the barbed wire strand. Unfortunately we ran out of barbed wire but a quick visit to Ebworth down the road remedied that and we completed the work before close of play.

As Mike was on leave, yep even Rangers can escape, Martin had the chance to use my spare day to catch up on the fence clearing at Clump farm.  Again the weather was misty but we ploughed on with the work with Martin cutting back the hawthorn, crab apple and eldar  as we advanced down the old boundary fence. At first glance, to my untrained eye, it looked like Martin with chainsaw was on a search and destroy mission. However there is method in the madness as a balance is struck between ensuring a clear ,stable fence line is made but healthy hawthorn,crab apple etc will grow back over time hopefully 'balanced' and not weakening the boundary fence.

Anyone seen the chain saw and fuel

Here's the chainsaw!

Found the fuel

For the first time this week the misty weather relented around lunchtime and the sun came out so we didn't feel so cut off from civilisation.  So after a hard mornings work we took a short break. At this point it became obvious we had quite an audience of the local sheep who obviously had heard about the need for more volunteers and were clearly keen to lend a hand. I did point out to Martin the H&S issues e.g. they weren't wearing steel capped chainsaw boots,  proper chain saw trousers or safety helmets. Anyway the sheep saw the sense in this and decided to take advantage of the new food source we had provided while we continued with the work.  Needless to say in spite of best endeavours we couldn't finish the work but we certainly left a large amount of brash for the ever growing bonfire the tenant farmer is building. Hopefully when lit it won't cause a panic throughout the land.

Gardening at the Lodge!

Lodge Park Sherborne

Another deadline, this time the season opening of Lodge Park next week , meant a slight change and somewhat surprising days work with Mike this week. Wasn't sure what was in store to start with but didn't expect to be wielding a hoe and rake this morning. First job was to weed the old gravel path in readiness for the delivery of fresh gravel. My jaw dropped when I witnessed the ten tons of gravel being delivered and the area Mike hoped to cover. Two positive things in my favour, similar gardening experience at Chastleton,  and the other, Mike's expert use of his tractor to help position the piles of gravel. Between us we made a decent start on the paths, see below, before all ten tons was used up. We finished the day clearing the woodland path using the leaf blower and bow saw plus loppers. Really must get the Park garden volunteers, who are more than capable of doing this,  organised to help do this in the future. 

Freshly gravelled  & weeded path

Meanwhile earlier in the week more 'ranger' like duties with Martin, fence clearing at Clump Farm. Didn't  manage to complete but other important liaison duties intervened. First Martin had to fit in a side trip to Snowshill manor to help direct the drystone wallers and the second was to gain agreement with the tenant farmer at Clump Farm to plant some  oak & ash trees on new ground. Hope to be involved in this planting which along with Mike's planned ash tree planting will balance the winter's more destructive but necessary thinning & clearing work.