Not my finest hour

Escape from the Water meadows

Another cold frosty start so Mike decided on a visit to the Water Meadows site cleared by the Wildlife  Trust. Plan was to cut, stack and bring back the cord wood in the tractor trailer and the Ford 4x4 trailer. Had extra help with Nigel {from NT IT dep} so I drove down to the site with him and Mike followed with the tractor. It became clear that the ground at site was too wet, a thaw was taking place contrary to expectations, this certainly made driving tricky especially with loaded trailers. Decision was made to load both trailers while we were there and stack the rest for later collection, when the ground was drier. Good to spot one of the local herons, couple of Red Kites, Buzzard and a small herd of fallow deer. There was no easy return journey via the outward route so Mike chose an alternate route alongside Century wood. It did mean the tractor towing the 4x4 with trailer and crossing the old Sherborne Brook  via a narrow wet , muddy access point with a ditch on one side. This was my 'waterloo' and having steered the 4x4 safely round , missing the ditch I slid too close to the boundary fence hitting 4 posts with the trailer and  damaging the new trailer! Finally drove out of the area onto firmer ground but leaving some deep muddy tracks in our wake.  Wasn't a difficult decision to spend the afternoon thinning in Snow Bottom Belt  {last thinning of the season} where the ground was hard! Nigel witnessed first hand some tree felling with the first examples requiring much effort in bringing the trees to ground. An eventful day but at least an interesting experience for Nigel, certainly not boring!

riverside restoration at Greystones

Joined the Wildlife Trust team at Greystones farm today where Will and Tom were leading the task to create faggots/facines to be used in riverside restoration at a later date {as in picture above, for river Eye}. Pleasant walk down to the meadows area, wick moor , where plenty of material was available for shaping into the required faggots. On this occasion the ground was pretty firm so no repeat of the water meadows experience. We divided up into 3 teams and after a quick briefing on the approach, which reminded me of the use of the slip knot , we all got stuck in. We had an interesting team dynamic and although not the most productive team it was entertaining! It was good at break time to be able to wander down to the river Eye where we could see how the restoration was to work. So a good day with another new experience to add to my repertoire. Not much wildlife to report on although  evidence of water vole was found by Will and  I spotted a single Red Kite, the cold weather still dominating though.