Task Reports

Today we had to postpone our trip to Sydenham Place Wildlife Garden as we needed to carry on with work on the roof of the shed. 

We will probably be at the orchard (in the allotments on Bowling Pk Drive) , but may change at short notice. We will email and update the website.

[At this stage we would like to keep the schedule for September flexible. We need to get the shed built by the end of the month. Some of this will be in the workshop, but when we come to the actual construction it will need to be consecutive days, in dry weather. We will email specific work days as we progress. If you only receive the programme by post and want to be kept informed then please ring the office to let us know].

An update with proposed work days over the next week as we approach the actual construction of the shed. 

Friday 21st Sept; we will go to the orchard in the morning. We will be fixing the base plate in position and organising the area around the shed for the build next week.
We will also be harvesting, and carrying on with hedge cutting etc.
We will be returning to Culture Fusion by early afternoon  - there is still more to do in the workshop, but also essential work to remove dandelion seedlings from the meadow.

Monday 24th Sept; the straw is being delivered in the morning. I don't know exactly what time but they will give us a bit of notice. My plan is to be at Culture Fusion from 9am, working in the workshop until they ring, and then going to the orchard. If you are able to help unload the straw adn move to the orchard, either come to Culture Fusion early on, or I can text you once I know an arrival time. Please let me know if you can help. Once the straw is safely stored we will return to Culture Fusion to continue with the timber work. Unfortunately we are behind schedule, but cannot start to assemble the straw until all the timber work is ready. 

Tuesday 25th Sept; workshop to complete (hopefully) the timber work. Who knows, we might even be in a position to go to the orchard. 

Wednesday 26th Sept; we really hope to be at the orchard today starting to assemble the straw. I cannot predict how long it will take to get the bales in place, so either today or tomorrow we will get the roof plate in place. 

Thursday 27th Sept; orchard, roof plate and rafters. 

Friday 28th Sept; at orchard  - roof, fascias etc (!!). We may even start some of the rendering, but you will have to wait for a further update for a clearer timescale on this. 

Saturday and Sunday - lets see...

While we at the orchard there are of course the regular Sept jobs; harvesting, grass cutting, hedge cutting, general weeding. 

Please can you let me know if and when you are planning to come. The above is an estimated plan, but those of you who have been involved to date will realise how over optimistic I have been with progress to date. I will give updates to progress and each day's work locations to those that plan to come or want to be kept informed, rather than to my entire email group.

I'm pretty confident in saying that this is the one and only opportunity for you to be involved in building a straw bale structure as part of a BEES programme. Don't miss out! 

We will probably be at the orchard (in the allotments on Bowling Pk Drive) , but may change at short notice. We will email and update the website.

[At this stage we would like to keep the schedule for September flexible. We need to get the shed built by the end of the month. Some of this will be in the workshop, but when we come to the actual construction it will need to be consecutive days, in dry weather. We will email specific work days as we progress. If you only receive the programme by post and want to be kept informed then please ring the office to let us know].

We will probably be at the orchard (in the allotments on Bowling Pk Drive) , but may change at short notice. We will email and update the website.

[At this stage we would like to keep the schedule for September flexible. We need to get the shed built by the end of the month. Some of this will be in the workshop, but when we come to the actual construction it will need to be consecutive days, in dry weather. We will email specific work days as we progress. If you only receive the programme by post and want to be kept informed then please ring the office to let us know].

We are going to be at Culture Fusion today, working in the workshop on the timberwork for the shed. 

[At this stage we would like to keep the schedule for September flexible. We need to get the shed built by the end of the month. Some of this will be in the workshop, but when we come to the actual construction it will need to be consecutive days, in dry weather. We will email specific work days as we progress. If you only receive the programme by post and want to be kept informed then please ring the office to let us know].

An area of moorland we've improvedA lovely day for our last visit to cut bracken this summer.

Undoubtedly we have not covered the same amount of ground now we no longer have an auto-scythe, but we have still made a good impression, adding to many of the existing piles of composting bracken. We use a mixture of scythes, slashers and sickles, with some of the sparser areas being pulled by hand.  I walked down to where we had started off in 2002 – we have cut an impressive patch, creating space for heather, bilberry and crowberry.

I didn’t achieve my ambition of glancing upon a short-eared owl silently quartering the hillside (it’s been years since I have seen one), but we disturb quite a few red grouse and could see buzzards over Rombalds Moor.

We thought it would be a good idea to tackle this muddy task before the pond refilled with autumn rain.

So, yes it was easier to work in the deeper areas, but it was still muddy! And hard work digging, wheelbarrowing and carrying the buckets away from the pond. The aim is to create a channel through the pond and an area where deep water can form and stand when the summer rainfall is sufficient (i.e. not this year). 

The silt traps were emptied first, and whilst we didn’t manage to finish the trench, an excellent start was made, and we hope to arrange for more volunteers to complete this. The day was punctuated with heavy showers, but despite rain at the end of the day the gloves and waterproofs will need a good clean! 

NO TASK  - sorry, we are on holiday

Proper Baildon Moor weatherA rainy day today, but still successful progress in cutting areas of bracken and raking the arisings into the piles. 

I filled a couple of carrier bags of semi-composted bracken to mulch the blueberries that I bought at Apple Day last year. One day it would be nice to make more of the bracken we have harvested but the logistics and effort wouldn’t be insignificant.