This post has no title...just words and piccys.

Today, Friday 8th April, the Trust tenant farmer at Causeway Farm brought three ewes with their day old lambs to the parkland at St. Catherine's.

A well earned rest after a bout of heavy drinking!

 St. Catherine's is very popular with dog walkers so,with the arrival of the livestock, these signs were immediately put up by Trust rangers at access points into the parkland. 

 

With livestock back in the parkland, a priority job was to clear the gravel (that had been washed down in the Winter floods) out of the cattle-grid.

Livestock might have learnt how to negotiate this cattle-grid, as it was full to the brim with gravel over a large area, and wander out onto the road. Normally this cattle-grid is lifted out for cleaning purposes but the gravel had completely covered the fixing bolts...

....so the Spring Clean had to be done the hard way.

Trowels were used to scoop out the gravel between the bars...

...after loosening the impacted gravel with a bar (colour coordinated of course)...

...and or a mattock.

The gravel was used to resurface a boggy section of the nearby footpath.
Recycling at its best!

The gravel was dumped...

...and 'raked'....

...to give a much better surface to this popular footpath.

Work in progress.

After well over two hours of hard work, and a fair amount of empathy from passers-by,* the job is done!
*The following are some of their comments... "Rather you than me"..." Don't envy you that job"..."You'll be ready for the weekend after clearing that lot away"..."Do you always get the best jobs?"...BUT OF COURSE!

(The ramp at the top right hand corner of the cattle-grid is just visible in this image. It is designed to allow hedgehogs and other wildlife to escape from the depths of the grid should they tumble in).

The daffodils in the parkland...a particularly fine display this Spring.

The Jurte at Saint Catherine's.

Yesterday, Central and East lakes Rangers based at Saint Catherine's spent part of the afternoon erecting a 'jurte', with invaluable assistance from Debbie, the Footprint Supervisor, and her two daughters, Rosie, and Hannah back home from university.

Jurtes originate from Germany and look like a cross between a bell tent and a yurt; they are extensively used in Germany as scout tents.

The jurte will be used as a heavy duty shelter for green wood carving courses and for school and family bush-craft camps.

In this image Ray and James are transporting the jurte with all its ancillaries...in the inestimable tracked power barrow... up to the wood above the Footprint building and on to site.

The start of the 'unboxing'.

The main roof section being unwrapped.

The site.

The wild daffodils were dug up to be transplanted out of harm's way.

The three centre poles being lashed together.

The roof being spread out...all 8 metres of it!

"YOU GOT ME IN CHAINS"!

Getting ready to raise the roof.

"...did we do that last bit correctly?  I'm not so sure, but hey ho let's give it a go!"

Debbie, Hannah and Rosie ready to lift up the side poles having attached the guy ropes.

Hannah supporting the wooden side pole while James hammers in the steel peg which will tension the guy rope.

Hammering in the peg.

The almost completed structure. There is an option for side panels but it was considered that keeping the structure open will allow people to feel more in tune with the beautiful surroundings.

The central roof opening which may be used as a smoke vent for wood fires. There is a roof cap that can be fitted in the worst weather conditions.

Finally, today (30th of March) Bruna, Academy Ranger who has recently moved to Saint Catherine's  for a year,  planted up the daffodils that were removed from the site yesterday.

Help from the South lakes Rangers and Volunteers at Birdhouse Meadows.

Recently we met up with rangers from the South Lakes team and volunteers. They had generously offered their help in taking down and removing an old  fence at Birdhouse Meadows, at the north end of Windermere, prior to us putting in a new fence.

As we left our base at St. Catherine's, on our way to meet them, we were struck by the view. Above the cloud inversion from right to left can be seen the snow covered Langdale Pikes, Great Gable, Bow Fell, Scafell Pike, and Crinkle Crags....

...and south of them, Wetherlam.

Volunteers and rangers hard at work dismantling and removing the fence, flattened by recent floodwater. Much of the stock netting was very rusty and needed digging out from the ground....note. this is how the cloud inversion looks at a lower level!

The wire fence had been put in years ago to supplement the old iron railing fence that was no longer stock proof. This too was removed in the interests of safety and the fact it was so unsightly!

Part of the old fence being taken away...a mixture of rotten fence posts, old stock netting and extremely rusty iron railings.

Loading up the trailer. Many thanks to the South Lakes team and volunteers for their invaluable help. Sadly the cloud or temperature inversion stayed with us at this lower level all day. It made for dank and clammy working conditions.

With the old fence cleared away, contractors with a tractor fitted out with a 'post knocker' came along to knock in the 'strainer posts'. (snow covered Red Screes makes a nice back drop!) This was a few days later when the temperature inversion had long gone...so much clearer skies.  They were already contracted to do some work in the adjoining fields to the Trust owned Birdhouse meadows.

knocking in a 'strainer post'.

A section of the new fence.

...and a close up view. Some sections of railing proved to be too difficult to remove as the trees and their roots had grown around them and held them fast. An angle grinder powered by a generator will have to be employed at some stage to complete the job!

Storm Desmond flood repair

Back in December storm Desmond wreaked havoc throughout the Lake District. This destruction hit the village of Glenridding particularly harshly, where shops and houses where flooded not once but twice in the space of three days.

As many of you may have seen on the news, the main river running through the village burst its banks and started running down roads and pathways and into people's houses.

 After we had done as much as we could to help get the village get back on their feet, we turned our attention to the wider valley. Many meters of fences and walls had been destroyed by flood water and landslides.

The worst hit area for flood water damage was Hartsop, where the river that flows between Brothers water and Ullswater had completely burst its banks.

It wiped out over 100m of dry stone wall, numerous meters of fence line, undermined sections of road and buckled iron railings.

Clearing this devastation would have taken us weeks to clear up. With so much offers of help coming in from all corners, it was decided that we should organise a mass volunteer day to help with the clear up.

The day was organised for Tuesday 2 February. We didn’t know how many people to expect. Luckily the weather was with us for once. We had over 100 volunteers, a mixture of staff from other properties, regular volunteers, people that had seen the poster and turned up on the day and primary school children from the Outward Bound.

The children concentrated on picking debris off the fence line. 

They also found a good way of keeping warm at lunchtime

They did a fantastic job, and by the end of the day they had managed to clear over 400m of fence.

Whilst the children concentrated on the fence, the other volunteers started clearing the fields of the tonnes of rock that had been washed out of the walls.

The plan was to fill helicopter bags with the stone, so that it could be moved closer to the wall with a tractor when the field had, had a chance to dry out.

After that had been completed, the final task was to try and scrape up as much silt and gravel that had been deposited throughout the field. This was shoveled into mechanical barrows and then tipped into some of the bigger holes by the side of the road.

  

A fantastic amount of work managed to get completed thanks to a huge effort from staff and volunteers.

All that’s left now is to build the walls.

A massive thank you to everyone that helped out on the day.