Hello again!

Having been chastised about the lack of blogging this year I thought it was probably high time I logged back in to update the world on our comings and goings.

Well there have been stints at Markenfield Hall, a crack at the competition wall on the Pateley Showground (not to compete but complete!), a long slog down the hill in Hackfall, a short push out at Bramhope, some rather exciting dry (ish) stone wall boundary markers for the Aonb, we've been revisited by some old Friends, made new friends and very sadly said goodbye to a good friend.

I have been shamefully missing from the wallface but that's the gist of it, I'm sure there's more and as it comes to me I'll update the blog accordingly.

So fast forward to October 2013 and we find ourselves working a lovely project for the Jenny Ruth Workshops, find out more about the fantastic work they do here http://www.jennyruth.co.uk.  We are creating a new wall adjacent to the workshop to enhance an outdoor work space.  A challenging project with curves and steps, the spirit levels are out and heavy duty equipment is in place, a stone dressing table is in the offing, this is taking walling into the next century!! Wait.., we're already there!

Over the past few weeks we've sorted the stone, laid the foundations and we're just starting the first lift.  The going is muddy but we are adequately compensated with tea breaks, hot and cold running water and on site loos!

In short we're having a blast! 

Photos below, see you soon, Em.

Roger is learning to cope with the toppers.

Paul and the incredible horizontal foundation.

Oops looked at the foundations slightly funny and they're no longer horizontal!

Cope manufactioning facility.

Looks like a very small wall has sprung up between Roderick and Roger (I think I feel a Monty Python sketch coming on!)

Chris deminstrates the finer points of using the guillotine.

Paul at Richard gather at the guillotine to witness the stone decapitation!

A Happy New Year To All (Both) Our Readers

Brrrrr!!  Yeah, yeah, I know ... no blog in December but then, given the wide readership it attracts (not), who was going to miss it?  Still, duty calls and I promised to record activity so activity I shall record.

I think there was only one particularly wet Wednesday when we all agreed that nuff was nuff and stayed at home or at least found other drier things to occupy our time.  For the rest, the group has been plugging away at Hackfall Woods with good solid progress made in the direction of the river. 

Progress uphill has been halted by an inconsiderate birch which threw itself on the wall in a mad final bid to become a Woodland Trust tree rather than Swinton Estate firewood.  Thankfully, it fell on a bit of wall which neither we nor the Hackfall Volunteers had yet tackled.

(PS Photos - courtesy of Richard P - to follow when I've worked out why the blog system has changed since November and how to upload stuff from my steamdriven laptop).

Word on the street is that the Woodland Trust has finally agreed to the necessary funding and work on the funicular railway/chairlift from the car park to the river bank is expected to start ... not a moment too soon.  Creaking bodies can manage a few hours walling (with suitable breaks for refreshment) but the slog uphill to the car park afterwards is enough to leave stronger and younger folk weak at the knees.

The main partipants (masochists) of late have been the Richards, Graham, Paul and Roger with occasional visits from other members (apologies if I have forgotten anyone).  Phillip and Catriona are on 'temporary secondment) to the Bramhope Scout HQ project where I understand they are overwintering while Pete and Anita ply them with coffee and a warm hut in which to shelter.  Softies!

Next week?  Subject to snowfall and frost levels (we spent rather a lot of time today chipping stone out of the permafrost) it'll be Hackfall again..

Where does the time go?

Irrefutable evidence indicates that no-one has blogged since 17th October but don't let the pregnant pause fool you ... the group has been hard at work.

After our soggy sojourn on Greenhow, we decamped to Woodland Trust territory at Hackfall Woods.  It's a charming spot and our walling site has only two drawbacks - the midges got there first and have no intention of going quietly and the wall lies down near the River Ure (or Yore as I prefer to think of it) which is fine in a morning but quite hard work on the way back out after a day's walling.  Other than that, it's a nice home for us for at least the first part of winter.

The stone is variable and in short supply so we've already reduced the height of the wall to 40" below the copes which is still adequate.  After four weeks we have completed a rebuild on around 15 metres and are up to copes on a further five or so.  Quite rapid progress for us!

This week the Richards found themselves in company with Em, Graham, Roger and myself, Phillip and Catriona having decided to help move the scout centre wall forward at Bramhope with Pete and Anita.  Thanks to Richard for the photos below:

Richard happened to mention that he'd dropped a 50p piece
Suddenly no-one's interested in the wall any more

Whose idea was this anyway?

Memories of last week (10th October) have faded but we can all still recall that creepy sucking noise that the Greenhow mud makes as you try to extricate one or more of your boots from its fond embrace.  Catriona tells me her boots have only just dried out today (17th) which is unsurprising.

But, despite the conditions, we soldiered on, Tony earning the prize for most time spent under water (see left hand side of wall in pic above).  To be fair, Greenhow didn't give us its best shot and we were spared the soaking that had sent us scuttling for cover the previous week.  So we were half way up the final stint by the end of the day.

The Met Office, so often wrong this summer, got it pretty much bang on for 17th October.  We all peered bleerily into a dark and soggy dawn and immediately concluded that home was where we all should be, at least until 10:00 am.  By 10:00, the clouds hard begun to part, allowing watery sunshine to persuade Robert (finally got a day off), Graham, Roger, Paul, Phillip that maybe Greenhow wouldn't be such a bad idea after all. 

And so it turned out.  Yes, we were ankle deep in the black stuff, but it stayed dry and not-too-windy and we were able to finish off the final stint.  Hopefully Graham will publish his snaps for you all to admire from the comfort of your warm armchairs.

So that's it for Greenhow.  Kev sends his thanks for all who contributed - he seemed well impressed with our efforts both in terms of quantity and quality.  Next week it's off to Hackfall Woods where with luck we can wile away a reasonably sheltered winter.

There's wet, and then there's ..... a sinking feeling

OK, bad idea but it had to be worth a try.  Sunny periods and showers, said the Met Office.  Yeah, right.

It rained as we were driving over; it rained as we were unloading the kit; it rained as we slithered into our waterproofs; and it carried on raining as we trudged to the wall.  Then it stopped long enough for us to view the puddles along the finished wall and the blackness of the mud where we stripped out on our last visit.

Nothing daunted, Phillip, Roger, Tony, Richard and I set about demolishing the next stretch of wall.  Squelch, slither, slosh in the primeval slime as we attempted to set new foundations - tricky when the base is under water.  It had by now rained again and the downpour (shower?) intensified as we stopped for coffee.  Now you can rain on me, blow at me and bury me in snow but don't ... don't ever ... dilute my morning cuppa coffee.

A quick show of soggy hands and there was unanimity.  Sod it!  Let's go home.  So we did!

Welcome, by the way to the guys and gals of the NCV.  Happy to share a blogspot with you and to keep an eye on what you're all up to.  I'll be writing up the more slanderous version of what Tony and Ros got up to in Bryan's Wood as soon as I have consulted my lawyers!

Normal Service Resumed at Greenhow

OK, so blogs are a little sparse at the moment and just to enhance their scarcity value I'm going to roll three into one this week.

This week (26th September) has been declared a washout after two days of horrendous rain.  Last week was boggy enough despite Phillip's gallant attempts to lay down brushwood walkways and I suspect that today there would be standing water where we'd be standing and slithering.  We don't cancel often so I hope evryone is comfortable with the decision.

Last week saw an excellent turnout (11 brave souls at my count) in OK-ish weather conditions -chilly but dry and good progress was made with the second and third stints.  We've decided to tackle one more stretch before bidding farewell to Greenhow for the winter.

On 12th September the group offered one of its twice-yearly taster days on behalf of the AONB.  Numbers have been a bit disappointing of late but, given the kind of weather we were 'blessed' with, it was frankly amazing that two people were brave/daft enough to join us, as were 8 members who rallied to the call for help with the taster day.  Thanks everyone and particular thanks to David and Catherine for tasting some pretty wet conditions at Greenhow.  We hope you enjoyed yourselves and that you'll join us again sometime.

For those of you keen to see more photographic evidence of the group at work, Richard the Elder has loaded 101 (!) snapshots on to DropBox (eh?) at https://www.dropbox.com/home/Drystone#!/home/Drystone. 

Next week, we can all blog about what we did with our day off. Second thought; maybe not!

Freak weather strikes Greenhow!

The pictures (thanks to Richard and Tony) tell the story of last week's walling session, the most amazing feature of which was the weather ... bright sunshine ... on Greenhow.

In preparation for the AONB taster day, six of the team stripped out the next stretch of wall, laid foundations and completed the first course along the whole stint.  This will give our 'tasters' a level playing field to get them started - the muddy, heavy bit having been taken care of in advance.  Who says we're not nice people?