Thursday 26 April 2012

Sparrowhawk Farm pictures - 25 April






Special hats and wet weather

So...

It would seem that we are destined to struggle on through the finest weather that Nidderdale has to offer!

We returned to Sparrowhawk Farm this week and to be fair we had a cracking morning, the weather kept at bay and we finished preparing the foundations and digging out useful stone in time for our coffee break (with cake supplied!).

After our break we set about the foundations in three teams, we slogged on until lunch time when the deluge began in earnest. The site quickly turned from pleasant to mud fest and none of us could muster the will to carry on and called it a day.

Here's hoping that next week we get a good clear day and lots of walling done!

I was joined by Richard, Phillip, Tony, a couple of Graham's, Roger and David Leonard (who once employed us for a job at Thornthwaite!)

I only managed to get one picture done today, so here it is in all it's glory... Graham and the special hat

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Sparrowhawks and Amazons Forever!!

This week sees us trekking up above Pateley Bridge to Sparrowhawk Farm to start work on another curvy project - we just can't get enough of them!

We were joined by Catriona, Roger, Paul, Phillip, Em, Graham, David, me and Taster Tony (our taster session volunteer for the day!).

Sparrowhawk Farm is a regular haunt for AONB volunteers and some of us have been here before, the owner Kit is establishing wildflower meadows and planning to keep bees and it's the bees we are here to help with.  As we discovered today the site has beautiful views, when they emerge from the mist but not a lot of shelter from the elements - something that the bees are going to need!  To give the bees a good chance at surviving the wind we've been asked to construct a semi-circular fold (does this sound familiar to anyone else!) which when finished will stand at approx 5' and hopefully provide enough shelter.

The weather was not kind to us and by lunch I was on my third pair of gloves and we were all beginning to resemble drowned rats.  We cracked on though and got most of the foundation trench dug and hefted plenty of stone out of the ground to be getting along with.  Everybody threw themselves into the task with a zeal that even the weather could not dampen!  However, by 2 o'clock we were drenched and really had had enough so called time for this week.

We'll be back again next week, with a bit of luck we'll get some sunshine and get the chance to admire this stunning location.

What photo's we managed to take before the mud set in are below.

Cheers, Em





Buried treasure



If a job's worth doing


Lets's do it properly


This was after the mud was washed away by the rain!

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Pinfolded - 11th April 2012

The walling fairy evidently called by last week despite the forecast snows and left the wall in really good shape for Roger, the Richards, the Grahams and myself to finish off and clear the site.

Richard the Younger will be posting some of his time-lapse photos and I hope you'll agree the results are well up to standard.  The photos aren't bad either!  The weather was kind and didn't hail on us until we'd finished and were headed home.  We have much to be grateful for.

We have a taster day next week and I will let you know where our next project will be as soon as ... I've actually found somewhere!  watch for Wally-Mail and if you know of a site where we could start more or less immediately, please let me know.

Good job no-one knows who he's calling a fairy. 

UPDATE! A selection of  Daguerreotypes 


As promised here are some photos of the finished pinfold - and a few snaps of how we got there.

Before we got our hands on it.

After we'd finished messing about (At least I hope I've got them in the right order)

DEMOLITION!



REBUILD!










Richard
P.S. I'll attempt to make some sort of video out of the photo's I have taken. Don't hold your breath though. It may take me some time.