Who Pays the Ferry Man?

Well it`s like this, the blog title is a story related to us by the master of story telling Ranger Supervisor Paul. More of this later.

It started as the normal Thursday volunteer day for David, Christine, Phil, Jim and Theo. The task was to put the NT boats back onto Crummock Water, Loweswater and Buttermere lakes. It should have been a straight forward task but as with some things today was not going to go smoothly!

The theme of this post is best described as a story of sorts. It started well with us getting one boat onto Buttermere but the lake level was so low we could not get it off the trailer without seeming to drive the length of the lake in the Trust Land Rover!

Ranger Dan and volunteer Jim at the ready to row the boat off the trailer if we could get it in deep enough!

Volunteer Christine watches over them quietly laughing to herself!











Not working lets go a little deeper. No that`s not working either.

So, it was down to the good old fashioned time honoured method, we man handled the boat off the trailer into the water.

Just in case the health and safety people are watching we did have life jackets as seen in the next photo.








Life jackets on Dan rows the boat across to Hassness where we had to put in a new mooring for it.

Ranger Dan still dressed for safety knocks in one of the four new mooring posts. This was the second mell used on the day the first one`s shaft split on the very same post.












 Once we had the new mell the posts split and we had to get some more!

Volunteer Christine drew the short straw.

Now how the title of the blog arrived.

It was whilst we were waiting for the new posts to arrive Ranger Paul was left guarding the boat to ensure no one rowed off in it. During this time the title of the blog was arrived at.

Paul explained that whilst we were away two elderly walkers came by and quizzed him, "Don`t you respond to a wave then?" A quizzical Paul responded in line with his training, "I am sorry I don`t understand!" The question was repeated by the walkers who then went on to explain they had seen him from the other side of the lake and thought he was the ferryman who could row them across the lake!

You can understand how from a distance they could have thought he looked like a ferryman. 

The next problem was knocking in the deeper of the posts. The water was too deep to stand in and get any good swing at the posts so the only way was to stand in the boat to do so - yes about as daft as it sounds.

Don`t worry it was not as bad as it looks and Dan did not put the post through the bottom of the boat as the picture might show!

The task was eventually completed on what must be one of the funniest days we have had as National Trust volunteers.

A great day out volunteering in such a special place.

Very relaxing. Why not come out with us and have a go?

Countryside Update May 2012 Part One!

It has been another busy month for us with some extra special guests. Upland Footpath supervisor Joe was joined by the organisers of the Keswick Mountain Festival Lucy and Amy plus volunteers John and David for a bit of path maintenance nr to Ashness Bridge. We undertook some landscaping and built a drain in weather that could only be described as changeable!

Amy and Lucy admire the hole they have dug for the foundations of a stone drain across the path. Had it of rained much harder it would have been taken over by some amphibians as a home!

Most of the day seemed to be taken up by changes of clothes, waterproofs on, waterproofs off.

Still the sun did put in an appearance and dried out the ground quite quickly.




It was not all rain as the photo below shows. Amy hard at work whilst ranger Joe moves a la`al stone for landscaping purposes.

Amy took note of how Joe moved the stone and decided if he could do it so could she!













Volunteer John looks on as Amy moves not quite such a small stone down the hill also to be used for landscaping. Anything you can do?

Amy soon mastered the technique. She made it look far too easy.














Amy takes a photo of her hard work. Stone drain nearly finished, just a bit of tidying up to be done.

It was not just all about Amy, Lucy was also hard at work landscaping with Joe. They were busy making three paths into one with a good result.











Lucy below hard at work as well. Inn the background Ashness Bridge.

Even though it was a weekend, lead Ranger Penny found time to come out and see the good work put in by Joe and four volunteers.

It allowed Lucy and Amy to find out the hard way about all the effort staff and volunteers  put into maintaining the paths and landscape for ever for everyone! Now where have I heard that saying before?

The end of the day, Penny chats to Lucy and Amy about the day whilst John and Joe get ready to leave. A grand day out on the fell in good company. Who knows Lucy and Amy may even come back for another go?

Countryside Update April 2012

It has been a while since the last countryside update. We have been busy, perhaps to busy to blog! Apart from the usual dry stone walling, laying slate chippings on paths, a snap shot of what we have been up too is below.

Volunteers Clare and Robert get to grips with a post knocker whilst fencing at Dunthwaite House nr Cockermouth.

We were joined by Lead Ranger Operations Geoff. We also met the regional director John Darlington who was on a visit to the nearby house.

We were supervised by Ranger Paul with Rangers Jack and Dan hiding in the background. Also present Clare, Jim and Robert and most importantly Theo, bottom left corner of photo. 120 metres of fencing removed and replaced. Not bad for a days work. We only stopped when we ran out of fencing wire.

What else had we been up to apart from litter picking Buttermere and Crummock? Well the seasonal hedgelaying at Loweswater.

Rangers Dan and Paul are joined by Volunteer Jim - we think we had a record day with three teams of 3  one chain sawing, one laying and the other weaving in and tidying up. A good mixture of Rangers and volunteers laid 130 metres of hedge in one day.

Getting there, time for a lunch break, forestry helmets lined up on the fence.

We have also found time to give the National Trust rowing boats at Loweswater and Buttermere their annual spring clean and paint. It was a tiring day for some!

Spectacular location to work, boats on their winter stands at Crummock Water. Rangers Dan and Jack in the nearest with Ranger Andy and volunteer Christine behind. In the background is volunteer Robert tinkering with another boat. Sanded, painted and keels repaired.

A lucky escape for Ranger Andy from a mischevious Volunteer Christine having been presented with an easy target!

It was a long but rewarding day with a mixture or rain and sunshine - rain, just what you need when painting outside!

We worked that hard we need a new wire brush?

The effort was too much for one of our Rangers - bless!

It would be unkind to name him as he had been rugby league training the night before. If anyone does think they recognise the sleeping beauty please contact Ranger Jack to confirm!

Finally, we think may have seen the last of this brush unless Ranger Mark insists it is cleaned for future use?

Let me tell you a story...

...or rather, let several people tell you some stories!

On Wednesday 28th of March I attended a story-telling day organised by Naomi Hewitt and run by story-telling ace Ian. I think it is fair to say that many of us were not quite sure what to expect, and, as you can see, some of us found it all rather frightening. No, actually Jessie and Phil were role-playing here!

I had expected quite a gentle day when we talked about some of the 'stories' associated with Derwentwater such as Pocklington's Island and Lady Derwentwater's escape. What we got was much more ambitious with demonstrations of techniques and introduction to some traditional stories. Then we broke into small groups to work on 'our' story.

After lunch we moved down to Derwentwater foreshore and looked for locations to suit the stories and then...you've guessed it, each group told their story in the chosen location. If you want to see and hear the results of our work come to Derwentwater foreshore on 11th of April.

Ros Earthy.

All you wanted to know about volunteering but forgot to ask

On February 22nd I attended the volunteering induction session at The Beacon, Whitehaven. The aim of the day was to give volunteers some background information about the history of the National Trust and to explain what might be described as the 'nitty gritty' of volunteering. If this sounds at all dry, I can assure you it was not. It also gave us a chance to meet volunteers engaged on different projects.

Useful information was given via a power-point presentation, general discussion, and a welcome pack. All very professional as you can see... as it should be because both staff and volunteers are offering a professional service. We were therefore given information about claiming expenses, insurance, accident reporting, and a number of things you may not have considered. We were also told about all the properties in the North Lakes area. You may be surprised how many there are!

I am not trying to give an outline of the day here. No, what I am doing is recommending the NT volunteer inductions as useful, informative and a good way to meet other volunteers. Well done Jean and Jean for organising it!

WIND, RAIN, HAIL...

...nothing stops the hardy National Trust volunteers (except a brief pause for coffee, pies and cake).

If you have recently walked the path between Syke Farm and Buttermere shore you may have noticed some changes to it. The path above the rock step has been improved and the ditch is draining better. This is the work of a small group of NT volunteers.

On a cold, wet January day I joined National Trust Ranger Geoff Medd, a small team , and Theo the collie, to do some remedial work on this busy path. The amount of use it gets was proved by the fact that even on this grim day we met walkers, runners and even a family with a push-chair. The path needs plenty of maintenance because of this heavy use. The fact that it is on a slope does not improve matters as water runs down and breaks us the surface. You may notice pieces of slate let into the path. These help to direct water into the ditch beside the path. As well as working on the these, the volunteers used barrow loads of chippings to improve the path's surface. You should notice an improvement!

Although it was wet, cold, and quite hard work, the day was great fun and I was made very welcome. Volunteering is sociable as well as useful and there are all sorts of different opportunities in our area. Why not find out more?

The weather hasn't stopped us yet!

This is a post from Ranger Roy's blog that will be of interest to many volunteers. You can follow the blog here: http://www.northlakes.blogspot.com/

As I write this, the weather we are having right now reminds me that it sometimes controls the jobs we can tackle. We are now into the fourth day of freezing temperatures. Today is sunny but even in the valleys the temperature will struggle to rise much above freezing throughout the day. Fortunately we were still able to do the planned work last weekend (one of my working weekends) but at times the ground can be just too hard to work.

On Saturday morning I went with three of our regular volunteers up to Watendlath. We replaced a step-stile over a fence to allow access to a walk along the river. It isn’t actually a public right of way (PROW) but the Trust does want it to be accessible for walkers. This was a day that gave us the opportunity to stop and take photographs from Surprise View – you can see why this is a hugely popular viewpoint and the skilled, patient or lucky can take some stunning photos. Actually, you’d probably have to obscure the lens with a finger to take a bad picture!

Surprise View

In the afternoon we moved on to Castlehead. There is a small crag there that we are encouraging outdoor centres to use for children to learn and practice abseiling skills. Because it is a small crag, it isn’t used by experienced climbers so there are no conflicting users. But, it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) so we are limiting the area being used at the top and foot of the crag to minimize both damage to vegetation and erosion. That’s why we were there working on a fence.

That was two good jobs completed on Saturday and on Sunday we tackled another.

This time there were 12 volunteers and we joined Naomi on her foreshore project. There is an access-for-all path that runs from the large car-park through Cockshot Wood to the lake shore. Like many of these paths it was accumulating a surface layer of mud and leaves. If we don’t clear it. vegetation will reclaim the path very quickly. So we set to work and, with a good deal of scraping and brushing, we gave the path its annual clean up. It’s hard, physical work but it does feel good when we look back at a good, clear path.

BBC at work

BBC Look North provided an interesting diversion by coming to film and interview Naomi about working with volunteers on her Derwentwater Foreshore project.

Where better to take a break?