National Trust High Peak Estate
On 8th November, the SUCV went out into the Peak District, to the lovely village of Edale, to help rangers of the National Trust High Peak Estate. Having been on this task several times before in my 3+ years at university (feeling old now) I was quite familiar with them and their dogs, which they brought to work with them.
The original plan for today was good old fashioned woodland thinning, but as the weather forecast wasn’t too good, the rangers gave us a mostly indoor task. We were working at Dalehead Bunkhouse, a lodge that one of our volunteers had actually once stayed at. With winter fast approaching, it needed its supply of firewood processed and organised, so that was our task for today.
These logs had to be moved from here, where they had been left to dry, to the storage chamber next door, and stacked properly to make the most efficient use of space and to avoid everything collapsing on someone.
All the while, ranger Miles was outside chainsawing up the next batch of wood…
…and his dogs, Elsa and Rona (not Anna), were pestering us to play with them.
Once all the wood had been moved to storage, we began stacking the next batch for it to dry (which for some of this wood could take several months). Most of us also got to use a cool splitting machine on bigger logs before they could be stacked.
What with the sheer amount of wood to be stacked, things got quite challenging near the end, and our resulting stack of logs was much bigger and quite a bit messier than the one present when we started. However, despite all the work we got done, we managed to finish very early by SUCV standards and caught the 2.30pm train back home. Impressive for such a small group of volunteers.
Thanks to you guys for coming on the task and thanks to the rangers of the National Trust High Peak Estate for having us!
Jamie (Task Leader)
