Day in the Office :-(

Spent most of today in the office, sorting out various loose ends. Feels good they are now firmly tied up!

big team in today dealing with tasks all over the Estate. cutting, burning, chopping. There is the harvest about to start around the village. A bigger combine this year so two gates have had to be widened to get him through!

Back in the Saddle (A Wet Saddle!)

After a week off, back into Bank Holiday Weather! Started on the e-mails, lots, then just had to go a look at a bit of woodland I have not even set foot into since starting here last year. Only a small area at the side of the Bollin, but very steep sided. Mountain goat territory! Me and the dog scrambled up the slope and across to another ravine. The boundary is not straightforward and difficult to make out with all the balsam! Another priority area for next year.
Came across a really well built bridge, which had been there some time and someone had taken real efforts to put this thing in place? But there is no public access nor has ever been to my knowledge in this part of the Estate? Will have to do some more investigation on this one. At he top of this there was also what looked like a charcoal platform. A scratch around in the leaf litter indeed revealed a quantity of burned wood. So pleased with this find. So that will give me another task into finding out if charcoal was produced, when and for what use? Sounds like on the radio it has been a busy day on the car park and lots of folk on the Estate walking through in the rain. Difficult to belive that Autumn is now here!

Busy week with young offenders

Had a really good week with a group of young offenders. Working in the Southern woods to replace a tired old fence. This is at the bottom of 'Bluebell bank'. As the name suggests full of bluebells in Spring. We were losing parts of the bank to dogs racing up and down eroding the surface. These young lads worked really hard all week. By the end of it we we had a new fence up and some very satisfied young lads, who had never done anything like this before. Really good effort.

BBQ's and Bats

I really don't like cleaning BBQ's. You can never get everything off! Spent the rest of the day smelling like a burger....nice. Everyone had a good time though, so that was good. The local bat population was out bang on time at 9pm, with aerobatics as they chased midges. Two of our Volunteers are off to Devon as one of them takes up a careership with the NT at Killerton. The very best to both of them. Two days off now, but have to be in for a meeting tomorrow at 10am. We have a team of prisoners working tomorrow, released on temporary licence. They are here all week and we plan to replace some worn out fencing in the Southern woods with them.

Have our BBQ tonight for the Estate team. Looks like we'll have to move the date as most of the volunteers are on holiday....bad planning that! been putting up the mini marquee and getting the gas BBQ to work. Weather looks fine though, overcast but dry. Been very busy today with lots of visitors. The Waybuloo seems to have brought in to the property lots of little ones? I don't watch kiddies telly, but it seems popular.

Looking forward to cremated burger and warm beer! 

Estate Walk

At 9:30 I took members of staff around the Estate on a familiarisation walk. Interesting how the walk through the woods change from week to week. Fungi now starting to make an appearance all over the place. Giant puffballs in grass fields and an excellent Dryads Saddle on an old ash tree at the bottom of Valley field. Finished the walk at 1pm. Had a further walk to look at a task next week, renewing fencing in the Southern woods along Bluebell Bank.

Then at 3pm met two chaps from a local company who want to bring 100 employees for a day's employee volunteering. Looking to get some pathwork done during the day in October. Upgrading some of the permissive paths as well as putting in a new circular route from the mill so that families with buggies or mobility powered vehicles access this part of the property. Good positive day with lots achieved.

Heavy Rain Again

Morning wetter than yesterday. Warm though. Have a few volunteers in today so will tidy up around the mill drive. Lots of leaves and small twigs need collecting. Need to get into a part of the woodland to check out what work needs doing for the next woodland grant scheme application. I know the wood is full of balsam so will get very wet doing that!

Still sorting out the workshops, getting tools onto racks on the walls so we're not tripping over them. First job though, go and swap some bins over at the mill. looks like a wet tractor ride down there. Looking forward to the day we get a tractor with a cab on it. 

It's Going to be wet!

Forecast is for heavy rain today. We have lots of small tasks to carry out today some thankfully inside. We also have to get ready for next week, we have a bunch of lads coming to do some fencing for us from a prison in Manchester. They are being released on temporary licence. Hopefully we should get the work complete at the end of the week?
 Going to one of our other property's today, Nether Alderley Mill. There is some work required so that a survey can be carried out later in the month. 
We also have arriving today on site, as part of the waybaloo tour, a pipling house. It's something to do with children's telly, so the kids should enjoy it?

It's all Rubbish!

First task of the day, sorting the recycling. Glass, plastic, cardboard. Our volunteer who normally deals with this is on hols, so it's down to us. Just goes to show the value of volunteers in the workplace. What would we do with out them? A lot less that's for sure. Also have a volunteer in this morning mapping the extent of Himalayan Balsam we have taken out this year? We have a lot on site at present, around 4.9Ha but hoping this will decrease over the next few years with a concerted push on control.

First Post

New to this game! just finding my way round all of this blog stuff. Hope to bring out what we do on the Estate on a day to day basis. The Estate team are dedicated to delivering a great experience for visitors to the property.

Look out for news and views from the Estate from the front line