A number of recent jobs required the use of a jack hammer. The team store up these jobs: as they do not own a jack hammer, it is cheaper for them to hire one and do all the jobs in one go. A job that I helped with was the replacement of a gate at the riverside site. A jack hammer has a few bits and pieces that have to be fitted together - the generator, and some pipes that connect it to the hammer to supply it with the pneumatic power that is needed. I had 15 minutes entertainment whilst the lads worked out how to put the thing together. The pipes have male and female ends, which led to the inevitable ribaldry that now seems to be a feature of working with the gang! Unfortunately, one of the wardens nipped his finger fairly badly in the assembly process and had to be bound up with sticking plaster. The Birdman used the jack hammer to drill and loosen the asphalt and concrete around the old post, and then drill a new hole for the new post. The lads asked me if I wanted to try drilling. Always one for a challenge, I said yes, but immediately regretted doing so. The tool itself was so heavy that I could barely lift it, let alone control the direction of the drilling. I have huge admiration for anyone whose job it is to use these tools - road gangs and the like. It is back-breaking work. To do it on a regular basis must lead to all kinds of ongoing injuries.
We had a week or two of heavy rain at the end of January. As I explained in a previous post, our Riverside site is bounded on one side by the river, and on the other by a railway. It is a flat piece of land which on the railway side slopes steeply up a bank to the railway. At the bottom of one end of this piece of land are a number of houses at the edge of the site. A path leads round them from the road to the site, at the beginning of which we were installing the new gate. The recent rains have caused this path to be completely underwater. The rainwater forms a large pond on the upside of the path, which has overflowed. Apparently there are some drains from the railway which have failed and caused the problem. For reasons that I didn't fully understand, it seems to be a difficulty to get the railway company to agree to access in order for the work to be done. Our team has a responsibility to maintain the paths, so the flood constitutes a problem that has to be solved. Whilst my two colleagues were busy with the drilling, I started to dig a channel from the pond, across the path to the lower land on the other side. I could see that the main problem is that the 20 metre path has a dip in middle section which causes water to drain there instead of away. I amused myself with this activity for some time, and when I had finished digging used a broom to sweep away a lot of the water. To some extent this was a fruitless task, because as fast as I swept, the water poured in from the swollen pond. However, I did make some impression and was pleased that I had alleviated the problem to the extent that at least there were dry patches that pedestrians could use.
Snow is now lying and the temperatures have been sub-zero for most of the last week. The lake is frozen. This makes work with the Countryside Service a little difficult. It should be cold too, but generally we are working so we don't get cold. This week I worked two half days, which suited my other activities. In the morning, my constant companion, The Birdman, announced that there was a small piece of dry stone wall that has collapsed and was in need of rebuilding.
The cause of the damage is a sycamore that seeded next to the wall and in now 30feet tall. The roots have grown under the wall and recent strong winds have caused the tree to sway, with the roots destabilising the wall. I thought my colleague was being a trifle optimistic, thinking that we would rebuild a 6 foot stretch of wall in a morning!! But it turned out that he has never tackled a job like this before. Neither had I, but have watched others do the job and had the theory explained on more than one occasion. The first task was to take down the damaged section of wall. This is more difficult than it sounds, due to the way in which the stonework interlocks - you take one bit down, and the next bit falls down! If you're not careful, the whole wall is down in no time. But we soon cleared the stone, (in spite of having to hit the stones with a lump hammer to break the ice holding them together!) and set about the task of rebuilding.
Talk about the blind leading the blind! After a little while, I realised that The Birdman was looking to me for direction. Those who know me recognise that I sound as if I know what I am doing, even when I don't! But I knew that we had to clear a shallow trench first and then lay a foundation. So this is how we proceeded - me making a suggestion about what to put where, waiting for agreement, and then going forward. A strange reversal of roles. As a great fan of jigsaws in days gone by, it seemed natural to me to look for a stone of the right shape and size to fit the space. Surprising to me was that The Birdman didn't seem to find this at all easy. After a morning, in which there was some discussion about the relative stability of a semicircle or box design, we had finished about two feet of wall to half the required height! I was left wondering when this particular project might be completed. But I was pleased that The Birdman seemed impressed with my suggestions, and didn't quite believe that I had not done anything like this before.
We had a week or two of heavy rain at the end of January. As I explained in a previous post, our Riverside site is bounded on one side by the river, and on the other by a railway. It is a flat piece of land which on the railway side slopes steeply up a bank to the railway. At the bottom of one end of this piece of land are a number of houses at the edge of the site. A path leads round them from the road to the site, at the beginning of which we were installing the new gate. The recent rains have caused this path to be completely underwater. The rainwater forms a large pond on the upside of the path, which has overflowed. Apparently there are some drains from the railway which have failed and caused the problem. For reasons that I didn't fully understand, it seems to be a difficulty to get the railway company to agree to access in order for the work to be done. Our team has a responsibility to maintain the paths, so the flood constitutes a problem that has to be solved. Whilst my two colleagues were busy with the drilling, I started to dig a channel from the pond, across the path to the lower land on the other side. I could see that the main problem is that the 20 metre path has a dip in middle section which causes water to drain there instead of away. I amused myself with this activity for some time, and when I had finished digging used a broom to sweep away a lot of the water. To some extent this was a fruitless task, because as fast as I swept, the water poured in from the swollen pond. However, I did make some impression and was pleased that I had alleviated the problem to the extent that at least there were dry patches that pedestrians could use.
Snow is now lying and the temperatures have been sub-zero for most of the last week. The lake is frozen. This makes work with the Countryside Service a little difficult. It should be cold too, but generally we are working so we don't get cold. This week I worked two half days, which suited my other activities. In the morning, my constant companion, The Birdman, announced that there was a small piece of dry stone wall that has collapsed and was in need of rebuilding.
The cause of the damage is a sycamore that seeded next to the wall and in now 30feet tall. The roots have grown under the wall and recent strong winds have caused the tree to sway, with the roots destabilising the wall. I thought my colleague was being a trifle optimistic, thinking that we would rebuild a 6 foot stretch of wall in a morning!! But it turned out that he has never tackled a job like this before. Neither had I, but have watched others do the job and had the theory explained on more than one occasion. The first task was to take down the damaged section of wall. This is more difficult than it sounds, due to the way in which the stonework interlocks - you take one bit down, and the next bit falls down! If you're not careful, the whole wall is down in no time. But we soon cleared the stone, (in spite of having to hit the stones with a lump hammer to break the ice holding them together!) and set about the task of rebuilding.
Talk about the blind leading the blind! After a little while, I realised that The Birdman was looking to me for direction. Those who know me recognise that I sound as if I know what I am doing, even when I don't! But I knew that we had to clear a shallow trench first and then lay a foundation. So this is how we proceeded - me making a suggestion about what to put where, waiting for agreement, and then going forward. A strange reversal of roles. As a great fan of jigsaws in days gone by, it seemed natural to me to look for a stone of the right shape and size to fit the space. Surprising to me was that The Birdman didn't seem to find this at all easy. After a morning, in which there was some discussion about the relative stability of a semicircle or box design, we had finished about two feet of wall to half the required height! I was left wondering when this particular project might be completed. But I was pleased that The Birdman seemed impressed with my suggestions, and didn't quite believe that I had not done anything like this before.
