Week Two
This week Mrs Thorpe and Mr. Paterson worked with the children and Mike to dredge the pond of all the sticks, branches and logs that people had thrown in.
Week One
The children went to the park with Mrs. Harwood and Mr. Paterson. They were introduced to Mike who gave them a health & Safety talk. He then explained the afternoon's work and they began.....
A new group of Hartshill Hayes Community Volunteers.
We have enjoyed learning new skills helping the ranger at Hartshill Hayes. As a treat at Christmas time we were shown how to build shelters and how to toast marshmallows over a real fire!
Happy Christmas!
We now have a new group of volunteers from Year 5. Here are some pictures of their first two visits to Hartshill Hayes as volunteers.
Week 1 - The children were taught how to use the tools to cut and bend branches of willow and stick them into the ground to encourage them to root.
The stringy bark from some trees makes the strongest of strings used many years ago to tie beam of wood together in ship building.
We were lucky enough to see two Tawny owls and a fox this week!
week 2 - The children worked on the memorial garden, planting snowdrops and replacing the plastic protection around the trees to stop the rabbits gnawing the bark.
In the woods there were some saplings that needed felling to thin the area out, which will allow the light in for the bluebells to grow.
This week at Hartshill Hayes Ranger Mike demonstrated his protective clothing. We couldn't believe how expensive it was! He also introduced us to new tools and we watched in awe as he used the chainsaw to cut up tree trunks.
Our tasks this week were to cut down trees that were encroaching on the path and blocking out the light where plants such as bluebells needed to grow. We learnt how to do a beak cut before using the bow saw to cut into the back of the trunk and fell the tree. Mike was very impressed with the skill of Leeland, who cut a near perfect beak into a tree.