April - June
The second quarter started with a sad event - the cattle and ponies were all moved off the site. This was due to the Hampshire herd (the red ones) being needed to graze elsewhere, and the desire to remove all livestock before the start of the Easter holidays, as we expect more use of the hill over that time.
April
Good-bye, cattle :-(
On the 1st April, as the Easter holidays approach, the livestock was moved from the site.
Asked to come up for an hour to help move the Highland cattle, volunteers stayed all day to move the Angus and Shetlands too.
Trashed vehicles
The worst part of the job - clearing a burned-out car from the site.
Trashed on the 5th, removed on the 6th.
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More photos of this burned-out car at can be seen on the Trashed Car page
Hedge-laying
Last week, Jeremy, a new volunteer, started hedge-laying. Today, 7th April, he got on and continued the task.
Poo collecting
I had heard rumours of some other tasks....
and on 7th April (as I refuse to rake) I got to experience the pleasures of 'removing concentrated nutrients from the site'. I got about 7 large sackfuls this day, and many more later in the month.
More photos of me poo-collecting can be seen on the Poo page
Trailer
On 28th April, the new blue trailer arrived, which will make collecting much easier :-)
Still clean and shiny (but a shame it has no lights)
Trailer in use, May 16th
Fenceline clearance
A Wednesday task, back to the old favourite of scrub clearance by hand.
We worked along a ridge and then down toward Paulsgrove, to clear paths for fences in "compartment 6" (west of QA hospital, on the south edge of Southwick Hill road).
There is no way that machinery can do this work, so our billhooks are still needed.
Kathryn
Tim
The scrub through which hilma carved a path
May
'One man went to mow....'
An old WWII trench that was carved into the Hill is currently overgrown.
Gradually, we hope to clear it all.
The route can be clearly seen on an aerial photograph taken in 1955.
The top end of the trench was cleared last autumn, so the regrowth there can be mown back.
Prince's Trust
party of volunteers from the Prince's Trust
Point-spraying
Without consistent grazing, point-spraying of some of the more robust scrub is necessary.
Fence post pointing
As part of 'sustainable fence building', we transport home-grown logs to the Fort. There they are 'pointed', before being returned to the site and buried as posts.
View from supporting the log :-o
19th May Wednesday task
This was just a typical task-day, out in the sun
Despite the machinery, we still get some raking
Removal of marker posts, inherited from inappropriate tree-planting in earlier days
Swathe of mown grassland
June
Poo-hill collection - 4th June
The collector unit back in action, the pile of poo gathered in April was finally collected.
Being so old, the manure was dry. This meant that the collecting flails created a fine dust that blew everywhere and covered everything - including me. Leaving me quite literally covered in sh*t, from head to boot-toe.
All toys in action :-)
big red tractor pulling trailer, little red tractor pulling collector unit
Action Toys
Action man??
Other tasks
"I'm the king of the - Compost"
Repairing the grassland, where skate-board and bike-tracks have been dug
30th June - Ben and his Tonker-truck
Stump-removal the easy way. With Ben's digger, the stump and all attached roots can be removed. This restricts scrub regrowth, and gives the desired weaker plants a chance to seed and grow.
--> Carry on to July