We had a group run like attendance at the task this evening and I'm grateful for that, as we really needed every available muscle to make a dent in the 19.2 ton rain water soaked pile of sub base material. Welcomed by Jan, Callum, few other volunteers from the Friends of Group and Daisy the dog we were promptly involved in a GoodGym classic, namely spadework and wheelbarrow racing, all with the aim to create a path making Fishponds Wood accessible to all. A big number of barrow rounds was completed within our one hour task slot, however a lot of sub base material still remains for those who are keen to give it another go and see the path to completion.

Despite the weather outside being frightful, the delightful GG Yorkies still turned out en masse for the friends of Fishponds Wood and CYC. Perhaps they had heard there would be sawing, lopping and general destruction available to keep them warm? It certainly warmed me up after a cold morning mission!

I just about managed to get a "before" picture before the hoardes descended on the patch of trees that needed chopping down or severely pruning. In classic GG style a team of ambitious wannabe lumberjacks set to the biggest trees first and soon there was many a cry of "timber!" and "you might want to leave more than a 2 metre gap for this bit!"

Meanwhile those who couldn't get into the Danger Zone cut and trimmed the trees to sensible sizes and dragged or carried them down to the ever growing wildlife pile.

In no time at all the patch was cleared and the neighbour's house was no longer overshadowed (they also very kindly brought us tea mid-task). A quick photo by our handiwork and job done, leaving plenty of time for some of us to go for a lovely muddy woodland and bog run 🙂

8 GG Yorkies (+ one GG Yorkie mascot) braved the perpetual drizzle to tackle some tasks at Fishponds Wood. They split themselves neatly into 3 groups (two raking arisings, one lopping nettles) after the obligatory comparison of leg coverings.

Group one (Amy, Ed, Ellie McC & mascot) found a frog when raking where as Group 2 (Ben, Laura and Paul) only found sneaky hidden nettles which had been scythed along with the grass. Cue tingly ankles. Group 3 (Dave & Ellie D) were supposed to find nettles - and did - but also had great fun hacking at anything that over hang the path.

In the time it took Dave and Ellie to do a lap of Fishponds Wood, the raking was complete and the rakings had been dragged on tarps and sprinkled in the forest for fertiliser. Ed commented that he thought they had over-raked their section (can it be done??) but Friends of Fishponds Wood were thrilled.

Time for a group picture before heading home for hot showers!

Two weeks ago we constructed a beautiful hardstanding for the Friends of Fishponds Wood's new tool shed.

This was flatpack building at its very best and earlybirds Max, Katie and I got some bonus hill reps by carrying the various pieces from the van.

With only one decent screwdriver, and several people holding the pieces together, we had extra hands available for other bonus jobs:

• move all the cracked willow across from the boggy woodland ready to be used as tool shed camouflage
• redistribute leftover sand from the hardstanding into sandbags and load into the van
• edge and sweep the cycle path

In between these jobs, we kept popping back to see how the shed was progressing and clever Rich had decided that it worked best if we just followed the instructions in the correct order (boring!).

We all enjoyed that the brand of the shed was called 'Asgard' but Rich definitely did not feel like the God of Thunder as he was effectively crouched inside a metal box whilst Max hit the outside with a rubber mallet.

We can reshape the metal that doesn't fit!

Rich then switched places and sat on the shed to shift the roof piece onto place.

With most of the parts now fitted together, the team were drilling and screwing as fast as they could.

Screw it up before we screw it up!

Team Gover lifted the roof on and then the rain guard was fitted, very fancy. Finally we bolted the doors on and there were tiny squeals of delight when we closed them and everything fitted perfectly.

The shed easily fitted seven GG Yorkies inside, including two very tall ones. Most of the team departed to go on to another task whilst Amy and I finished up. I completed the vital task of bolting the shed into the stone whilst Amy completed the equally crucial job is disguising it with all the cracked willow.

What shed??

Job done.

Six or maybe seven, then eight and finally down to three GoodGymers descended upon the enchanted Fishponds Wood Nature Reserve to construct part one of a very secret den (work-tools shed).

The first task was to find an incognito spot in the middle of the thickest thorny bushes and clear the way by attacking the bush with anything sharp we could find. Thanks to the well-equipped York City Council van of tricks and tools, we made light work of clearing the bushes and leveling the ground.

I didn't know what a mattock was before I came to GoodGym. Now I can't get enough of them!

Whilst reminiscing of the early 90’s hit Insane in the Membrane, we laid our pristine sheet of membrane on the ground and set about the highly important task of measuring and marking where the shed foundation flagstones would go. Based on a very wide variety of estimations of what 2 inches is and how long and wide 8 flagstones will be, we rather loosely plotted our future shed site with stakes and strings.

Using the power of a dozen arms, the team enthusiastically mixed cement, sand and water into wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow and spread onto the membrane, ideally without pulling out all the stakes and string.

What consistency should it be? Aim for cheesecake base!

An assortment of spirit levels and handy spotters ensured that the cement base was a perfectly flat bed, fit for a queen, or six flagstones as was actually the case. As each flagstone was inched into place, a cheer went up as we proudly looked down on our beautiful creation. Then to make sure no one else would interfere with our handy work, we promptly covered the whole thing up with leaves and branches and left without a trace of our very existence.

Can you see anything from the path? Nah, it just looks like bushes.