Bash! Bal-sam
It kills diversity!

Bash! Bal-Sam
They will conquer it!

(Seemingly there is no reason for these extraordinary biological upsets)
(Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha)
(What's happening Yorkies?)
(Only Doctor Mitch, expert in Yorkshire flooding, has provided any explanation)

Bash! Bal-sam
It is everywhere!

(Don’t worry, Hob Moor, thanks to GoodGym York there is no cause for alarm)

Bash! Bal-sam
This job is impossible!

Pull up every one of it,
Pile up every one of it,
Even with a nettled hand,
Every man, every woman,
Every one, do the mighty Bash!

(Goodgymmers down! Injuries galore!)
(What do you mean injuries galore?)
(Nettles, brambles, and Laura headbutted a spikey tree. And someone get Steve a balaclava!)

Bash! Bal-sam

(They’re alive!)

Bash! Bal-sam,

They’ll pull up all of it,
Just a Yorkie with a Yorkie’s courage,
You know they’re nothing but a Yorkie,
And they can never fail,
No one but the strong at heart,
Defeats the Himalayan Beast,
Oh-oh, oh-oh

(Goodgym, Goodgym, I love you, but there’s at least fourteen more hours to do to save Hob Moor - so it’s home time!)

Bash!

GG Yorkies ran en masse to Hull Road Park to help TCV dismantle old raised beds!

We didn't have a single new runner join us on this occasion, just all the old stinky ones, but we did get to announce the GG Yorkie of the Month for February and it was...... MARVELLOUS MITCH!

Mitch has done loads including leading and attending community missions, helping out with leading groups as a run leader, getting a coveted first finisher spot at parkrun and generally being an awesome GoodGymer. He's the most helpful one there is and is always quick to step in and help - make sure you go give him some cheers for being so good.

With Pete as our back-marker, we headed off for Hull Road Park. We even got to run in on our lovely new footpath. We were met by Rachel and Kristina who had really pulled the boat out on tools and wheelbarrows, it felt like there was almost a wheelbarrow for every single runner.

We had three tasks to complete in 35 minutes:

• Dig all the soil out of the raised beds and make a big pile on the nearby tarp
• Clear all the green waste to the skip (approx 200m away)
• Dismantle the raised beds carefully enough to re-use the wood

Tim and Tom (from now on known collectively as TimTom) were on skip duty; basically the muscle lifting wheelbarrow loads of stuff into the skip. Top wheelbarrow runner of the night has to go to Charlotte who was absolutely powering along and probably ran an extra 2km in wheelbarrow relays.

Craig nearly had to go to the naughty step as he was getting so carried away with sledgehammering that he nearly took out several people with falling planks, but generally the dismantling was a much gentler affair than I had envisaged.

One group were being really careful as they'd discovered frogs hidden in the soil of their raised bed. Tristan was busy lifting them all to safety.

What are they doing in here? Do frogs hibernate?!

The planks were piling up and soon Rachel opened up the hut whilst several people started carried dismantled planks back to storage. Debs managed to get a piece that did look very much like a headboard, probably not one anyone would really want in their bedroom though.

Anyone got wood? - Debs

...

No-one's got any wood? It is cold though - Craig

At the five minute countdown, only the soil of one raised bed remained, as well as a couple of barrow's worth of green waste, so everyone got stuck in the get the tasks finished. It was a wheelbarrow frenzy!

We need reversing beeps for these!

With our task completed, we celebrated with a couple of long hill reps up Green Dykes Lane before running back to base.

It was a big crew for post-run-pub-social and on investigating our pics we realised that Mitch had his eyes closed for the GGYofM picture, but we'd managed to leave the frame back at Priory Centre so, like the true good'un he is, Mitch ran back to retrieve it for an eyes open picture. What did I say, give that man a cheer!

On a very windy morning 3 GG Yorkies joined forces with St Nicks volunteers to help on the nature reserve. Our task today was split into two groups, one to carefully coppice an area, another to dig up the right trees to build up a mid-layer canopy in the newly cleared space.

Despite the fear that a phrase like "the right trees" strikes into the heart of less green-fingered GoodGymmers, we chose the latter in the hope that a bit of digging would warm us up. After a quick lesson in "This is a Hawthorn. Hawthorn good" "This is a Blackthorn. Blackthorn bad" we set to it, merrily digging away at the (hopefully) correct sticks, getting more ambitious as we went. There were a few false starts where tiny twigs were attached to giant roots, but we got some rather large trees out in the end (including my triple hawthorn personal best), and soon the wheelbarrow was full of trees with hopefully enough roots still attached, and team two whisked them away for planting.

Despite some perilous bankside digging, noone fell over, minimal brambles attacked us, and my hat was only stolen by the trees a few times. It certainly warmed us up, and the sun even came out to say hi!