If ever a TCV blog title deserves a prize for outstanding alliteration this should be it!
On tuesday and thursday of last week our mid week volunteering team were out at Almondell and Calderwood country park in west lothian. The plan over the two days, was to build a new fence at one of the viewpoints overlooking the river Almond itself and the aquaduct, which was a much needed addition as the hill side was pretty steep and the existing fence was in a poor state of repair. The stretch to be fenced was fairly long ,approximately 25-30m, but the volunteers set about the task with gusto!
The first thing that needed to be done was to remove any rotted fence posts that were currently in place along with the chestnut paling that made up the previous fence. After this the volunteers could get to work with pinch bars and mells putting in some sturdy new posts.
Our resident mell master Ben showing us how it’s done!
Once the posts were in then we could begin to add the rails which were staggered (i.e at a given post one rail, either the upper or lower, would end and the other would be at it’s mid-point) in order to make the fence stronger.
Attaching the rails.
Replacing any broken beams in the chestnut paling and lining it up ready to be nailed in place.
With the posts and rails in place the chestnut paling was repaired and then the sound of many hammers filled the air as it was reattached to the front of the new fence. The end results of the volunteers hard work for quite frankly fantastic, a fence that not only looked very professionally but is undoubtedly going to be strong enough to stand the test of time.
The painstaking task of banging in plenty of nails to keep the paling in place. I’m sure some of the volunteers thought they’d never reach the end of the fence.
A huge thank you to all our skilled volunteers who came and lent a hand on both days!
A great picture of not only the completed fence (which gives you a good idea how long it was!), but also a happy albeit tired volunteer group.