This week, the Edinburgh mid week group continued with the epic drainage project at the Hermitage of Braid. A good start, however, was not made when new VO Richard very nearly made the most basic mistake in the book, of forgetting the biscuits. With crisis so narrowly averted, the group arrived at the Hermitage feeling in the highest of spirits, which soon faded when they saw the amount of pebbles that needed barrowing. Today’s task was to lay pipe in the previously dug drainage ditches. This involved laying a thin layer of pebbles in the bottom of the ditch, plonking the pipe down, then burying it in more pebbles, laying some geotextile membrane over these, before laying more pebbles over that. As I am sure you will appreciate, many, many, many pebbles had to be moved. Luckily, new Volunteer Development Officer Dave was on hand to show his mettle, and really get those stones shifted.
On Wednesday, having run out of pebbles, the group then started laying type one over other areas of the project, to create a hard standing area for wheelchairs. Guess what. More barrowing (as an aside, I’ve had to spend the whole weekend doing handstands to return my arms to the right length). Firstly, a layer of geotextile membrane was laid down, and then the type one was laid on top. It was then raked level and tamped down. Whilst this was going on, Alan Kingdom Brunel and Derek Bazalgette continued to do yet more work on drainage ditches. It was also decided to lay type one over the previously unsurfaced path. This area had turned into a deadly quagmire, claiming, we fear, many lives.
On Thursday, it rained. We laid the rest of the drainage pipes. It rained. We used the remaining gravel. It rained. We tried to compact the rest of the laid type one. It rained.