Continued water works

Wednesday, January 31st 2018

We took off this morning where we left off last evening; with the excavator having wound its way all the way up to the Vole Ponds. Thankfully the pump was already set up from late yesterday so we could crack on with draining the lower pond.

Willie then set about clearing the silt that had built up at the bottom of the pond, making sure to leave patches of undisturbed vegetation.

While this was going on the pump was moved to the upper Vole Pond and some additional chainsaw work was needed to clear a path for the excavator.

Despite being smaller, the upper Vole Pond required a lot more attention due to the quantity of silt deposited at the bottom. Once the bulk of the silt had been removed the inlet to the ponds was reopened, and the upper pond quickly began to fill up again.

All that was left to do now was to get the excavator back to the trailer at the lay-by car park and to drive it round to the Cascade Ponds at the head of the Lake.

Unfortunately this was easier said than done, what with all but one of the team over at Warcop putting up owl boxes, and two immensely heavy sections of boardwalk in the way of us and excavator freedom.

Surprisingly we managed to get through the first section relatively easily, which is worth noting as it wasn't particularly fun or easy to lift between four people the day before!

And here's where our luck ran out a little bit; digging out the pond between the two boardwalk sections yesterday made it very difficult to get out of, even after draining the pond for a second time.

Thankfully Willie somehow managed to manoeuvre the excavator up the bank far enough to be able to attach a rope and pull the second section of boardwalk free.

Laboriously winding his way past net rides 61 and 62, Willie was then able to get to the road and circle back round to come into the reserve at the Moorland gate before making his way to the Cascading Ponds.

After a bit of tinkering with the ponds at the head of the Lake Willie was finished, having fixed the Wetland, Scrapes, Vole Ponds and Cascading Ponds for us in less than three days!

Many Thanks Willie

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