Sunday 15th November

Despite the offer of free food, and as many logs as you could fit into a family saloon, leaving room for your wife, there was only a small turnout of members today. Disappointingly only 10 or so members of our 160+ membership turned out to fell/burn the trees on the left of our East end approach, this is stage one of our major hedge trimming project.

Many thanks to the expert help of professional team Linee for providing their skills FOC.

On our side we had our own specialist team Paul(Chopper) Kane,  Simon(Firestarter) Leeson,  Graham(Poker) Bardon,  Hans(Trimmer) Jennson  James(Captain Safety) Flory, these members had specific skill sets.

Simon(Firestarter) Leeson had apparently recently watched  Ray Mears starting a fire in a damp forest, using only a single damp match and dried caterpillars beards.

He emulated his hero magnificently, starting the fire with only 4 boxes of matches 42 ltr of diesel, 20 ltrs of old chip oil, all of Dick(Crop Circles)Stevens interior from his old caravan, including flammable cushions, curtains and an old faded picture of the Beatles.
Yep if you are ever in a survival situation Simon is the guy to have around.

The haulage/dogsbody team was Paul(Dayglow) Summers , new member James(not Hood he was sleepy ;) me ie Mark(The Delegator) Courtney, new member Will (I am younger than you), and Sam(equally safe)Flory,

We broke for our free lunch, everyone was exhausted and dropped off to sleep, only to be woken by the sound of a large whip being cracked, now who cracked it?? ( answers on a postcard)
Later in the afternoon we had a boost from John(better late than never) Burrows, Malcolm(Why the Rush) Vest, and Nick(Cool Cat) Jones with his grandson.

By 15:45 we were exhausted, smelling like jacket potatoes which had been left in the fire too long we trudged back to the clubhouse for tea and cheese scones.

Phase 2 soon, am I painting a inviting picture ?

Ps please excuse any spelling mistakes as I can hardly move my fingers or see clearly due to fatigue.- Mark C