Today was a different day....i think you could safely say....
Krusher sadly couldnt make it as was on call at work today and called into a job in north london
Retro pedro forgot to wind up his alarm clock, so Mickey Mouse didnt wake him up on time Pete then thought he would make it just in time, but read the thread again and then realised it was 9am start not 10!! Better late than never though....
Wiblerforce in Holly made it up from Southampton ok, and Jim started his brekky consisting of last nights pizza remains
Badboy turned up in the rollerscate....(street ka which Paul had decorated with Playboy bunnie stickers....sharon, tell him to take em off)...can feel a Shaz 4 Paul sunstrip coming soon who would believe they hail from ESSEX!!!
And finally myself and my partner in grime Sally!! today in the li'll white leafer with its less than useless bronco dirt devils on it....
First Job....
Pete and I had scouted out an alternative entrance into the bottom of the woods last wednesday, one which would be far more caravan friendly, so we set about felling some trees, clearing fallen trees and trimming back foliage to create the new entrance....
This entrance is not going to be used all the time when playing, just for getting stuff in and out, so it doesnt get too churned up...
Next job....
The last picnic really mullered the farm tracks that go up to the top of the site, and the plan had to be to get our motors off of these....the landowner was none too impressed with how churned up the tracks were, and his tractors had kinda finished em off, but he seemed happy with my suggestion of putting our own track parallel to it...
We tried to find one of the climbs up the hill which would provide bottom to top access for everyone, but where it was raining today, they were all pretty tough and not really viable to use a main access route...
Had a bit of a disaster when Jim tried to climb one of the hills to check whether it was a viable option or not...but it was a bit tight on the entrance, which meant that insufficient momentum could be carried in for the wet conditions...Holly decided to burst a braided brake line partway up the hill as we were trying to extract her after being stuck...end result NO BRAKES! Finally managed to extract the car and determine the problem (well spotted Sally!)...
One small consolation is that the brake line failed in the woods at 0.5mph, and although it made extraction interesting, was a far safer prospect than it failing at motorway speeds...
So we decided to use just the first section of the farm track, which was a lot firmer and not suffering like the rest of it, and then dive off this into the woods at the first opportunity...
We expanded an existing entrance into the woods and felled a few trees to connect the new route in with the top section of one of the existing climbs which was tight but tame...opened it out so no longer tight and bingo new route bottom to top of site...
We then started about running a new track the length of the top of the site....disaster struck again for Jim...I was felling a tree that was supporting a section of another tree that had broken off...I shouted for everyone to get clear before I cut it, and everyone moved well back, not quite sure what happened then, only that a section of branch off the other tree broke off, then snapped and fell a totally illogical way, bounced off another branch and smacked our Jim on the bonse... End result Jim broke a tooth and gave him a monster headache...
Jim was in real pain, and totally understandably decided to call it a day and take his fronty up to the road and call the RAC to get recovered...
Shortly after Badboy had to retreat to essex as "er in doors" had broke KITT and he had to go home and get it going for her...
(cheers for the stuff for the FOGBOG paul!)
We carried on and put the tracks in at the top of the site, Matt had turned up with his misses and dogs and managed to get his disco stuck in the big bomb hole.....TWICE in exactly the same place
Made a new track in the bomb hole, and reinstated the tracks down to the last climbs up the hill, so they can be found now! Got the li'll white leafer a bit stuck, but with a bit of pushing and shoving got it out...
Finally as it was starting to get dark, Pete, Sally and I cut some new tracks over some mounds of earth by the pond...had a go in Petes 2.8 again, I do love that little car...tis pukka...cheers pete...
Retired from the woods aching at about 5.30pm....and much to our surprise found Jim still waiting in the yard at the top for recovery!!!! We had spoke to him and hour or so after he left the woods and he was expecting to get recovered with an hour...however 5 hours later he was still there!
Turns out the RAC finally turned up at 4.30 (Jim called em at 12!!!) and then said it needs recovering...we all retreated to the workshop for a brew, keeping an eye out for the tow truck...it finally arrived at 6.30pm!!!
Spoke to Jim at 9pm and he was getting near Southampton...poor sod, still needs to get to hospital to get his tooth sorted!!!
Well thanks to everyone for their help today (except the RAC!!)...got a load done and nearly ready for next weekend...
Hope you are feeling better soon Jim...