First week at Dunham Massey - laughs and learning

Well this week I have been the new girl on the block or Doug's replacement (the previous trainee ranger who is now assistant head ranger at Lymm!


It was my first week and the sun shone the whole week! How lucky was I!??!!!

My first week was a great, looking forward to the next two and a half years. Oh yes and I have immediately learnt that...

a) I am short! (Reaching some of the tools in the tool shed and also the gear stick on the landy is hard with short legs!)

b) I have no strength in my muscles (yet!) which is extremely frustrating!

c) The 'Dunham Massey 7' the amount of weight (in pounds thankfully, not stone) you apparently put on when working at Dunham!

So yes my first week was great the best bits of the week were (and in no particular order)...

1) Getting a NT uniform - I was so chuffed! Loving the combat style trousers and flattering black polo shirts!

2) Using a petrol strimmer - they are sooooo cool, much better than the piddly battery one Tom and I have at home for the allotment

3) Driving the landrover avec small trailer

4) Meeting all the friendly faces at Dunham, my team are great and the staff in the house are so friendly and welcoming. But beware of the Dunham Massey 7 - refuse all offers of home baked biscuits and cakes which really are on offer ever day at the house!

5) Realising how good Dunham is for getting experience in the 'bigger jobs' of the ranger team. Driving the tractor is a daily task here at dunham and big tree jobs are often done by the team (2 of the team are trained climbers so can fell some of the big trees themselves). There's also a lot of strimming, pruning etc to be done with it being quite a manicured park.

I wont go into the ins and outs of each day but needless to say it does seem like every day brings with it a new task or different thing to do. Friday is clock winding day of the clock in the clock tower and I think that alone will build up my muscles, the weights need winding back up each Friday and they are literally huge pieces of stone. I could just about turn one of the handles but no chance with the other. Then one of the other rangers took over and made it look like he was just mixing a cake - I have a long way to go and think I need to be winding that clock up each week!!!

I have spent I think 6 years volunteering for the NTS and have realised this week how lucky I am to be able to visit so many properties and learn so much but what I have learnt seems to be so small compared to what I need to learn going forward. The work at Dunham seems very different to what I am used to but I think its essentially bigger jobs and less nature conservation. Their main focus / priority seems to be on health and safety in terms of the veteran trees and making sure they are safe. The nature conservation side of things happens on the way! Its so interesting though to see the work of a ranger from Dunham's angle and I am certainly going to learn lots!  

One amazing piece of kit which I wish NTS have for their thistle camps are 'silkies' small hand held pruning saws which cut through so much with much less effort than bow saws and so much quicker and so much more ability to manoeuvre the blade than a bow saw. One to tell Jon next time I see him!

Tasks this week have included the necessary induction, pruning back tress overhanging fences by the tennis courts, increasing the height of the drainage access points and back filling the spaces around them with topsoil, strimming ride / field margins, walking the park for any snags or any questions I had (a very nice way to end a week with a walk around the park!). I have also been to meetings where I have met volunteer park rangers (85 in total I think, though I only met a few!) at their leaders meeting, meeting the head of departments at their meeting and the NW Director John Darlington!

What will next week have in store?