Working Saturday, nice path made for me. 7th December 2019

There I was, 8:15am, wandering along the vehicle track on the south side of Manor farm, approaching my mighty mound, when what do I espy: a red digger trundling north from the Bailey bridge.  Bleedin' 'ell I thought, what's 'e doing workin' on a Saturday morning?

Then I thought, should I make my way off Manor farm? Even though the digger was still some 50m away, it could go any where, and may be joined by more plant. It is dangerous to be wandering around with plant operating. More so, as I didn't have any Hi-Vis clothing.

Anyway, I watched the digger, and the digger driver watched me from within, and after a few moments I wandered down a rather natty path Inert have made for me ( :-) ), while the digger driver made his way past the pump and over to the east side of Cormorant lake, close to the scrape.

I haven't worked out what the digger was doing. At first I thought he might be digging a new drainage channel. Which is odd, as there is a perfectly good drainage ditch already there.  In addition, the digger driver didn't seem to get close enough to the water's edge to cut the channel - unless you dig the channel dry, to begin with (thus making it easier and safer) and only connect to water at the last moment.

Needless to say I did not wander over to see what the chap was up to; keeping well away and to the vehicle paths. I did toy with paying a visit on my return leg from Moor Green Lakes. half an hour later, but the digger was still at work. I had to proceed to the Longwater road (where my car was parked) and make a slight detour to pick up two trail cams I had put out on the Blackwater.

Now, what have Inert been up to this past week? Well, it is a bit tricky to tell. My Wednesday stomp revealed our bulldozer driver industrially working away on the east side of Cormorant lake. No apparent attempt had been made to level the heaped soil on the west side of Cormorant lake. The odd lorry was sighted, but certainly not the hordes I have sometimes seen. Overall, there seems to be a slow down in rates of progress.

On Saturday, I was pleasantly surprised to see that ballast had been laid over the rubble track, Inert had made over the past week or so. How nice of them to do so for me. :-) :-) :-) Walking along the rubble track was wonderfully easy - no hopping from boulder to boulder, or sinking into deep mud.

I have seen Inert build such a structure several times over the years. Mostly along the south vehicle track.  I've never seen them build one onto the land mass.  It will certainly make the lorry drivers' lives a lot easier not have to either drive or reverse down a muddy track.

Our stalwart pump, silent on Wednesday, was chugging away this morning. As well it might, seeing as the rain has returned with a vengeance, and is to continue. The rate of flow from the out flow of the settlement ponds suggests that another pump has been turned on. I think Chandlers farm might still have a pond requiring draining. Not sure.

There are subtle hints that Inert have also been tinkering around the west and north side of the copse. It is hard to say. I have been so used to seeing the site either covered in fog or frost or both for the past few weeks, it is hard to remember subtle changes from week to week. One bit of churned up muddy ground looks the same.

My trail cams picked up the grim reaper (Mink) early in the week, but no sight of the beast since Thursday. Luckily, one trail cam did pick up a weasel, scuttling fast along a branch. Only a photo mind. The thing went so fast, it was out of sight by the time the video recorder kicked in.