Mattock Charge of the Brizzle Brigade

On the 11th Day of the 11th Month, at the 11th Hour in 2017 GoodGym Bristol assembled for a group run. Firstly we marked the Armistice with a two minutes silence in sight of the Bristol Cenotaph. Then after an introduction from Matt, including welcoming Darren, and telling the story of Welly and Alex’s wedding due to GG weeding, we set off to the task – this was mainly padding for time as the GG Weather window was late and the rain was still falling initially.

After the short run to Windmill City farm, we were greeted by Beth, who provided a short introduction and she gave us three challenges which needed us to split into teams.

Plot 12 is usually tended to by a local school, but it needed some work to remove all the bindweed roots and stones so the children have a great start to learning about gardening and the best soil quality possible. So Team Plot 12 set to work.

A Poly tunnel had been taken down and they realised the polythene had been buried to secure it, sadly this makes drainage a serious problem so it was decided the plastic must be dug up and removed, so it was Team Trench's mission to dig for PVC, with spade, mattock and GoodGym grit.

Leaf mulch makes an amazing compost to start new seeds and plants, so with the recent windy weather had generated a lot of leaves that needed to be collected, Tea' Leave - the Reds (Debs and Paul) took on this challenge. This gave an intriguing insight into 30 years of marriage of how to work together and accept each other’s idiosyncrasies and approaches to tasks, hopefully Welly and Alex were taking notes.

By this time Team Plot 12 had completed one side of the pond and were moving to the other side of the pond, Darren was modelling his camo wellies with pride (or was that his recent achievements at Eastville parkrun?) and Fi was modelling the muddy trainer look.

Team Trench, meanwhile had made an amazing impact of the plastic, and despite having a collapsed compost heap to attend to had removed significant amounts of the plastic removed.

With ten minutes to go, Team Leaf changed their bailiwick from leaves to tea-leaves and kindly prepared some refreshments for us all.

So the question dear reader, is did Team Trench remove the plastic? Of course they did! It did take an immense final effort from the King of the Mattock Chris Lewis, but the plastic was heaved from the ground and removed. Amazing effort Team Trench! Beth had expected to take all week to remove that plastic, so now they can get on with replacing the poly tunnel and the plants can be warm again.

Now the victorious groups went for the mug of tea and coffee and then a tour of all the animals that the farm has to offer; Goats, guinea pigs, pigs, sheep, chickens, rabbits, ducks plus some others.

Eventually Matt managed to round the team up and it was time to go, so we set off back to Roll for the Soul, for a well-earned lunch, post stretch.

Big thanks to Matt for leading the run today, writing the report and providing the pix - top effort sir!