What do you get if you cross 6 Goodgymmers with 4 tonnes of soil and 4 wheelbarrows?

... slightly fewer working wheelbarrows for a start...

We had been asked by the lovely Emma from Wild Things Forest School to help transport a load of top soil across the school field to where it was needed. She admitted that it had been specially delivered last Wednesday, and she had been poised ready for us to turn up, before realising that we weren't in fact due for another week... However most of the gang were there promptly this chilly Weds, and we set to, filling the 4 wheelbarrows from the 4 tonne bags. As barrows made their return trips, we gradually learnt which one veered off the side, or was pretty wobbly and shouldn't be filled too full, but sadly we immediately forgot and carried on anyway. We only lost one of the 4 to a breakdown, and 75% success is pretty good for Goodgym.

Dave was doing a great job raking the soil out where it was deposited by the wheelbarrowers; this was in one area covered by membrane to protect from broken glass that has been dumped there in the past, and another where Emma has a firepit that had previously been on a slope, and could do with leveling out. Vicky and Debs were majority shovellers, whilst Kieran, Tom and Max barrowed and swapped around. Max was determined to get on the bag drag ASAP, but as we have learnt before, they're always heavier than you think. Eventually the first bag was deemed ready, and Max and Debs set off across the surprisingly furrowed field. Those tiny uphills were deceptively hard going, and pausing at the bottom of a furrow was definitely a mistake. However the field was conquered, bag 1 was empty, and the daffodil in the drag trajectory lived to see until the second bag. (Don't ask what happened later...)

We had a second team of shovellers coming at 19:30, and Michal had informed us that we had to leave them half.. it quickly became apparent that that wasn't going to be the case, so Debs checked with Emma that she had plenty more jobs to fill their time. With handover approaching, a few furious last barrows were transferred, a second bag dragged, and everything smoothed out nicely. Dave had long since joined the barrowers as raking felt too much like watching other people work.

In the end we transferred 3.3 tonnes across the field, leaving a token amount for the B team, and well worn tracks in the grass for them to follow. A quick selfie, then we sent folks on their merry way to clear the space for the next bunch, with the exception of Dave who was after double the fun, and Debs who never managed to leave...