Deck the Squalls with Dirty Scrubbers

On a wet and dark September evening, a lot of GG Yorkies were out doing good!

First-timer, Louise wasn't worried about any rain! Go and give her a big cheer for getting stuck in.

It was indeed very wet, and our two tasks were not entirely conducive to wet conditions.

1. Scrubbing a grimy area of decking for MySight to make it less dangerous
2. Raking a large volume of grass and forking the soil in the Leeman Road Community Orchard

We arrived at MySight with enough light left to see the task which lay ahead. Imagine tongue and groove decking, but every groove is filled with old grime.

The decking was pretty treacherous and unsafe for people with visual impairments. We were provided some buckets, deck-cleaner, some scrubbing brushes, a broom, a mop, / couple of scrapers and err.. a dustpan and brush.

This gets in the groove really nicely!

Ellie D discovered that the most effective tool was in fact the dustpan, as she used the corner of it to scoop out dirty grime.

Debs was carefully 'aliquoting' portions of decking cleaner to the scrubbers, as she'd calculated that there wasn't quite enough in the bottle.

Paul, who is recovering from his Achilles surgery, had walked and ended up in charge of holding the bag which everyone was dumping moss and grime scrapings into.

I'm really pleased to you got me to come tonight - Paul

We finished up with many rounds of warm water being sploshed onto the newly scrubbed decking and Vicky sweeping furiously to get it properly shiny, whilst John mopped up our muddy footprints inside.

Over at Leeman Park, as well as that Goodgym classic of lots of raking (with only four rakes), we also scarified all the grass and removed large tufts of shrubbery. In the task owners words:

Hide and destroy! David, Friends of Leeman Park

We made quick progress, with people using forks as rakes and Stef using an apparently sharp and slightly dangerous tool, which he loved!

For our fitness session the plan was to do hill reps by the river...however we spent most of the time looking for somewhere that wasn't flooded!

We managed to sneak a few hill reps on a small embankment in the end which everyone was slightly relieved about.