Planning a dig

Early Mistakes

a) When we began with our very first field, we didn’t know what we were allowed to change from our Google Earth Plan. This field caused hours of thinking and planning that was completely unnecessary. If we were given that section today, we would know how it should be done fairly quickly. And the method we would use would have used more ploughing and less digging and therefore been a lot quicker. (To be honest we needed advice, and this is when B4RN were very helpful, but only had 12 staff, Nick hadn't even joined)

b) The very next section after that is where I walked 400m up a hill with half a plough. (I had of course had to feed the 400m of duct through the wall previously and lay it out in the next field) We had been told to avoid joins at all costs. This saved a join. (The procedure I went through to save joining was more likely to have caused a problem than a join would) This was for our link to Barbon a 48 fibre cable - we had no idea what that meant (it is the smallest cable and the easiest to blow).

c) We laid out our first set of about 10 spur ducts, all with proper end caps and labels on - like we thought we had been told. After you’ve dragged that lot across a field you have lost half the labels and a couple of end caps. We moved on to taping ends and colour coding the ducts later that day and ever since.

d) At this stage we are installing small chambers with 3 rings. We were told 3 rings. We install 3 rings. We install 3 rings for the next year or so, before we realise you only need 2. We work this out for ourselves. Apparently ‘the old rings were smaller’.

e) All of us go through the cat’s cradle stage of uncoiling ducting. We have all met that tight coil of 16 that keeps following you and turning back into a coil. We all have trouble reading numbers on duct. We all have trouble taping things up. We lose a bit of colour coding and have to walk back over the field to figure it out. These are all probably part of the normal learning process, and they still occur from time to time.

We got better. We got better by learning from the contractors that put the route in from Barbon to Dent. We mainly got better by doing it wrong, figuring it out and doing it right

Get advice

Considerations and Obstacles

Soon you pick up the essentials of the capabilities of diggers and ploughs and those bits they can and can’t do. Most of the operators we dealt with were very flexible about working hours, but things were often on or off at short notice. The rule is to get the most out of the machine work as possible.

a) We dig down to find the BT lines and electric cables beforehand. Also to try to find out about water and drains. There may be other unexpected considerations – we had some scruffy saplings to avoid because someone was growing them to make walking sticks, we had a hedge that was descended from Emily Bronte’s hedge or something. You can’t predict these – dialogue is the key.

b) Look to see where the gates are to each field, and check they can be untied, are wide enough, are not too rocky. Be prepared to mend a gate. Have spare string at least. And knowing a macho knot or two would have saved some embarrassing bows.

c) Some sections will have overhanging branches. Can you cut these beforehand? Do you need permission to trim them? At least have a saw with you. One of our digger men routinely carried an axe (and used it).

d) Our routes often use gateways between fields. Some are obviously too rocky for a moleplough and you need to decide whether to go for a wall crossing or to use a digger to get you through a few yards. Many times, you will just go for it with the plough and see what happens. This is more successful than you would think, but sometimes you have to sort it by hand or at worst come back and use the digger. Sometimes it is clearly not working, and you are better cutting the duct there, and starting moleploughing again further along, leaving enough spare ducting so you only have one join to do.

e) Slope. Tractors and diggers are okay going directly up or down steep slopes. Moleploughing is always better downhill because the wheels do not dig in so much. A digger will also prefer to work downwards (but facing upwards). Going across a slope can be tricky, especially if the grass is wet. There is a tendency to slide sideways, and this can make a fair muddy mess.

f) Depth. The most asked question you will get is ‘how deep does the duct have to be?’. The famous Guide says 50-60cm. No. It doesn’t. It goes as deep as you can get it easily. If you can get it at least 30cm down, then you are happy. If you feel you can’t get it this deep, or it is in danger from some farming process, then put it in outer alkathene ducting.

All my fields lead uneventful lives, they are sheep fields. You may well have fields that lead a more exciting life.

g) Running over your own duct. Sometimes you get in situations where your own duct is in your way and there seems no choice but to run over it. You might be able to loop it over the machine. You could consider joining it. Of if you borrow a few nearby turves to cover it, it will usually be fine. Inspect and replace if necessary.

You will normally be working to get a particular chunk of your whole area up and running before you move on to the next. This section will be based on a set of chambers – from a chamber where the fibre count changes to the chamber where the fibre count next changes. That is because core fibre isn’t usually cut and joined, it is blown as a continuous length through several chambers.

Within this section you will probably be concentrating on smaller areas of a handful of fields. For example, all those fields belonging to the same farmer.

That will be your general plan. But for example, if you have a digger for a day then you might want to do other bits outside this area to use the day efficiently. We have to fit in with grass cutting, so some fields are untouchable for a month or two at a time. Some fields have special rules (due to grant conditions) that mean they can’t be touched until after a specific day (a Stewardship Agreement). Something to do with letting the wild flowers have a chance. Not all farmers comply to these rules rigidly. You are guided by the farmer’s wishes.

Before the Day

What services needs to be marked? –or dug down and found?.

What information do you need to tell everyone?

Tell landowners and tenants what’s happening. Ask again about pipes, drains.

Pre-apologise.

Watch the weather forecast. If you cancel, who do you tell?

Do you know all the ways into the fields, and how to open each gate?

What are your objectives, priorities? What order are you doing things in?

Ask for help. Who is coming? How will it change the plan if they don’t turn up?

What time have you arranged to start? What time are you likely to start?

What parking is there for machines, trailers, volunteers?

Do you need any alkathene, metal pipe available? Do you know where to get some at short notice?

Have you got a plan if you hit a service?

What doors can you knock on nearby if in trouble?

Is your phone charged up?

Are you kitted up with tape, joiners etc?

Where is the duct coming from? Do you need to lay it out before, do you need help with that?

Which boils down to

· Have a plan

· Tell everyone

· Get the required equipment in the right place

· Expect the unexpected

So before your dig day you should have everything laid out ready to go. If you have a ploughing route where the route is not obvious you may need to put out a few markers. Things should be such that when machine arrives it can start up and get on with the job of getting duct in the ground immediately, it shouldn’t have to wait for something to happen that could have been done already. (The one that comes to mind first is a day that when a tractor arrived, they all had to move a pile of turnips out of the way to get into the field)

Who do you get to do the work?

Nearly all our digging was done by local people, that was one of our objectives from the start. Eventually we had the choice pretty much of 3 or 4 people to do any job. This got a bit complicated at times, in order to be fair to everyone, and to be seen to be fair. Some farmers wanted to deal with their own land themselves. In one case he didn’t own a plough so used his digger to do it all when it would have ploughed easily. Fair enough, but this takes up a lot of volunteer hours unnecessarily. We made the mistake once of having a ploughman and a diggerman working in the same section at the same time, this meant one got about £100 of shares and the other £1000 for the same hours. It then took several weeks finding more work for the diggerman before he was happy.

Everyone was aware what work the others were doing and it all had to done fairly, at the same time as actually trying to get the best worker doing the job. Also there was a bit of preference from the farmers – I want X to do mine and sometimes - I’m not letting Y on my land.

Being friendly with all of them was the key to success, and they would normally just tell you if they felt hard done by. None of them depended on the work.

During this, one had to learn not to gossip too much about various farmers being ‘difficult’ or spread too much insider knowledge, as that kind of talk could often travel too far too fast. Although, used wisely, the grapevine was a useful weapon.