Fraedom—25 June 2021

Fraedom is a global software company offering transaction management products and services, including expense management and accounts payable solutions. Today a small but a very enthusiastic and hardworking team joined us to help out with a variety of maintenance tasks.

The group arrived bright and early and included Casper, Catherine, David, Felix and Ranga.  Also joining us for the day was our good friend and regular volunteer Alan.

The team was new to CUE Haven so Mahrukh took some time to explain the history and philosophy of CUE Haven and plans for the future.  Thomas then gave a safety briefing and described the work planned for the day.

We have been developing a wetland area where we will be planting memorial kahikatea trees.  We have not previously planted a lot in that area because it has been difficult to access and there were a lot of weeds growing up there. 

A previous group of volunteers had built some steps into the area.

However, at the bottom of the steps, the ground was quite uneven and slippery and the task for the team was to continue building out the entry way to eliminate the slippery slope and install framing around the entrance.  Additionally they had to clear up dead vegetation in the area to open it up for planting.

The first task was to study the area to determine the best way to approach the project.  They measured the area and calculated the number of steps and the amount of timber required.

While most of the team worked on the steps,  Catherine went to work clearing up the rest of the area and removing dead vegetation so that there will be room for future plantings.

Once the general plan was agreed, the next step was a lot of digging, starting with channels for the side boards.

The team wanted to make the angles where their new boards join the old steps as good as possible.  Casper stepped up to calculate the angles and do the delicate sawing.

And the result is some nice professional looking joints!

The side boards were installed and secured with pegs.

Alan had brought his nail gun and very helpfully nailed the pegs in place in no time.

The team then had a look at the slope down to the clearing and felt that it was still a bit steep and that a small step would help.  We measured the distances and Ranga helped Thomas cut the step timber.

Once the timber was cut and brought down to the site, the boards were put into position to test to see how everything lined up. 

A bit more digging was required to level the steps and make everything even.

The boards were again test fitted to ensure that everything was level and even. 

Once again Casper cut the angles just right.

Once the step risers were cut and properly positioned, they were secured in place and nailed securely.

When the last step was nailed in place, the team filled in the steps with soil and packed it down to make everything level.

In the meantime, assisted at times by Alan and David, Catherine was hard at work clearing up the area.  The job involved raking up huge piles of dead weeds and moving them out of the way.

Buried under all the dead weeds was an old concrete fence post with fence wire and that was cleared away too.

Thanks to all the hard work, the area is completely transformed and is now a nice place for visitors to plant their memorial trees.

We still had some time before lunch and the team helped sort out timber offcuts in the nursery to straighten things up and organize the space. Thanks to all their efforts the nursery is now tidy.

Our many thanks to David for organizing a very successful and productive volunteer day.

And thank you to our friend Alan for joining us and helping out with expertise, hard work—and nailing!

And a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone in the team for all their hard work and efforts today. In just a few hours they accomplished a lot and have made a great contribution.

We thoroughly enjoyed meeting you all and really appreciated your enthusiastic ‘can do’ attitude.  Do come back to CUE Haven soon to explore more of your community reserve with your family and friends. And we also look forward to having you all back again for another enjoyable and productive volunteer day!

Thank You!! Thank You!!