Training and Members' PracticeEleven cheerful trainees worked to extend the new wall at Blackruthven in late July. Jim Grant and Ron McGill led their teams through this project from the spade / pick / mattock stage to the final point of placing the copes. Our courses in the past have mostly been repair rather than new build, but with two of the estate’s staff on the course it’s becoming clear that they will be the repairers of the future.Meantime, further down the line a smaller group of members apologised to the toad whose home was so rudely disrupted/ renovated and refurbished a much older section.We’re often asked how old the wall in an old section might be: the answer’s something along the lines of ‘I’d guess at least 100 years.’ The hearting on the old wall had largely turned to dust, as sandstone does. There should be a prize for anyone who develops a workable outdoor vacuum cleaner.The weather forecast had been poor, but despite short sharp showers on the Sunday we weren’t drenched until the very end. A fine cheek end finished off the trainees’ really nice-looking wall. We sold a good few hammers, books etc and gained one new member.