Tales of the Volcano Lair - Tractor Fun

Keep your eyes pealed for some stillages for wood storage. We push them onto an old buck rake on the DB for moving round to fill / store then up to the house.
James

After the harvest comes the County Show where you display your produce in an attempt to show up your neighbours.

SWMBO managed to enter 9 fleeces





While I entered 2 nets of hay



SWMBO got two Seconds including Reserve Champion





While I got zilch. Our hay was cut too late so was both over dried in the sub Saharan heat of August and had low sugar. I have a plan for next year.

Proud or embarrassed grandchildren. Start 'em young I say.





Stinking hot in the marquees but one little piggy had a solution.



SWMBO & I retired to the Langham Wine Estate's tent for a celebratory tincture



Lord Fellowes of Downton Abbey fame gave out the major prizes (not ours)



So back to the hay fiasco. As I'm reliant on contractors and as with only 8 acres very low on the totem pole for service I need to be able to process small batches of hay at the optimum time of maturity. A previous road trip with Uncle Rob yielded some more of that old cr@p that I am so inordinately fond of; to whit a Mayfield Autoscythe. Bought for maintaining the wildlife margins up at Farkham Hall but can use a variety of market garden implements





The 1 hp Mk 10 Villiers is a bit of a clunker and needs a full rebuild.



The plan is to keep the Villiers and eventually rebuild it but for reliability, power and fuel consumption swap in a Chinese Honda copy motor.

Hmm, gas turbines and hay fields aren't such a good mix - especially since the powers that be banned stubble burning!

I would like all the toys, except for the banana loader which makes the tractor look stupid IMHO, however I have a storage problem until I reduce the fleet a bit more. Got plans for some small scale root crops up at Farkham Hall but would then need to evict the squatters below.

Look up Tractor Acrobat also, it's so more evocative than hay turner or tedder

I reckon that Luc Besson had the wrong idea. Leeloo (aka Mrs Corben Dallas, gratuitous picture withheld) was not the Fifth Element.

Round our way it goes EARTH plus WATER grows WOOD then WIND blows wood over and after the requisite amount of time it ends up on my FIRE.

Will that save the world? Who knows but it's somewhat disconcerting when a neighbour texts you 'to get up the big field'. We jump in the Apocalypse Defender to find the the big oak has shed another branch system.







Why is this important? Because that tree is my trump card in the playful linguistic jousting I partake regularly with some American acquaintances where I have ended any difference of opinion by telling them I have a tree older than their entire country. Either it's a winning argument or they refuse to talk further. Next time I usually have to agree not to bring the curse word tree up but I know the thought is always hanging around in their heads

In other news I'm on holiday so I swap work for different work. I've re-roofed the colonnade down at the Lair as SWMBO would put it because back passage gives the wrong impression. The 50 year-old plus asbestos cement roofing panels were getting very brittle and we've discovered a couple of kids where they shouldn't be so it was time to employ the professionals to give them the heave-ho. Very expensive but worthwhile.



You will note my highly visible, legally spaced "Fragile Roof - Do not climb" signs. When the little scrotes clamber over the fence, through the barbed wire and brambles and tap dance on my roof they may fall through but they won't get Mesothelioma. Phew!

Our local pub is older than America. Time to change tack if you have an ancient local?
"I drink in a pub older than your country".

An excellent idea. My local was used to billet Parliamentarian troops during the Civil War so at least 1645. Although that will kick off the 'warm beer' versus 'what made Milwaukee famous was dog pee' banter.

Nigel, you've just made me feel very stupid as that's another Terry Pratchett joke I didn't get until now.