It is almost exactly ten years since we borrowed a trailer and drove to Ed Turner’s farm near the east coast, beyond Ipswich and that’s a long way east; to pick up three in-calf cows. That was a pretty exciting and alarming day and there have been plenty of memorable ones since – births, deaths, sales, […]
I spent most of the morning wrestling with a tractor that died last night – in a gateway, with a trailer, blocking a neighbour’s drive. Thanks to John of Town Farm Garage (the best place to take your car for a service), who, rather than going home at 6.30 on a Friday, volunteered to tow […]
The bitter north-easterly wind leaves your face painfully cold; more January than April. The ground’s really soft in places, but drying – slowly. And that made today just a bit of an anti-climax. We got the young stock out onto grass this morning. Usually there’s warmth in the air, sun on your back, working through layers of […]
Great to be back at farmers’ markets for the spring!Yesterday Woburn and for the hour it didn’t rain we did well. After that there was a little dampness in the air and by about 12.30, all but the most die-hard shoppers had retired, either home or to the many warm, snug and dry hostelries in the […]
One of the pleasures of doing this job (and there are several), is meeting our customers. It may be that an interest in sticks makes people laid back and interesting or that we often sell sticks to basket makers and gardeners, and that they are particularly friendly. I’m sure there’s a connection. Yesterday I delivered lots of large […]
I’ve spent a couple of days helping lay a hedge on a neighbour’s farm over the last fortnight which has been good if extremely cold. It’s an excellent example of the benefits of the environmental grant schemes that have been and are still available to farmers. This hedge was planted along with a couple of small […]
We bought a new thing recently and gave it its first outing last week. It’s a German power scythe in a rather fetching green/orange livery; loaded with horse power, armed with 6 gears and a mightily long cutting bar. We had hired and borrowed smaller machines in the past which worked well enough to suggest this would be the […]
It’s hard to ask for help. Pride, perhaps mixed with the certain knowledge that the help we might request is for work that is hard, cold and pretty dull. On many occasions over the last few years however, visitors have suggested we tell them when we need a hand; but we’ve not been good at asking.This year we did and things turned out […]
Despite the blooming cold weather and very un-British snow sitting on the ground for a week, we have made a lot of progress cutting willow over the last couple of days. Armed with a new (well second-hand), power scythe, bought from a lovely bloke in Bury St. Edmonds, cutting has speeded up compared with previous years.The wind picked […]
Jane’s very sensible. I know this. She has an uncanny ability to calm me; I know this too. An important trait to look for in a partner, although I’m certain it didn’t make the list when an overwhelming need to marry her developed in me, some years ago. I got in yesterday evening saying that […]