Current Weather at Strickley

Friday 17 July 2015

Will I ever learn?

Three years ago I bought tickets to see Bellowhead at Harrogate (see Blog post in July 2012). I knew the risks - we could be silaging. But as the weather was appalling and more rain forecast I thought the gamble had paid off. But, the day before the gig the weather changed and there was a small window to get our Second Cut. I could have dug my heels in and said "no", but I am a Farmer before I am a Folkie.
I shouldn't have done it, but later in the week I searched the Internet for reviews and found this rather blurred photo - spot the two empty seats in the front row. The review is here


Fast forward three years and we've seen Bellowhead many times, but there's always room for one more. So in March I booked tickets for their gig at Stoke tonight. Lightening couldn't strike twice could it? We finished picking up the grass last night, but by this morning it was obvious there was far too much to do to let us get away (and Stoke is not exactly just down the road, especially on the last Friday of term). So reluctantly but knowing it had to be done, I cancelled the hotel and put it out of my mind.

Will I look for reviews of what I missed? Shaky footage on YouTube? Probably.

But there is a light - or rather lights - at the end of the tunnel, as we have three more Bellowhead gigs booked (November and April - when we can't possibly be silaging). Fingers crossed.

And it was a case of third time unlucky, as I managed to do it five years ago for a Leonard Cohen concert. And no jokes please.

Wednesday 15 July 2015

It's silage time, but different

Twenty Seven years ago we were the proud owners of a JF Forage Harvester and we managed all the silaging ourselves. It seemed to take forever as we fitted it in between milkings and breakdowns. For the next twenty six (and a half) years we used a contractor. A bigger more reliable machine, and extra work force meant it was all done a bit quicker. But the contractor had to be booked (and everyone round about wanted him at more or less the same time), and extra help found for carting. But nonetheless it worked for us. But this year didn't go quite as smoothly and after much deliberation we took the plunge and bought a Forage Wagon. For those not in the know this is a machine (the size of a large trailer), that picks up the grass, chops it and then when you drive it to the pit, shoves it out. So, in theory we can manage with three people. Henry milking/doing up then scaling and rowing up, David buckraking and James in his new toy.


So far, so good (and I only had to make up three lunchboxes.)
Now - will this video work? It's a low resolution version - and any shakiness or wobbling is the fault of the camera woman.