Tuesday 26 June 2018

Haymaking Complete!

Yesterday we managed to complete our haymaking mission - with huge thanks to all our helpers - an army who turned out to help us!  A few days ago I worried it was just going to be me trying to get it in and I was so relieved to see so many people arrive!  Roger was able to rewe up for us and then came with his tractor, "flat 8" and extra big trailer.  Angela came from Cornwall to drive the little tractor and with the help of Jo we made a start on getting some bales in.  Then Roger arrived and we had a change of plan - the flat 8 was bringing bales in faster than we could process them!  We were so thankful to see our extra helpers arrive and as the evening went on we had an army of 22 people!  Jo, Angela, Pete and Jamie who came to help from the local village, Archie, Caitlin, Lottie, Becca, Richard, Catherine, Edward (who drove the big tractors for us), Victoria, Tasha, Orrie, Vicky, Jim, Roger, Ted (who also managed some extra tractoring), Margaret and Jenny working on refreshments, Henry watching from the sidelines, and myself.  It was so hot and this cut was one of the earliest ever.  The ground is so dusty and I had the worst hayfever with this crop - I'm still suffering with dust in the lungs now so I hope our helpers have recovered from all their hard work.

It was the first time we've ever had an "artist in residence" to capture the haymaking and Henry drew us some fantastic pictures of the job in progress.  Thank you very much to Jo for capturing the photos on her phone for us!

770 bales all stacked and safe in the barn! Phew!  Thank you to everyone from the ponies for all your help!  It's going to be the most delicious hay they've ever had!  Thanks especially to Ted and Jenny who donate all the hay for the ponies - such massive help to P4P!



Roger arrives with his tractor and the Flat 8

Henry - our artist for the evening impresses everyone with his drawings of the event
Henry's artwork

Offloading and stacking in the barn - there's a chain of people there in the shadows of the barn that you can't see.

The baler hard at work and the John Deere and trailer in the field

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