Buzzer:
Exciting here this afternoon a clap of thunder and five minutes or rain, not even hard and that was it just dampened the dust. Early to the marsh to fill tanks and retrieve bowser for a refill, nice and cool early on Buzzer.
Morning John, Did someone take a hacksaw to the horns. They look well fed though.
We had our Agri’ show this week and all the talk was about winter feed costs, no rain for over 7 weeks and the hotest on record for over 50 years.
As I type this its started to rain, hard. Harvey
Buzzer:
Exciting here this afternoon a clap of thunder and five minutes or rain, not even hard and that was it just dampened the dust. Early to the marsh to fill tanks and retrieve bowser for a refill, nice and cool early on Buzzer.
Morning John, Did someone take a hacksaw to the horns. They look well fed though.
We had our Agri’ show this week and all the talk was about winter feed costs, no rain for over 7 weeks and the hotest on record for over 50 years.
As I type this its started to rain, hard. Harvey
Harvey sometimes the horns get missed when they are younger, my mate has a big pair of guillotine like shears if needed and we get them in the crush and chop them of but not too close to the skull and it should only be done Jan Feb time when no flies about other than that you can use a cheese wire as they call it and seesaw them of, the wire is serrated but it takes a lot longer especially if the animal is chucking its head about that’s why the shears are better, If you take the ends off they stunt the growth JD.
PS. did not realise you were in Stranraer i sold an F88 to a man from there many years ago when it finished its term with me.
Well it’s only gone and bloody rained up ere and what a difference it’s making, the meadows are starting to grow after taking the crop off and all the lambs have now been spaned and are now enjoying some fog. Time to concentrate on mule gimmers and getting them ready for the sales in September and hopefully we will have some second cut to get in but thats looking like being late this year.
Busy on the work front getting tractors away from the Royal Welsh Show and back to their respective dealers, loaded up on Friday afternoon to go up Scotch on monday so that should keep us busy and away from that traffic congestion…
Well it’s only gone and bloody rained up ere and what a difference it’s making, the meadows are starting to grow after taking the crop off and all the lambs have now been spaned and are now enjoying some fog. Time to concentrate on mule gimmers and getting them ready for the sales in September and hopefully we will have some second cut to get in but thats looking like being late this year.
Busy on the work front getting tractors away from the Royal Welsh Show and back to their respective dealers, loaded up on Friday afternoon to go up Scotch on monday so that should keep us busy and away from that traffic congestion…
Cheers Wrighty.
You certainly get about Wrighty ! You must spend half your life strapping stuff down chap with the loads
you do !
Nice bit of rain overnight Buzzer here in Wimborne, did you get plenty ■■
Harvey sometimes the horns get missed when they are younger, my mate has a big pair of guillotine like shears if needed and we get them in the crush and chop them of but not too close to the skull and it should only be done Jan Feb time when no flies about other than that you can use a cheese wire as they call it and seesaw them of, the wire is serrated but it takes a lot longer especially if the animal is chucking its head about that’s why the shears are better, If you take the ends off they stunt the growth JD.
PS. did not realise you were in Stranraer i sold an F88 to a man from there many years ago when it finished its term with me.
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Morning John,
Although the law says you must freeze the area before burning the buds, they are a little harsh “up here”.
Friend of mine just likes to see them natural but only steers and beef cows and another up the road has over 800 head, mainly milkers and dehorns everything.
I think leaving them on is short sighted and a little lazey and come “jagging time” in the crush you have a new set of problems.
Mary and I lived in Downton for 35 years and came up here 11 years ago to retire (land of her father).
Coffee pot is allways on if you are ever in this neck of the woods, Harvey
Lovely to get up this morning to the sound of rain beating on the windows so a quick naked run round the lawn to celebrate ( sorry no pictures ) this is such a relief after two months without any and will certainly do a lot of good. Yesterday me and me mate cleaned out the chooks and nest boxes and sprayed the whole inside with disinfectant bug killer as with all this hot weather its ideal for red mite to get a hold and we don’t need that.
Wrighty see you are still busy and you must have had rain before us, this year it seems rolls are reversed as we are usually way in front of the North with everything but this year you seem to be the leaders. Went and got two of those 6 string straw tother day and they reckon they were nearly half a ton each so wondered what weight you get on that trailer of yours and also where do you pick that up from ?. The other thing is never heard the words spane or fog used about sheep so what is it mate.
Dean you mention straps but what a wonderful invention they were to the transport scene, don’t know who invented them but its certainly better than doing it with chains and ropes from way back, also the cable tie always carried a few in my truck and got used for all types of emergency.
Rain still beating down as I type and I am almost tempted to make some jam as this is what I do on wet days when you cant do ought else, cheers Buzzer.
Yeh it has to be said that a lot of our time is spent strapping up which isn’t always straight forward as every machine is different, lots of sharp edges to avoid as the straps soon rub through and snap. As my boss Colin said when I started ‘I don’t mind how long it takes you to load up as long as it’s on right and it stays on’ so far so good.
The term spaning is when we take the lambs off the ewes, this allows us to feed the lambs harder and then the ewes are taken up onto the fell until tupping time. Fog is the young lush grass that grows back after we have taken the crop off.
Thanks for the explanations Wrighty, now what do you do when its bucketing down out side thank goodness well I decided to make a batch of Strawberry jam much to the bosses annoyance as apparently I never clean the cooker to her standard when I have finished but I carried on anyway as we only had three jars of jam left, Buzzer.
Buzzer:
Lovely to get up this morning to the sound of rain beating on the windows so a quick naked run round the lawn to celebrate ( sorry no pictures ) this is such a relief after two months without any and will certainly do a lot of good. Yesterday me and me mate cleaned out the chooks and nest boxes and sprayed the whole inside with disinfectant bug killer as with all this hot weather its ideal for red mite to get a hold and we don’t need that.
Wrighty see you are still busy and you must have had rain before us, this year it seems rolls are reversed as we are usually way in front of the North with everything but this year you seem to be the leaders. Went and got two of those 6 string straw tother day and they reckon they were nearly half a ton each so wondered what weight you get on that trailer of yours and also where do you pick that up from ?. The other thing is never heard the words spane or fog used about sheep so what is it mate.
Dean you mention straps but what a wonderful invention they were to the transport scene, don’t know who invented them but its certainly better than doing it with chains and ropes from way back, also the cable tie always carried a few in my truck and got used for all types of emergency.
Rain still beating down as I type and I am almost tempted to make some jam as this is what I do on wet days when you cant do ought else, cheers Buzzer.
Evening Buzzer
With a full load of straw we can get upto 21 tonnes, but it depends a lot on the size of bales and the density. This season has been so dry that the straw is tending to be quite a bit lighter, the picture of the load of straw in a previous post weighed just under 16 tonnes mainly because they were Heston bales and we can only load them 2 high on the neck. We collect straw from all over the country but my last load was from a farm near Peterborough.
" lived in Downton for 35 years" Hi Harvey, that jogged the marbles a bit, Downton Engineering garage on the left heading south(A338) were into race/rally tuning Minis, went through there quite a bit in the '60s en route to Hartwells of Bournemouth with Rootes cars, then through the forest to Soton Docks for Renaults and Simcas going north.
Oily
Hi Oily had a fair few mini’s in my time over 20 in fact, all sorts vans cars and pickups, they were the small car youngens could afford and I ended up with a 1071 cooper S which in its day was exceedingly quick especialy when I bought a new set of Pirelli Cinturato’s when they first came on the scene stuck to the road like glue. We had a mate who worked at Downton Engineering so got a few bits cheap and in the end they were super seeded by Janspeed who I think were based in Salisbury, cheers Buzzer.
kerbut:
Oily
I did 3 years in the 60.s working at Hartwell Tuning , Holdernhurst Road , Bournemouth (later De Haviland Road ) building fast Hilman Imps.
Thanks for that article , GRH 5 was George Hartwells car , we used to road test them on the Christchurch bypass , that Coventry Climax engine was detuned by Roote,s and we would put them back to what they were or more , I remember taking an Imp up to 120mph on a test once but we had a bag of cement in the front boot to keep the front down.
Janspeed is still going Buzzer, they are next to Burlen Services the SU carburettor people in Salisbury on the Amsbury road.
Buzzer:
Hi Oily had a fair few mini’s in my time over 20 in fact, all sorts vans cars and pickups, they were the small car youngens could afford and I ended up with a 1071 cooper S which in its day was exceedingly quick especialy when I bought a new set of Pirelli Cinturato’s when they first came on the scene stuck to the road like glue. We had a mate who worked at Downton Engineering so got a few bits cheap and in the end they were super seeded by Janspeed who I think were based in Salisbury, cheers Buzzer.
Before getting a wagon Buzzer I delivered a few of them on plates, early ones and rainy days left the foot wells a bit soggy, pre-delivery instruction was, lift mats and replace on hand over the monocoque shell wasn’t exactly watertight nevertheless the Issigonis concept was a brilliant revolution in car design, pity that era of the motor car was so badly let down by bad management, strikes and political interference, though still a great time to be involved in transport.
Oily
Buzzer:
Hi Oily had a fair few mini’s in my time over 20 in fact, all sorts vans cars and pickups, they were the small car youngens could afford and I ended up with a 1071 cooper S which in its day was exceedingly quick especialy when I bought a new set of Pirelli Cinturato’s when they first came on the scene stuck to the road like glue. We had a mate who worked at Downton Engineering so got a few bits cheap and in the end they were super seeded by Janspeed who I think were based in Salisbury, cheers Buzzer.
Before getting a wagon Buzzer I delivered a few of them on plates, early ones and rainy days left the foot wells a bit soggy, pre-delivery instruction was, lift mats and replace on hand over the monocoque shell wasn’t exactly watertight nevertheless the Issigonis concept was a brilliant revolution in car design, pity that era of the motor car was so badly let down by bad management, strikes and political interference, though still a great time to be involved in transport.
Oily
Oily if my memory serves me well did the Mini not have round rubber plugs in the floor pan that could be removed to let excess water out, its a long time ago Buzzer
Buzzer:
Hi Oily had a fair few mini’s in my time over 20 in fact, all sorts vans cars and pickups, they were the small car youngens could afford and I ended up with a 1071 cooper S which in its day was exceedingly quick especialy when I bought a new set of Pirelli Cinturato’s when they first came on the scene stuck to the road like glue. We had a mate who worked at Downton Engineering so got a few bits cheap and in the end they were super seeded by Janspeed who I think were based in Salisbury, cheers Buzzer.
Before getting a wagon Buzzer I delivered a few of them on plates, early ones and rainy days left the foot wells a bit soggy, pre-delivery instruction was, lift mats and replace on hand over the monocoque shell wasn’t exactly watertight nevertheless the Issigonis concept was a brilliant revolution in car design, pity that era of the motor car was so badly let down by bad management, strikes and political interference, though still a great time to be involved in transport.
Oily
Oily if my memory serves me well did the Mini not have round rubber plugs in the floor pan that could be removed to let excess water out, its a long time ago Buzzer
Yes Buzzer, your right, a stopgap solution at the time…oh dear the pun
Oily
the monocoque shell wasn’t exactly watertight nevertheless the Issigonis concept was a brilliant revolution in car design, pity that era of the motor car was so badly let down by bad management, strikes and political interference, though still a great time to be involved in transport.