Raining at present and quite welcome actually as we only had 37mm last month  to go with 23mm for May. Roadshows at Wimboldsley and Poynton and this intrepid St John’s Ambulance voulenteer is Jonny pictured with one of our chicks. Jonny is one of Simon’s friends and a regular at events attended by the roadshow in his St Johns capacity. Also we hosted Over Hall School on Tuesday. In the meantime I’m busy tanking as the weather has stopped any finishing the silaging but I have stacked all the big bales.

Gale force winds about 3 weeks ago (rare for June) have brought down a branch on an Ash tree on our middle meadow destroying one of the Owl boxes in the process fortunatly there were no residents this year.  The rain will also be welcome for our wild bird seeds strip as it has been struggling with the dry weather and the rabbits.

School visit today by Haverley Hey from Wythenshaw. Enjoyed by all. Many newtlings being caught during the pond dips in recent visits.  Two coaches bringing visitors have both been of interest the first pictured here for it’s registration number. It’s driver was oblivious to it’s farming connection. Todays however is really dear to my heart as they are official transport for the ECB and the next test series starts on Thursday against the South Africans. Thursday sees Simon’s graduation ceremony at Myerscough and next on our agenda is more silaging on the “hay field” and then on to Norcroft’s silaging. On Sunday Simon and Peter our Rally cross friend headed up to Brampton in Cumbria to collect an “oil cake breaker” for our vintage collection. Thanks must go to Richard who has kindly  donated it. I’ve already got it turning so it’s now down to new wooden handles and research for it’s origional paint job.

Thursday was Simon’s graduction from the Myerscough college  so now he is looking for a job to use his qualification and start repaying the student loan.  Whilst out we also collected some forage harvester partsamd are back on the silaging trail.  Yesterday has seen Dave with his digger levelling out on our finally getting finished back yard/machinery park now it’s down to a final surfacing and so I can be rid of the collection of trailers that greet visitors to Greenheyes.  I have been advised to plant the banking with a wildflower/birdseeds mixture this soundls like a good suggestion and I intend following that advice.

Silaging starts again today I hope with fewer breakdowns than last time. That for me won’t start until after 2.00pm as it’s our final school visit of the Summer term and today we are hosting the Grange school from Winsford. We have bought another rowing in machine as second cut will need it. My current problem is a damaged tyre on the IH 784 it’s a rear tyre damage and we could need a new on. This will cost down time plus expense.

The last 2 weeks have seen hectic activity here and Norcroft doing more silaging. There is about 3 ha left to do and in the meanwhile I have been haymaking on the Heifer meadow. However there was a heavy shower here around midnight so although it was in perfect condition to bale today I suspect I’ll have to shake it up again first. Next on the agenda for this week is Simon’s 21st birthday party so I want these jobs finished.

All the hay is now carted and stacked it has been strange weather we had the bulk of the hay as usual on the heifer meadow and on Sunday night we had (at the farm house area) 20 minutes heavy rain (as I mentioned in the last posting) yet on Monday when I went to try to dry the Heifer meadow out it was already dry. The cottage paddock hay was wet as expected. The previous night’s rain must have taken a SSW direction and missed the Heifer meadow. Norcroft had more rain that night and at 6.30 Tuesday morning I’m sure Tom thought I was fantasising when I said I was getting the baler. On a sad note our oldest cow has gone today on the disposal scheme for cattle born before July 1996 ( She was a “92″ model). 

See you soon, Phil