diary of a comedy sheep farm

spin cycle

spin cycle

Member
Location
north norfolk
tuesday

manic morning

first up got trailer back from strawbs' field......tis my old pettit grain trailer that i've converted to flat many years ago.....twas one of the first things i bought back in days of yore....s/h ex sandringham estate......anyhoo i have an ibc on the back for water and can get 3 bales of hay on.....i drive round nag paddocks dropping bales off then park trailer at edge to act as a bowser....3 bales lasts 4 days......bales go under jfc haybells....works well.......anyhoo having loaded up strawbs then reckoned the fettlin didn't need doing til tommoz so i backed trailer away.....the hay i loaded was the last of that batch.....i moved some straw to get to the next but it doesn't look as good....🤞

recovered tonka from the field....i cut a new drain yesterday ...ditch to pond cos the pipe that fed it is blocked....the other side of the pond i have another cut to another ditch....in this way i can relieve the culvert pipes near the yard that are to small really

K finished the rounds....admiral insisted on a 'wild bird feed run'.....it's nice she enjoys that:) .....i had to wait a few mins for K but hey ho.....next job was go and get a few store lambs in from the field so i can keep fat pen stocked....we weighed them back at the yard....they had gained a little but i need to get them growing faster.....i need more peas though:rolleyes:

final coat of emulsion on the little bit of stairwell walls i'm on.....twas noon....i was flying thru jobs :love:

and then:rolleyes:......had to take admirals prescription in....thought 'if i take flat ifor i can get some plasterboard from 'civils supplier of holt' ( i'm learning flatty😁).....hitched on ....thought..'this is harder than normal':scratchhead:........attempted to drive off and brakes stuck on :banghead:....little 'gentle persuasion'😗....but no joy:banghead:.......bugger cos i need more peas:rolleyes:

in the end i gave up....will be friday's job perhaps:unsure:.....wonder if trailer still under warranty:scratchhead:.....in the meantime a quick muck out of berli yielded enough space for some smaller plasterboard sheets so off i went.....bitta late lunch:rolleyes:

after my productive morning the afternoon was frustrating......spent it 'chatting to neha' of british gas lite....two steps forward one back:rolleyes:....hopefully i've got them to accept the meter read i've given them.....still having no joy with 'shittiest energy' (smartest)....regulator i reckon:rolleyes:......anyway whilst going thru contract i noticed the broker 'chronic' (bionic) had under declared our estimated annual usage.....why? feck knows....they'd got the right figure before:rolleyes:.......get this though....british gas reckon i've to go back and get chronic to put it right:banghead:.....feck me i despair of our utilities...it's like a film mash up 'predator vs dumb and dumber':rolleyes:

have i mentioned i need more peas:unsure:
 
yellowbelly

yellowbelly

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
N.Lincs
spin cycle said:
.i need more peas though:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
spin cycle said:
have i mentioned i need more peas:unsure:
Click to expand...
Apropos to nothing, all this talk of peas puts me in mind of my favourite Chinese proverb......

1708467792875.png
Confucius says, "Man who eats meat and peas on same plate is unhygienic."
 
carbonfibre farmer

carbonfibre farmer

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
south norfolk, uk
spin cycle said:
tuesday

manic morning

first up got trailer back from strawbs' field......tis my old pettit grain trailer that i've converted to flat many years ago.....twas one of the first things i bought back in days of yore....s/h ex sandringham estate......anyhoo i have an ibc on the back for water and can get 3 bales of hay on.....i drive round nag paddocks dropping bales off then park trailer at edge to act as a bowser....3 bales lasts 4 days......bales go under jfc haybells....works well.......anyhoo having loaded up strawbs then reckoned the fettlin didn't need doing til tommoz so i backed trailer away.....the hay i loaded was the last of that batch.....i moved some straw to get to the next but it doesn't look as good....🤞

recovered tonka from the field....i cut a new drain yesterday ...ditch to pond cos the pipe that fed it is blocked....the other side of the pond i have another cut to another ditch....in this way i can relieve the culvert pipes near the yard that are to small really

K finished the rounds....admiral insisted on a 'wild bird feed run'.....it's nice she enjoys that:) .....i had to wait a few mins for K but hey ho.....next job was go and get a few store lambs in from the field so i can keep fat pen stocked....we weighed them back at the yard....they had gained a little but i need to get them growing faster.....i need more peas though:rolleyes:

final coat of emulsion on the little bit of stairwell walls i'm on.....twas noon....i was flying thru jobs :love:

and then:rolleyes:......had to take admirals prescription in....thought 'if i take flat ifor i can get some plasterboard from 'civils supplier of holt' ( i'm learning flatty😁).....hitched on ....thought..'this is harder than normal':scratchhead:........attempted to drive off and brakes stuck on :banghead:....little 'gentle persuasion'😗....but no joy:banghead:.......bugger cos i need more peas:rolleyes:

in the end i gave up....will be friday's job perhaps:unsure:.....wonder if trailer still under warranty:scratchhead:.....in the meantime a quick muck out of berli yielded enough space for some smaller plasterboard sheets so off i went.....bitta late lunch:rolleyes:

after my productive morning the afternoon was frustrating......spent it 'chatting to neha' of british gas lite....two steps forward one back:rolleyes:....hopefully i've got them to accept the meter read i've given them.....still having no joy with 'shittiest energy' (smartest)....regulator i reckon:rolleyes:......anyway whilst going thru contract i noticed the broker 'chronic' (bionic) had under declared our estimated annual usage.....why? feck knows....they'd got the right figure before:rolleyes:.......get this though....british gas reckon i've to go back and get chronic to put it right:banghead:.....feck me i despair of our utilities...it's like a film mash up 'predator vs dumb and dumber':rolleyes:

have i mentioned i need more peas:unsure:
Click to expand...
Peas you say? Now where will you get them I wonder..... 🤔🙈

I recall you saying something about spinnyizing/livestock farmering the trailer and you reckoned about having to try harder 🤦‍♂️ (you cursed it saying that🙄🤐)

Are you hinting at a delivery by chance....!
 
adzy

adzy

Member
Location
Mid Norfolk
spin cycle said:
so who's going to come visit me in prison🙄.....I attempted to relieve the flooded road at the end of our lane

Good news...it works👍

View attachment 1165960

bad news...my efforts still not enough🙄

View attachment 1165961

I'm afraid 21st century land drainage meets 19th century road culvert...6 hours after it started to rain
Click to expand...
Is that Binham? I think we drove through there on Sunday on our way to the priory
 
Radio

Radio

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Radnorshire
spin cycle said:
so who's going to come visit me in prison🙄.....I attempted to relieve the flooded road at the end of our lane

Good news...it works👍

View attachment 1165960

bad news...my efforts still not enough🙄

View attachment 1165961

I'm afraid 21st century land drainage meets 19th century road culvert...6 hours after it started to rain
Click to expand...
Could get in touch with John Price , on how to sort out drainage problems and prison life In one phone call.
 
spin cycle

spin cycle

Member
Location
north norfolk
Friday

finished the day absolutely mentally exhausted..tea...ibuprofen...bed...now awoken I'm akin to if i'd just walked in the door...taken 6 hours sleep just to get back to that level🙄

I don't know if 'the world' isn't designed for me or vise versa...I'm sure I can't be alone in finding it an increasingly hard place to navigate

take my electricity fiasco...I made one simple mistake then had another made for me and 'BAM'...the 'systems machine' is set haywire🙄

Thursday was largely spent trying to sort it out...I had previously managed to get my new supplier to accept my start meter read but I still needed to correct bionics underestimate of our future usage...I phone them...'OK.. good..I've lodged your 'case'...someone will phone you back in 1-3 days'😳😳....'WTF...I can't sit by a phone for 3 days and even by mobile god knows where/what I'll be'....I could be in a ditch..tending sheep..organising pills...how can I instantly switch my mind one to another let alone have a laptop to browse / go thru the information🙄

part deux...I finally loose patience and decide to go to ombudsman about 'smartest'...'the cavalry' I think 'they'll ride in and sort it out'...WRONG...try communicating with them🙄....navigating their website/submission🙄..
it's OK.. again..if you sit in front of a computer all day and are savy but otherwise it's like climbing stairs with two broken legs🙄....TBC🙄

MEANWHILE....Friday morning after chores I examine the ifor brakes...I can free them off so they turn but not confidently enough for a big trip for peas...they need a little test run...except the road is flooded and they'll just fill with water 🤔....it then dawns on me that this is how it happened🙄...i'd parked trailer in our front yard near an empty stable whilst doing the stairs...using it as a bench for cutting sheet materials...stairs finished/guests coming into barn mrs spin requested it moved as it was near 'guest parking'....i'd hitched on and thought 'I've some outlaying sheep hurdles and troughs to pick up..might as well'....the road was flooded...short round trop...twice thru water and parked up..'bingo'...'la recipe de la fekked brakes"🙄

THE FLOOD...
getting worse....the road culvert is fed from east and west...whilst my hand dug grup had helped the water from the east it wasn't enough...such was the pressure it was pushing the flow back past the culvert and actually forcing the westward flowing water back...bubbling back out onto the road via road drains it now threatened to block the Western approach of the road that didn't benefit from my earlier effort🙈

I hatched a plan...just above a road drain
on the outfall side of the road that was ,by now overwhelmed trying to take the water away, was a hedge gap...tonka could dig a slit trench thru there and that would help
I was 'wracked' by indecision though...on the one hand if a car broke down in this flood we would be cut off...carers to admiral not least of my concerns...on the other feck knows what 'officialdom' I might offend...then there's h&s.. insurance etc of taking tonka on the highway🤔.. . I could ring highways...even if they came out they'd probably just 'log an incident...pledging to do an assessment within 3 months'...over cynical??🤔..EA?...declare ' a body of water in excess of local capacity' and promptly inspect us all??🤔....seriously the way you naturally regard those who are supposed to be of help these days is frightening...their total lack of use even hindrance....in the end I emailed my neighbour outlining my plan and canvassing his opinion....he rang me more/less straight back with enthusiastic approval...he'd get someone else...we'd stop traffic either end whilst I dug the cut

next problem...how to get tonka the quarter mile to site...she is incredibly slow...I reckoned she'd fit in grain bucket...driven in with slew to on side and ratchet strapped....I was just struggling with this when admiral wheeled up...'you better leave me my 4pm pills in case you're late'....hassled/worried honestly what is my life🙄....it was 2:45pm...I know she suffers from depression but talk about un needed distraction just at that moment🙄

finally off I go.
20240223_145735.jpg


...arriving at the prescribed rendezvous time of 3pm...my neighbour had recruited the Eastern neighbour and the 3 farmers executed my plan ...now its 🤞

20240223_161954.jpg


edit.....whilst we were working someone took photo's of us....was it for curiosity? posterity? or to report us?.....and in what sort of world do we live that we think like that :rolleyes: ......back to bed i need some sleep.....syl is arriving in 7 hours wit more peas:love:
 
Last edited:
yellowbelly

yellowbelly

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
N.Lincs
spin cycle said:
part deux...I finally loose patience and decide to go to ombudsman about 'smartest'...'the cavalry' I think 'they'll ride in and sort it out'...WRONG...try communicating with them🙄....navigating their website/submission🙄..
it's OK.. again..if you sit in front of a computer all day and are savy but otherwise it's like climbing stairs with two broken legs🙄....TBC🙄
Click to expand...
Just had an 'experience' with the energy ombudsman here.
Draw your own conclusion from this 'abridged' story...

Mother (92) had a smart meter fitted at eon's insistence several years ago.
It never worked properly.
Electric bills were all based on estimates - they wouldn't/couldn't sort the meter.
After about 18 mths or trying to get them to sort it, I decided the only way to get some action was to stop paying them - working on the assumption that they'd not cut her off, as it'd not look so good when this whole sorry tale got some airtime on Watchdog.

There then followed months of phone calls (mostly involving listening to God awful music interspersed with "Please hold, your call is important to us, we'll answer as soon as the next agent [feck, does James Bond work on their switchboard?] is available).

Eventually they agreed to send somebody to fit a new meter.
After a couple of false starts and another couple of months gone by, an engineer fitted a new meter. The original one had been wired up wrong :banghead:

By then her bill had got to about £1600 - based on wrong readings from a wrongly installed meter and a load of estimates.

Eventually, I managed to negotiate (based on old readings, pre smart meter - 'cos they'd no idea how much electric she'd actually used) that we'd pay £1000 to clear the account and start from zero on the new meter.

Job sorted 👍- or so I thought.

Upshot is, I get a call from somebody at eon... " The person you negotiated with didn't have the authority to do so. You owe us £1600 but as a gesture of goodwill, for your inconvenience, we'll credit £250 to your account".

Me and him were soon 'on different sides of an arguement'.

Decided to go to the ombudsman.
More weeks of to-ing and fro-ing, on line submissions, the ombudsman thinking about it and deciding what should happen.

Decision - "We agree you've had appalling service, and nobody knows how much electricity you've used but all we are allowed to award you is £250 off your invoice, blah, blah, blah."
🤷‍♂️

What a waste of time.
 
W

wrenbird

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
HR2
spin cycle said:
Friday

finished the day absolutely mentally exhausted..tea...ibuprofen...bed...now awoken I'm akin to if i'd just walked in the door...taken 6 hours sleep just to get back to that level🙄

I don't know if 'the world' isn't designed for me or vise versa...I'm sure I can't be alone in finding it an increasingly hard place to navigate

take my electricity fiasco...I made one simple mistake then had another made for me and 'BAM'...the 'systems machine' is set haywire🙄

Thursday was largely spent trying to sort it out...I had previously managed to get my new supplier to accept my start meter read but I still needed to correct bionics underestimate of our future usage...I phone them...'OK.. good..I've lodged your 'case'...someone will phone you back in 1-3 days'😳😳....'WTF...I can't sit by a phone for 3 days and even by mobile god knows where/what I'll be'....I could be in a ditch..tending sheep..organising pills...how can I instantly switch my mind one to another let alone have a laptop to browse / go thru the information🙄

part deux...I finally loose patience and decide to go to ombudsman about 'smartest'...'the cavalry' I think 'they'll ride in and sort it out'...WRONG...try communicating with them🙄....navigating their website/submission🙄..
it's OK.. again..if you sit in front of a computer all day and are savy but otherwise it's like climbing stairs with two broken legs🙄....TBC🙄

MEANWHILE....Friday morning after chores I examine the ifor brakes...I can free them off so they turn but not confidently enough for a big trip for peas...they need a little test run...except the road is flooded and they'll just fill with water 🤔....it then dawns on me that this is how it happened🙄...i'd parked trailer in our front yard near an empty stable whilst doing the stairs...using it as a bench for cutting sheet materials...stairs finished/guests coming into barn mrs spin requested it moved as it was near 'guest parking'....i'd hitched on and thought 'I've some outlaying sheep hurdles and troughs to pick up..might as well'....the road was flooded...short round trop...twice thru water and parked up..'bingo'...'la recipe de la fekked brakes"🙄

THE FLOOD...
getting worse....the road culvert is fed from east and west...whilst my hand dug grup had helped the water from the east it wasn't enough...such was the pressure it was pushing the flow back past the culvert and actually forcing the westward flowing water back...bubbling back out onto the road via road drains it now threatened to block the Western approach of the road that didn't benefit from my earlier effort🙈

I hatched a plan...just above a road drain
on the outfall side of the road that was ,by now overwhelmed trying to take the water away, was a hedge gap...tonka could dig a slit trench thru there and that would help
I was 'wracked' by indecision though...on the one hand if a car broke down in this flood we would be cut off...carers to admiral not least of my concerns...on the other feck knows what 'officialdom' I might offend...then there's h&s.. insurance etc of taking tonka on the highway🤔.. . I could ring highways...even if they came out they'd probably just 'log an incident...pledging to do an assessment within 3 months'...over cynical??🤔..EA?...declare ' a body of water in excess of local capacity' and promptly inspect us all??🤔....seriously the way you naturally regard those who are supposed to be of help these days is frightening...their total lack of use even hindrance....in the end I emailed my neighbour outlining my plan and canvassing his opinion....he rang me more/less straight back with enthusiastic approval...he'd get someone else...we'd stop traffic either end whilst I dug the cut

next problem...how to get tonka the quarter mile to site...she is incredibly slow...I reckoned she'd fit in grain bucket...driven in with slew to on side and ratchet strapped....I was just struggling with this when admiral wheeled up...'you better leave me my 4pm pills in case you're late'....hassled/worried honestly what is my life🙄....it was 2:45pm...I know she suffers from depression but talk about un needed distraction just at that moment🙄

finally off I go.
View attachment 1166282

...arriving at the prescribed rendezvous time of 3pm...my neighbour had recruited the Eastern neighbour and the 3 farmers executed my plan ...now its 🤞

View attachment 1166283

edit.....whilst we were working someone took photo's of us....was it for curiosity? posterity? or to report us?.....and in what sort of world do we live that we think like that :rolleyes: ......back to bed i need some sleep.....syl is arriving in 7 hours wit more peas:love:
Click to expand...
Didn’t know whether to like ( ‘like’ doesn’t really seem right somehow), or just send virtual hug and a “chin up chap“ of support, so I’m doing both.
 

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