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Grandma Kirby (1920) This is a story about my grandma, who worked against all odds to rear her brood of nine kids, and some of the things she got up to, and realise where I get my temper from, though it takes a lot of provoking these days to wind me up. Mothers younger days In his late teens...

‘The Nottingham Knockers’ My wife defended her decision to feed a hungry lad no matter who it was, it’s always been in her nature to help those who in need, and feed anybody be it animal or human who is hungry, she had always done it, and it’s always been appreciated. In our farm house I can...

The Runaway boiler. As most farmer know there’s nowt like going to a good sale, be it farm sale dispersal sale or a general furniture sale. The sale I am describing is a furniture come house clearance sales rooms in town which took place once a fortnight. When we moved to a larger farmhouse in...

A Sunday morning brush with the Law One Sunday morning twenty or more years ago I was taking a load of rotted muck with the tractor and trailer down to an allotment in town, on the way I had to pass the police depot along side the M6 motorway. As I was loaded I did a rolling exit out of a road...

This was tale about what happened to my brother and I when I was 9 years old and my brother just over 6years . I was just old enough to work helping the then cowman Philip to load kale for the cows, a job he did every afternoon ready for the following days feeding. Philip had a tremendous...

Did my first cut this afternoon. 12th March 2017 New 2 Horse Power self propelled Mower Self steering , Grass box empties itself in the field when done

Flies at the window. Some fifty years ago we had an old uncle who died alone in his house and no one found him until two weeks had gone by. Uncle Jack was father’s younger brother, he never got married and lived at home on the farm with his own father and his step mother, he did the day to day...

Gardening as a Pastime(with tractors always in the picture) The roses get the green fly, the taters get the blight The cabbage get the caterpillars, what a blooming sight, Apples there are plenty, grub hole in every one, Birds have pecked the plums, the rot it has begun. A gardening Blog Many...

Jack of all trades and master of none A job well done (If you try harder) Over my lifetime there are not many jobs that I have not tackled, and as with every job, the more you do of that particular job the better you get at it. On the domestic side Take hair dressing for example, not that far...

Computers Read the Lot A few of the cattle picking up the wind fall apples in the orchard behind the house while I sit writing this blog. The moneys gone to Euros, bank rate measures that, Information all in plastic, and its in your wallet sat, Converted into bar codes, so computers read...

Counting Livestock It may seem to most folk a simple thing to do to count a herd of cattle or a flock of sheep, but quite often you don’t get a second chance to re-count at that time or in that place. If you miss count and your one down or perhaps gain one, and think they are alright you clear...

A very Small Cog in this World of ours It’s amazing to realise after all these years what a very small cog we are in this world of ours. It’s only this last few years that we have had a computer and the World Wide Web, with all the information that it contains, and how you can speak to the...

My old Ration Book I still have my old Ration book, mother who was in charge of all our ration books had saved it from when rationing finished in 1953-4 and returned it back to me a few years before she died. The Staples are going rusty, but its all complete as it was when rationing finished...

Dairy Cows of Old Milked by hand some cows had teats almost as thick as your wrist , with front teats sticking out "east west". Dairy cows of old, bore little resemblance to the diary cows of today. Back in the 40's every herd had its own bull often reared out of one of your own cows, served...

Farm safety a Topic on most peoples minds A Topic for as long as I can remember. One man went under the back of the dray on his knees and pulled the hitch pin, it was a bit tight but he managed, only to realise that the load and the tractor had started to move forwards. Over the years I...

We had a Crafty Fox Over the years you get to know the wildlife on your own "patch" so to speak, the rabbits at one time, there was literally thousands about, with grass fields along side the woods bare of grass for a hundred yards out. And its no good growing kale or mangels anywhere near a...

I Dunna Miss the Owd House. This I have written some 3 months (of winter) after we moved into our retirement house in the village just a hundred yards west of the farm itself. We can look out of our new double glazed windows at the back over the fields that we have toiled in over the last...

The original owner, Mr Wettern bought this Ransomes Hexatrac plough new fitted with six furrows. Due to his heavy ground and the horse power available he reduced it to five furrows, the spare plough body got lost in the intervening years. When more modern hydraulic ploughs came available, this...

I had an encounter with an A10 Tank Buster As you will see, here I am mixing farming with the military US air force. As a pre-amble, I had never ever met a soldier currently serving the British Army, we live and farm out in the countryside and the only soldiers we ever see are the ones on...

He Should have put the Blade out of Gear These are tales father used to tell us round the breakfast table on a Sunday mornings when all the farm weekend chores had been completed, (until evening milking) Father had been brought up by his uncle in the 1920`s, a single man who put him to work...