smithy

The wider wheels/tires on my sprayer needed changing so i took the tires of and as i had been given a small sand blasting pot a few years ago and never used i thought i would give the rimes a tidy up ,it turned out ok so fitted the new tires took the row crops of and refitted the wider ones

also before the rain turned up i managed to get 25 ton of fertilizer spread

Back in September before the dammed rain set in we was getting along nicely ,this is my second season since Goody poked this plough into me ,i did wonder at the time if i really needed the variable width but when the going is good i can open it up and its then like having 6 furrows ,you can soon cover the ground

Is that Lavenham in Suffolk? if so you are not far away from me

Well done they all look great ,do you have a 36hour day up you way dont now how you find the time

Last Thursday was dry and bright to start with , one of my neighbours rung me up at lunchtime as he had a 20 acre field of spring barley straw that the bailing team had missed it was dry on the top but wet underneath would i have a go at chopping it ,40 foot combine meant there was not many rows also not as much straw as there could have been ,i managed it by going slow as the wet lumps drained the 150hp i had , i then turned around and run over it again 3 gears higher ,it was chopped but not spread very well , on the way home in a 30 minute spell we had 15mm of rain

Last monday before it got to wet i managed to get some ploughing done

Last Sunday we managed to bale and clear 450 small bales ,one hour later it chucked it down of rain and been raining every day since

Last Saturday it was dry and sunny and i had 40 acres of spring barley to cut to finish of my harvest ,my mate had fixed his M/F and wonted to try it out so he brought it along to help out as i had cut his wheat the previous weekend ,all went well and was done in good time

A couple of weeks back i was running the pluton though the land ready to plant some rape ,got rained off 4 times trying to plant it got finished in the end

Because my mates M/F combine is still out of action i went and cut 4 fields of wheat today that he normally cuts ,these two field are very steep so we chopped the straw but the other two was left for baling ,and the baler turned up just as we finished cutting ,its my trailor but it is my cousins mc135 on the front as he helped out with the carting ,as we was high up we could see for miles ,also the major was parked up next door as the trailor had got a wheel off

Not sure on that i will ask him next time ,he has been up the farm tonight helping my change some wheels over

Narrow little roads you are on there Paul but nice scenery ,especially with a lovely shiny tractor

It happens to the best what ever colour

A very good mate of mine had 2 2680 on his farm many years ago ,sadly my mate is no longer with us , i can remember driving them sometimes with a N/H round baler on the back cant remember the model but had chains and slates instead of belts ,also had a go with a forage harvester on the back cant remember that model but was a new holland ,i remember sitting looking down the long bonnet and listening to the engine growl

Is that matty in the McCormick and trailor also i take it its you in the blue one ,thanks for showing

I think Goody is calling around tomorrow ,perhaps to tell me off for driving one of his tractors without him knowing or to bring me a wage packet

I have heard that name ,Gooderham , i will ask goody he is bound to know of them . I have had the mixed grill job to pack it all in but like you say well worth it

Would love to buy a new one but they are out of my price range for my acreage , yes felt at home in it after about 5 min not driven one with the multicontroller for about a couple of years but it soon came back to me ,i have helped Case at 2or3 demos in the last few years with a bit of driving . Myself and my wife was supposed to meet the boss of the Case tractor factory out in Austria back in April but the Gov19 stopped that ,Goody and his wife was going out with us for a well earned break ,pencilled in for next year hopefully . We have had many a good meal in there over the years ,i took JEP there for breakfast one tuesday many years ago as we only got home from Zwolle late on the monday night . Did not now you had cousins farm around there ,i now ,is it your uncle ? that works for Tuckwells ,next time you speak to him ask him if he knows Andy Bugg ,and if he does tell him smithy said hello

I thought i had finished cutting for a few days till my spring barley would be ready , i was out with the hedge cutter this morning when i took a call from my mate Colin he had just started a 45 acre field and was having a few problems with his combine and was wondering if i could help out ,so i set off home to get my machine ready and i set off across my fields as i could get to him with only 100yds of road travel ,in the mean time he had repaired/patched up his M/F and by just after 8pm we had mown over all of it ,it was a decent crop he was well pleased with it ,allow it kept him busy carting with 2 trailers but only one tractor with a 4 mile round trip , i was pleased i could help out might be me needing help next time , its the second time in 2 days i have helped him out as he came to borrow my clutch housing of my baler on friday as his had just broken half way thought a job , he has been quoted £700 for new bit and going to take 2 days to get it , anyhow i gave my old mate Goody a call with part numbers and he has located the bits for us and a lot,lot cheaper but going to take 5 days to get them from France which is not a problem as he is going again with my parts and i dont need my baler till i cut the spring barley

I finished my own wheat on Friday, some yields were average , some was poor and some bits i dont wont to talk about

Back home i cut a 1acre field for a friend as it joins my land ,he feeds the wheat to his chickens

While cutting my own wheat on Wednesday i took a phone call ,it was my mate Combine Kenny calling on behalf off the CASE demo team , he was wondering if i could help out for a couple of hrs early on Thursday morning as he had got to take a different header to another farm and demo , he had got hold of a Case 150 to tow the header off one of the demo combines and could i drive it down the A140 to another farm , so at 7am i am picked up from beacon hill services at the bottom of the A140 /A14 junction by a man called mark from the demo team ,he drives us up the A140 to a farm to pick up tractor ,i then follow him to where the two combines are parked up and he loads up the header onto the trailer which i had hooked onto ,i then set of heading towards the A140 again and the down to a farm a few miles away from Stoke Ash White Horse Pub , as it was still am 4 off us nipped back to the pub for breakfast paid for by the case demo team we then went back to the field as it was dry enough to start ,i was only there a short time while they was cutting as i had to get back and on my own combine

While running the pluton though the rape stubble you expect to find the odd flint or big stone but i did not expect to find the lump of concrete that someone had dumped on the headland

Last couple of days we made a start on the wheat , not a lot of straw this year ,not a lot of wheat in some places do to the wet winter ,the baler moved in to day ,JEP do you recognise the field ?