smithy

After lifting some of the silt right out and making a heap right on the edge he got himself back out of bottom of water course

My mate was back on Friday to do a bit more as we cant reach it all from the top he carefully went down the bank and into the pond bit to get the middle bit .

I had a bit of a rest from the ditch job as there was a frost last Thursday morning so it stopped the wheels from leaving a deep mark on one of my hay fields

We have been back on the last bit for know , clearing out last of the trees that had self-grown in the bit that we call the pond , because my 5ton machine cant reach to the middle of this bit we are planning on taken it into the bottom on to the silt that has built up ,hopefully it wont sink and got bogged down and then we can get the middle and work away back to what we can reach from the top

Not very clear but my old digger sit next to the Zetor 6718 this picture was taken in the late 80s , next to the ford digger is a 4000 then N/H 1545 ,Ford 7610 ,Ford 6600 , Ford 4600

I suggest you all bid on it as it is rare

This is the start of the pond area that we have done then skipped by and started at the furthest end so we are coming against the water The ditch the other side of gateway is the piece we did this time last year

This is what we call the pond area other side of dam the trees are all self grown in last 10 years as that is when I last cleaned this bit out ,I plan on clearing out all the trees in the bottom ,but not sure how far we can reach with the 5ton machine . I plan on planting about 5or 6 trees along the high bit of bank when we have finished

In the ditch we are cleaning out there is the remains of a red brick dam , as back in the day so I have been told all the sheep that was in the area was brought to this bit and the dam was made higher and they drenched the sheep here my field was a meadow which they called the dripping meadows as after the sheep had been drenched they was put out there to dry . Don't think it would be allowed today

Back in the 1970s and early 1980 we used to do some each year as we had a ford wheeled digger on the farm a 550 I think but when that gave up I did not replace it ,have hired one in on a few occasions , but got this machine know so doing a bit each year . The soil will lay where it is till after harvest and dry out then we will just push it out on field and plough in , may have to pick out the odd root that could be buried in the soil

bit more of what we have done so far

I have also been putting white plastic marker posts in above drains

My mate been on digger again today while I trimmed up few more trees in front of him

Well done Simon ,will book you up for hay-making time

Thanks , my mate is pretty good on diggers so I let him have that job ,there is a lot of water go down that ditch when we have heavy rain as it all comes this way from wattisham airfield

This one would not burn very well so had to put a couple of rubber 165/13 firelighters under it to get it going

Spent a few days this week on chainsaw trying to keep ahead of my mate on the digger as he is cleaning out another bit of a main watercourse that goes though my fields I enjoy this sort of job leaves you knackered at the end of the day , got a bit more to do next week when hopefully I will have got my energy back

Had to fit new exhaust to my mates chainsaw other day as one in the picture has a big hole blown in the top of it

Think you can get one more bucket load on back of trailer , yes its still really dry out on the land about here , I am envious of your 7810

Yes it is rusting away ,he said he still uses it to pick up one round bale on that rusty frame that is on the back of it has two tines in middle to stab bale

I found one of these book for sale over Christmas but shop was shut till new year I mentioned to a mate of mine that I had bought the model and was after the book ,he said I have that book you can borrow ,might think about selling it to you bit later on ,anyway I have looked at pictures and these one was taken on a farm about 4 miles away from me where my father used to do a lot of contract work and I used to have days of school to go ploughing the pictures of machine on edge of bank is a field that I rent and farm today

These was also laying around there was a heap of rusty spanners laying next to the J/D so I expect he started to fix it last year then just left it

Got asked if I would be interested in a couple of Ford 4000 that someone I know mate is selling so said I would look so a couple of days ago myself and a mate went and had a look and that is all we did was look as they was a lot rougher then we was told

Got the water pump fitted on this old girl and all back together , just got to deliver it back to the wood yard know

Yes I have one of them its because I don't wipe the oil of my fingers/hands before writing on what I have to do on the days