tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29595256379674230742024-02-21T06:57:31.916+00:00Owd Fred (Countryman)Stories and tales I have picked up over the years,of farming in the Midlands of the United Kingdom,the house farm, and the village and all the characters that lived and worked here when I was growing up.Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.comBlogger264125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-44623205007502872772020-08-18T20:41:00.005+00:002020-11-07T09:42:36.284+00:00 Pumps and Wells of Seighford 265<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Pumps and Wells of Seighford<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Before mains water was brought into Seighford in 1948,
the whole village relied on wells. All of the farms had their own wells, but
all of the cottages had to draw water from the two village pumps, One was
located about ten yards to the west of the old Village Shop, back off the
pavement on a grassy hump, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;">opposite and the pair of old
thatched cottages.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">They
were both upright wooden structures, with lagging, or what was left of it, to
protect them from the frost. A long curved blacksmith made handle on the side
to pump, and a large well-worn lead spout on which you could hang your bucket.
Below the spout, was a sandstone trough in which would catch the water spilt and prevent it becoming muddy. There was a
small hole into which the water drained into a grid (I suspect it soaked back
into the well). There was always a pump on the front wall of the Holly Bush
pub, but can not ever remember it working, I think it was just the wooden
casing.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The
other was located on the Village Green by the wicket into Ivy Cottage garden. Again
you had to walk up to it on a small grassy area.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-align: justify;">Monday mornings was always a washing day, and there
was a “well” set back in the field behind the school, which was a soft water
well. That meant the soap suds Lathered a lot better, and you used less of it. There
is only the indentation in the field to mark the spot where it was.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-align: justify;"> ( now its in the back carpark of the school). </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-align: justify;">It was fenced round with oak rails to keep
the cattle away.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-align: justify;">It was only a few feet
down to the water level. The water table dropped in the summer, and there was no pump and so water had to be drawn by lowering the bucket on a
rope. (It would make a good village archaeological dig some time in the future,
as it is all complete and only shallow</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In the excavations for the new school, almost on the
south boundary, the old school well was uncovered, it had been filled
in soon after the mains water came into Seighford, but I can remember the
school caretaker Mrs Appleby, arriving from next door where she lived (the
house was just behind the iron gates into the new tarmac playing area), and her
first job was to hand pump the water needed for the school that day, then light
the boiler for the central heating.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In the wood behind the Cumbers (Haynes Covert) is
another shallow well with a very large sandstone cover, some six foot by four
foot and about six foot deep. It is more like a sump. It must be over a very
active spring as it is always wet below the wood fence. From the well runs a
cast iron pipe in a direct and straight line to the middle of “Yews Farm” yard
then under the road to the lowest point of “Green Farm” yard, where in both
yards there used to be a long cattle water trough. Over the trough was a curved
water pipe that continuously ran a steady dribble of water, this was fed by
gravity from the wood. This again is a good and easy “dig” as the cast iron
pipe is exposed in places where it crosses ditches, although it has been broken
in places. Across one ditch is a tee, which was a drain to flush the pipe from
time to time, and, when in use it had a wooden bung (at that point it would have
about five foot head of water so no great pressure and all by gravity) The work
horses would be turned out after a hard days work and drink from the trough as
would the cattle. This happened in both farm yards.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The last well to be dug in Seighford was at the Yews
Farm and is still an active and very clean well (but not pumped). The original
well was in the back kitchen of the house but was too shallow and ran dry in
the summer and could not cope with the demand of the farm house and dairy. The
new one was dug to thirty two feet, just about the limit that water can be
drawn (at thirty four feet then the pump mechanism has to go down the well to
meet the water). On a recent opening of this well, some fifty years after it
had been condemned by the water authority (only because the mains were put into
Seighford) the brickwork looked as new. The water we dipped with a bucket was
crystal clear (we could bottle it and sell it to Tesco). No water had been
drawn in all them years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Wells were dug by two experienced men, one of whom
would dig in the centre of a four foot iron frame. Round which the other man would
place loose bricks; he would also pull the soil up with a rope and bucket. As
the soil was dug from the underside of the bottom edge of the frame, so the
weight of the bricks would gradually drop and more bricks added to the top. That
is why all wells have a slight curving, and twisting, as they drop more one
side than the other, then corrected on digging deeper. This went on until a
good flow of water was found usually below a layer of clay. in a seam of sand
or gravel. (I was told the water could have dropped as rain as far away as
Stafford Castle).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">One other pump of note was the one for Seighford Hall,
it drew water from springs to the west of the building, some half mile away,
very near the S bends on the edge of the airfield. Water was carried by gravity,
down a cast iron pipe to a pump house, which looks like a large dry well about
ten feet across and four feet deep. This used to be covered to protected it from
frost, and is situated to the south of the main building, behind the coach
house, in a small paddock surrounded by iron railings. The pump itself was what
was called a ram pump, which energized itself with the water that passed
through it. This was achieved by the fact that the feeding spring, was some
fifteen feet above the pump.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This gave
it sufficient and constant pressure to work. The pump had an air dome above it,
where the water would rush in, then rebound against the air pressure. The water
having come through a non return valve was forced up another pipe with non
return valve to a large tank in the roof of the hall. Only a proportion of the
water was sent for use in the header tank, the rest was exhausted into the
brook, it was self perpetuating almost like perpetual motion and needed almost
no maintenance the only moving parts were non return valves<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Smithy
Lane<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>St
Chads<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Soft
water well No pump<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Piped
spring<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Haynes
covert<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Village
pump<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Village<span
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Seighford
Hall Ram pump<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-43585261336169856282020-07-29T10:10:00.000+00:002020-07-29T10:45:02.426+00:00Mothers Knitting -264<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I Remember Mothers Knitting<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">In the evening to relax, mother always knit,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Jumper’s scarves and socks, and gloves all made to
fit,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">All sizes knitting needles kept, neatly in a draw,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Some rolls of wool rolled into balls, left over from
before,.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">When the wool is newly bought, it comes in big long
skeins,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">We were asked hold out hands, and not aloud complain,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">We took in turns to hold it, while she wound it into
ball.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Sometime she would have, ten skeins of wool n’ do it
all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">She knitted socks, with three needles steel,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Round and round she’d go, knitted fast by feel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Starting round the top, made grippe to hold then up,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Then Knit one pearl one to heel all without a slip-up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Check the length of leg, for who it’s made to fit,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Cotton thread along with the wool, for heel is being
knit,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">This adds to its strength, when the holes appear,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Darning is inevitable, with all of our footgear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">We have to lie back with one foot, high up in the air,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Then new sock is pulled on, with three needles not a
pair,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">See how long to make the foot, were growing every
year,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Then cast it off up to a point, last thread of wool to
shear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">When knitting jumper she had, two great long needles
blunt,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Plain band around the bottom, and pattern up the
front,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Working from her women’s book, does cables blobs the
lot,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Hold your chin up while it’s tried, she’s such an old
fusspot. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">To finish off around the cuffs, n round the neck she
knits,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Try it on and pull puled well down, just to check it
fits,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">With there being four of use, could hand it up or
down,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Used for best so smart it looks, going to the hoedown.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Owd Fred<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-3633526350001542492020-07-29T10:09:00.000+00:002020-07-29T10:39:56.928+00:00Mother had a Grip like Iron --263<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Never in all my life have I ever come across a woman with such power in her grip, if mother once got </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">hold</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"> of you, you stood no chance of escaping, in fact I've seen her crack a walnut, and that takes some doing </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Mother
had a Grip like Iron<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When mother was
young she had helped, around the family farm,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Milking cows by
hand them days, strengthened sinews in her arms,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Her hand were
still ladies hands, no bulky muscle show,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Belied the
strength built into them, beyond you’d ever know,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Mother had a
grip like iron, nothing failed her grip,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Screw lids on jars
and bottles, give it me she’d quip,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The grip she had
to skin a rabbit, or ring an old hen’s neck,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Crush a grape;
she’d crush a walnut, power she’d got by heck.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Round by the
coal ruck was her hammer, there to break the coal,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Coal it came in
big lumps, some from steam loco it was bowled,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For coal alone
the big lump hammer, it was there reduce.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Best steam coal
was hard and bright, cracked it down for use,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When we were
young she’d lace our boots, bow she’d pull real tight,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">They never came
undone all day, right into the night,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sewing did with
button thread, no tear came open again,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And buttons only
came off once, thread she used times ten.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">With age her
hands were not so nimble, feel it gradually went,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Knitting that
she’d done all her life, on wool she no more spent,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Her skin and
nails were without blemish, soft and pink they were,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But on grip she
never lost her strength; she was the best mum ever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Owd Fred<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-72599640386173847482020-07-29T10:04:00.000+00:002020-07-29T10:39:35.603+00:00Black Gold ---262<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>Black Gold</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
At great expense they
drill for oil, black gold to be refined<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Wells are sunk
beneath the earth, through rock and soil grind,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Pumped and piped on
its way, into many products turned,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Ammonium nitrate, tar
and pitch, petrol diesel, n’ heating oil burned.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
It’s running out and
hard to find, now digging neath the waves,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Risks are getting
higher, as for greater profit craves,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Barrel price keeps
going up, and at the pumps the same,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
There’s plenty more
where that comes from, or that is what they claim<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Biofuels the thing
right now, grown on our land and earth,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Each season brings a
new crop, to feed it now not worth,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Another market for
our wheat, no surplus stores we need,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Persuade the millers
pay the price, and end the waste and greed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Energy from wind
power, great turbines in the sky,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Out upon the hill
tops, no wind no power supply,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Tide and wave power harness
now, reliable as can be,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Clean and safe, its
ebb and flow, the energy is free.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Owd Fred<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-86446924138697424702020-07-27T17:56:00.000+00:002020-07-29T10:35:37.870+00:00Self Sufficiency 261<div style="text-align: center;">
Miles per gallon's going up, so is car's per mile,<br />
Speed is what's on most people's mind, then end up in a pile.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align: center;">
</div>
Self sufficiency<br />
<br />
In my Fathers years of farming, there was the great depression of the nineteen thirties followed by world war II, which concentrated the governments minds on farming and food production. In my years following the war and rationing farming was appreciated and was treated with importance,<br />
But now our country has once again got into the habit of importing ever increasing amounts of what the country needs to feed its inhabitants, and once again gone into a great (financial) depression.<br />
<br />
A great majority of people do not give food, or food production any thought and is almost taken for granted. Just a hint of shortage creates a panic by government and individuals as to where they can buy to make up the deficit. But when it is a world shortage and nowhere to by it from, then food prices shoot up.<br />
<br />
Houses built before and for some years after the second world war, had sufficient garden to grow a proportion their own food, Then the pressure was on to build more new houses, and on a given area of land they were crammed closer together, in towns and cities they had the high rise flats.<br />
<br />
Allotments all over the country have suddenly been revived there being a waiting list in many places to get one. This is where folk who have no garden other than a square of lawn, can go and cultivate an area of ground on which to grow food or any thing they like, (more often used just to get away from her in doors).People these days seem totally incapable of being self-sufficient, no matter how much they grow at home or on the allotment.<br />
<br />
I remember father telling us that it took a war to bring the country to realise why they have farmers, and much later towards the end of his life, he harked back to it again, hearing us younger generation moaning about making ends meet and paying more and more wages to less and less men on the farm.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Food Miles</strong> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
On looking back when I were young, all them years ago,<br />
The horse and cart were still about, a lot we didn't know,<br />
Cars and tractors taking over, plenty of fuel they sup,<br />
Fuel brought in from over seas, and local garages set up.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
This has snowballed over the years, cannot comprehend,<br />
Where all the traffic's going to, so fast around the bend, <br />
Miles per gallon's going up, so is car's per mile,<br />
Speed is what's on most people's mind, then end up in a pile.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Everything is carried about, and often back again,<br />
Out to distribution centres, finding jobs for men,<br />
Wear and tear on tyres and roads, burning up the miles,<br />
Costs all added onto their goods, customer pays up and smiles.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
At one time, veg came out the ground, flour came from the mill,<br />
Chickens walked about the yard, pecking happily to get their fill,<br />
A pig was fattened on scraps, from the house and garden,<br />
Talk food miles, it was food yards, when things were all on ration.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Only thing that Mother bought, was cornflakes in a packet,<br />
Then tins of peaches she would buy, from other side the planet,<br />
Had these when bottled fruit ran out, ate with bread and butter,<br />
Wheat was ground at water mill, bread baked next to the butcher.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Packaging's the thing right now, it's wrapped and wrapped again,<br />
Keep the food clean and fresh, or that is what they claim,<br />
Bin through many hands, and machines to wrap and pack,<br />
Getting older by the minute, a use-by date on pack will slap.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Where do you put all the waste produced, pop it in the bin,<br />
Land fill holes are filling up, rotting down n' methane begin,<br />
It all boils down to negligence, in what were doing to our earth,<br />
How it's changing for the worse, all getting bigger round the girth. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
On looking where it's going to, well beyond my years,<br />
Food's way down the list to buy, as" farmers" get the jeers,<br />
Bring it all in from abroad, more transport still is needed,<br />
"Look after those who tend our land", make sure the warnings heeded. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Countryman</div>
<br />
<br />
<strong>There is no love sincerer than the love of food</strong>George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-58949268237243747742019-06-15T19:58:00.000+00:002020-07-29T10:35:11.436+00:00Eye Eye. ---260<span style="font-size: medium;">Eye Eye</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">This is what you get looking through the eye of a needle.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">Here we goo agen, this time it's the right eye, it seems, I was told, when I had them tested for upgrade of me glasses it had a hole in it at the back of the right eye, it was not until I got home the optician rang to say upon close scrutiny of the photo that they take of ya eyes that was what he found. On talking to him, he advised that I should pay a visit to the New Cross eye hospital at Wolverhampton to get it checked out and an appointment was duly made.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">The appointment came and a thorough examination was made by the consultant who proceeded to explain in simple terms what was happening. In the back of the eye is a lining which should be smooth and flat, in my case it has started to wrinkle up causing blurred vision, they would need to go in and smooth it out or completely remove it. This I suppose is key hole surgery at its best, explained in simple terms by me as, straightening the hearth rug in the front room through the letter box.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">The appointment came the following week to go for surgery in two weeks time and be there at 7.20 am for an appointment that would last for the greater part of that morning. First another inspection of which eye it was to be operated on and a felt tip pen put a big arrow above my right eyebrow, and an identity band put on my wrist, I suspect it was put there incase they had to wheel me to the morgue later on with me not responding to the question "are you all right". I was then walked down the corridor to the operating theatre into the hand of an anaesthetist who positioned me on a plank of wood, or that was what it seemed covered with a white sheet all loaded onto a trolly (Iam </span><span style="font-size: medium;">elaborating/exaggerating a bit) with me yed stuck out on a twig beyond the end of the trolly, at a nod from the surgeon/operator I was then wheeled in head first through the swinging doors narrowly missing having me ears ripped off (or so it seemed) and positioned under a robot suspended from the ceiling.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">At this point I could see bugger all other than the ceiling and the lights and cold air vent, but made close mental notes of the conversations taking place around me. it seems there could have been about five or six personnel as well as the surgeon, who was talking through the setting up of the robot with its very bright narrow beam of light narrowly missing my eye. A gown was produced that had an eye hole in it and around the hole was glue to stick my eye open and make a blood tight seal around my eye so it would not get on my shirt, (at this point I must point out I was was fully clothed with my street shoes on it was only my jacket I had left in a locker) and switched me phone off, (wish now I could have recorded the whole thing in sound if the had been left on), oh and yes they poked an oxygen pipe up onto my chest so I could not suffocate while under that gown.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">When the captain/surgeon got hold of the tiller however it was totally different, the beam of light started to close in on my right eye and as it got closer I realised the light was coming from the point of a needle and with his finger and thumb pressed on my eye he said "you will fell a little pressure now" and slowly pushed the needle into my eye, it was uncomfortable but not that painful. A part of the pre-amble that went on was the setting up of the screen on which he was to work from from the camera that is in the needle and all the others possibly students, could follow what he was doing, apparently he had some tools in there to pluck the rug that was wrinkled up in my eye and said he had completely removed it the debris was the pumped out presumably through the needle through a pump that was foot operated the switch positioned under his right foot (accelerator/ brake stile). After half an hour of this plucking he seemed to 'sweep' up the surrounding bit into the pump and heard him ask for a contact lens. I must say that from when the needle first when in my eye I could not see any of the above work being done, it was as tho I had been shut out of my own eye. The operating needle was then removed and the patch/contact lens stitched into place, this stitching being the most painful of the lot making my toes curl up in my shoes, a bit more anesthetic being dropped in every minute or so just to pacify me and keep me still.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">A big bun of wadding was plastered on me face and an eye patch and at last I could see all around me from my one remaining eye.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">I was very disappointed to realise that the anaesthetist who wheeled me out was not very discrete, in that I was always brought up that you always wheeled a live person head first (as when I came in) and a dead one feet first, and this was how I was wheeled out, so I piped up from a prone state on the trolly are ya wheeling me to the morg as I think I am still alive, giving me sen a good pinch. Upon realising I was still around I reached for me phone and rang for my son in law to be at the front door of the hospital in half an hours time to tek me ome and waited a short while for my medications to handed to me explaining what to do with three lots of drops and how to sleep only on my right side only, probably to stop me eye falling out while asleep.</span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuKVILM_a502TEWkU4q2bg5iMgSP5EgjAy7j4OnfCP5A_XImhdKQjGw_Lv8vPoXBIGjwmZlQ1FLJTIhTozYEy8IAmIMwBt_1-F5Y7udCjSqaNuYcY_5Eg2XQ5Qe0OKOynlRRKdkQT49UXT/s1600/DSCN0523.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuKVILM_a502TEWkU4q2bg5iMgSP5EgjAy7j4OnfCP5A_XImhdKQjGw_Lv8vPoXBIGjwmZlQ1FLJTIhTozYEy8IAmIMwBt_1-F5Y7udCjSqaNuYcY_5Eg2XQ5Qe0OKOynlRRKdkQT49UXT/s200/DSCN0523.JPG" width="200" /></a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">Next morning I had been instructed to remove all the dressings and bathe the eye with cool boiled water to clean the area and apply the relevant number of drops as prescribed. Once this was all done I could not see through that eye hardly at all other than light and darkness and then could see my own hand when it was up by my chest. Later that first day there was a dark line across the screen/picture so to speak and realise that if I tilted my head to the left or right that dark line stayed level, it was like looking through a pair of swimming goggles with the water trapped in them covering my eye, there must be an air bubble still in my eye, and could visualise that it would be very useful if I were a builder or a plumber to have a built in spirit level, the problem is when I move my head and walk about the water is still swilling about from side to side giving me an unstable gate, the thing is to walk with one eye closed and believe only one eye as to where I am going. No wonder they have told me not to drive (or go on me bike)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">Two quotes I have had back I dare not say who from-----------</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">----Lets look on the bright side, if you loose one eye you still have another one. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">----What a good job its raining, at least you won't get any dust in your eye.</span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-76998444584114121002019-06-07T17:02:00.000+00:002020-09-07T19:23:50.914+00:00Mothers Weekly Magazine ---259<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>Mothers Weekly Magazine</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Mother had
weekly magazine, knitting patterns every week,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">These she used
to knit up the fronts, of our jumpers so to speak,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Some were cable
some were ribbed, some were chequered squares,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Some were
bobbles in a lump, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">couldn't</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"> buy anything that compares.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The wool she
bought was in skeins, a dozen at a time,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This she got us
to hold while she wound into balls like twine,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We held our
hands out at full stretch, while she wound full tilt,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Arms would ache
on the second one, then our arms would wilt.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Brother next in
line was asked, turns we had to take,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Wool was grey,
or fawn, or blue, for what she’d got to make,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Socks she knit
one every night, jumpers took over a week,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Stitch the front
and back together, sleeves to the arm holes tweak.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Started with the
welt, the grippe bit round the waist,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Tested it on the
one who it’s for, half way round our hips she placed,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">On up to the
armpits, try it for length again,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then the neck
onto the shoulder, it was a blooming pain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Next the socks
they’re mostly grey, started top welt round,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">These were
pulled up to our knee, and turned the top bit down,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Knit on down to
the heel, measured it on our legs,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Three needles
used on this job, pulled them on like stuck out pegs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Heels we always
wore out first, so in with the wool she knit,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Strong button
thread along side the wool, in pattern this wasn’t writ,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So when they did
get bare and thin, she darned them time agen,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then they were
called our working socks, for us working men.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sometimes when
jumpers, got wore out up the front,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">She would unpick
the seams, and rewind a whole segment,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then would knit
again, into little gloves or woolly hat,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In winter
balaclava, or scarves on many things she’d tat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When we were
young she’d knit and knit, no woollies bought at all,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As we left home
she knit again, next generation when they were small,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Knit up to her
seventies, when finger would not flex no more,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Big blow it was,
she knit by feel, for old age yet, there is no cure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Owd Fred<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-30426811497956577402018-01-09T17:32:00.001+00:002020-07-29T10:34:21.991+00:00The runaway boiler ---258<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
Runaway Boiler<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">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 which took place once a fortnight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
we moved to a larger farmhouse in the 1980’s we went regularly to this sale
room as larger brown furniture would be knocked down at next to nowt, If I had
not put my shilling on it, it would have been broken up for scrap.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Well
then it got round to what did the sale room do with all this furniture that no
one wanted, and asked could I have it for the collecting, they readily said
yes. So every other week the day after the sale I went down with my cattle
trailer broke up the wardrobes tables chairs into so called flat pack and
filled it to the roof. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">You
see at home I had one of these large wood burning boilers, one big enough to
take four small conventional bales and regularly burned oilseed rape straw
which was rapidly running out. Some of
this furniture was far too good the break up and some found its way into our
front rooms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">At
this point I might add that when the full heating was first put on in the old
farm house, after a month the whole staircase came loose from the wall and had to
re-fixed, that due to it being dry and shrinking so much. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">On
this one day when I had stoked up the boiler with this light dry and brittle
timber before going in for tea, and by then it had gone dark, we had just
settled down in our arm chairs, the radiators started to rattle and gurgling
being red hot with very hot water, I took not too much notice though the misses
she was getting jumpy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Upon
going outside across the yard to the boiler, the boiler house was enveloped
with steam, not unlike that of the Royal Scot locomotive about to pull out of
the station. I looked in and the draught flaps on the front of the boiler were
closed but the huge pile of thin red hot coals inside would not cool down and
the boiler was running on “latent” heat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
installed the whole system a couple of year before, so I knew what the problems
could be. I was warned not to install a plastic header tank way up in the loft
above the boiler, as a “runaway” boiler like I had that night would melt and
soften the plastic down to look like a flat Christmas balloon. Fortunately I
had taken heed and installed a galvanized tank and the vent pipe from the top
of the boiler hooked over it to blow off the steam. Another thing I was warned
about as well was not to put a plastic ball cock, got to be a metal one, this
again I had done as they too would collapse. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">It
was blowing off steam in a spectacular fashion so much so that the cold water
feed through a slow ball valve could not keep up with replacing water that had
boiled off. The force of the steam hitting
the water splashed most of it over the side of the tank. You may have seen folk
in these cafes putting a cup or a teapot under the hot water come steam tap to
heat the coffee or tea, blowing and gurgling, well this was the same but a few
hundred time bigger<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Inside
the hot water tank, the cylinder, that had two coils to transfer the heat to
the bath/domestic hot water system and to try to alleviate the overheating we
turned all the hot water taps on in the house, there again that ball valve could not keep time with what
we were running off the cylinder. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Still
it kept boiling and the water pump that circulated the water to the radiators
was on the flow side to force the water up round eighteen rads, there would be
too much faffing about bleeding radiators that would have a vacuum if the big
pump was drawing water from the rads to force water back to the boiler.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> (Are
you following this, if not read it again and concentrate more.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">It
was not till I checked the pump that I realized that the pump was not designed
to pump steam, liquid it will pump very hot but boiling it was useless.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
things cooled down and the steam receded I was able to assess the fact that no
damage had been done, the house stayed too hot all night, it was a winters
night, and into the next day. I stoked up the boiler but to only to half what I
had stoked it the night before. As time went on we had trouble with some of the
rads in the house only feeling hot in less than half the surface area, we tried
bleeding them to get rid of the air but three or four of the biggest radiators
still not working properly. So come summer when we did not want heating on I
took the rads off and took it outside onto the yard only to find it was full of
rusty silt obviously blown in there from the boiler getting into too much of a
sweat on. After they were swilled out thing went back to normal and was careful
not to over fill it with brittle dry thin timber that burned in the boiler like
a blow torch. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">During
a foot and mouth period we burnt the odd dead calf and the odd dead sheep, I
remember the sheep burnt for three days first laying her on and between two big
oak logs, being such a fat old ewe, the tallow ran down out of the front vent
forming a tall candle stalactite, or is it stalagmite, ar dunt know, one forms
up and tuther forms down, well this one formed up from the boiler house floor
into a tall pyramid, if had thought at the time I should have hung a piece of
string from the boiler vent flap to make a wick good enough to form a
spectacular large replacement candle for the vicar at church. (But I dint know
how to get rid of the dead mutton stink)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">During
the period we had the boiler there was the fuel crisis and the Dutch elm
disease which coincided quite well where we had a lot of mature elm trees to
cut up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Eventually the old farm buildings on next door
farm across the road from the boiler house came up for barn conversion, and the
folk who moved in did not like the wispy wood smoke that came from the chimney,
by now I was careful not to burn anything that would make smoke if the wind was
in that directions, god know how they would have coped a few years before. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
did not know that they objected to the slight smoke, and without me knowing
they rang trading standards, who, sent a man with a clip board to sit in a van down the village road a hundred yards
away for four whole days monitoring the smoke emitted from my boiler chimney. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
upshit (or is it upshot) of it was that I had an official letter banning me
from using the boiler from immediate effect. However the boiler now getting
old, I had repaired leaks in the floor of it below the ash line and it was
getting beyond repair, so I installed an oil boiler in the house and paid good
money out for fuel and a fuel tank, a very depressing experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">So
the old farm house that I moved out of has now being renovated and in order to
re-plaster the walls all my owd radiators were taken out and a new system
installed. Bet it wonna ever get the owd house as hot as what we had it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Quotation -----
</span><b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Wit is brushwood; judgement is
timber; the one gives the greatest flame, and the other yields the most durable
heat; and both meeting make the best fire.</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Overlung<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-6372790045735831062017-02-06T22:05:00.000+00:002020-07-29T10:34:00.622+00:00Flies at the window. ---257<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Flies
at the window.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">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 running
the farm. As his father (my grandfather) got older and not capable of any work
my father Charlie went across with his tractor doing a bit of ploughing and
harvesting work to help keep things going.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
grandfather died , in the late 1940’s it became apparent the Jack had no desire
to continue with the farm, so the farm was sold up and he came to live with us
at The Beeches. He had his own room and had his meals at the table with our
family increasing the work load that mother had to cope with, (seven of us
round the table every day for meals). As you can imagine mother was not too
impressed with that idea but she went along with it for about two years, during
which time he worked for his brother Charlie on our farm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Eventually
Jack got a job at the town’s sewage works, where it turned out, he was the only one who could use a scythe (before the days of strimmers) to
keep the whole site clear of long grass and weeds round the filter beds. At the
same time he bought his own house in town a terraced house, where father used
to go and see him most weekends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Two
or three years on.-- This one weekend when father went to see Jack he could not
raise him by knocking on the front door or ringing the bell, and thought he
must be out shopping or summat. Next weekend came and the same thing happened
and thought that’s strange, so went round the block of houses up an entry to
Jack’s back door, which was latched but not locked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">On
entering he found his brother collapsed on the floor dead, he had obviously
been there for over a week and possibly two weeks. He was not a very talkative
man and would not mix with his neighbours very well, and being brought up on a
farm you never had close neighbours (shoulder to shoulder so to speak) in his
life like you do in terraced houses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">All
the authorities were told and investigations found he had died of natural
causes, but it only goes to prove how important neighbours are, who, had he got
to know them, might have looked in well before my father did.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
the 1970’s I had a scare with my neighbour Reg, that’s the neighbouring farm. I
was carting small bales of straw (big bales had not been invented in our part
of the world then) and two field back away from the road Reg had driven his
combine twice round the field of corn and was stopped with the engine running
with a slight blue puffs of smoke from the exhaust. And hour later it had not
moved so I unhitched and shot off round the lanes to see what had happened to
him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">He
lived and worked on his own and nearly always had his brother come to help at
harvest time, but this day he had not come. So pulling up in a great hurry, I startled
Reg who had broken a section on his blade and dare not stop the engine as it
had not got a good enough battery to be reliable. I explained what I had seen
from the distance, thinking he had fallen off the top of the combine or fallen
onto the header and reel, you see it was one with no cab. However it was great relief
to see he was okay, and he was pleased to know I had noticed and acted as I
did.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">It
was around that area that a farmer who lived on his own, other side of town to
us, one evening was getting out his potato harvester out, servicing and
greasing it ready for the seasons work. He was found the following day, the
tractor still running and the potato harvester being run by its power take off (PTO)
and him underneath jammed in the tines and rotating machinery not able to get
out and died before he was found.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">All
this was brought back to mind last week when I had got up around 7am and opened
the upstairs curtains, and started to do a bit of work on the computer. You see
I am in my retirement house in the middle of the village and having all the
farm records and other stuff which had got to be retained for a few years I commandeered
the small front bedroom as my office.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Normally,
I would have gone down stairs and opened the front curtains, but the day I got engrossed
in writing (a bit like I am doing now) and stuck at it and lost the sense of
time. Then to bring me back to from my thinking, there came a loud knocking on
the front door and the door bell ringing, it was 9am. It was a young lady from
down the road who was just taking her two children to the village school and
noticed my front room curtains still closed, and on her way back came to see if
I was okay. Jumping up from the computer I opened the upstairs window and
looked out to see her looking at me with great relief, “Are you alright” she
called, then I had to tell her how grateful I was, and nice to know I had got such
very good neighbours who would notice things out of the ordinary, and act on
the spur of the moment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">There
is a chap named Dan who owns and manages a large herd of milking cows, they now
run over the land I gave up a couple of years ago, a number of farms being
amalgamated to make a big dairy unit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> I get on very well with him, I offer him
advice and he in his modern unit thinking ignores it in a tongue in cheek sort
of way, he always tells me he is keeping an eye on me, every time he runs up
the village (quite a few time every day from one unit to the other) on his quad
bike or on the tractor he looks to see the curtains have been opened.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> I in turn told him that “dunna leave it till windows
are full of sodin flies as that would be too bloody late”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">It
is very reassuring to know that I have very good neighbours, my daughter and Barry only lives a couple of hundred yards/metres down the road by the church,
so I feel very comfortable among a village full of good folk.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Owd Fred<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-right: 1.3pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%;">Laws are spider webs through which
the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-right: 1.3pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<b style="text-indent: 0in;"><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%;">Honore de Balzac (1790 – 1850)</span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-74202396093085804042017-01-21T09:27:00.001+00:002020-07-29T10:33:39.884+00:00 I Remember Killing the Pig ---256<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">I Remember Killing the Pig</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">We watched when we were kids, fingers in our ears,</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Then bang the butcher shot him, cut its throat mid tears, </span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<o:p></o:p></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk9vM2Qs4dSA2GKDVSDB_XcVHR_YKtOU0loUKWZuCengt4q3DrAWFA_MYqtsr4Yhe4E5C4JqVFNke87tMc2hzqz2NFBVSRR9h0CpiNTOwd-N2sUdW-g6dUyAzdBOe5Ka9iJBzNE23MSGia/s1600/pig+bench.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk9vM2Qs4dSA2GKDVSDB_XcVHR_YKtOU0loUKWZuCengt4q3DrAWFA_MYqtsr4Yhe4E5C4JqVFNke87tMc2hzqz2NFBVSRR9h0CpiNTOwd-N2sUdW-g6dUyAzdBOe5Ka9iJBzNE23MSGia/s320/pig+bench.jpg" width="272" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">I never knew who owned the pig bench but it went round all the village to who ever had got a pig ready for killing.</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">I Remember Killing the Pig</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">About once a year the butcher called, for to kill a pig,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Scrubbed off the pig bench, it was heavy and big,</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Don't know whose it was, but around the village it went,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">To lay the pig on when it's killed, four wooden legs all bent.</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Starve the pig from day before, empty belly they need,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Then the butcher prepares his tools, then the pig to lead,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">By a noose round his snout, mid squealing protest struggle,</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Took three men to lift on bench, to hold it on they grapple.</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">We watched all this when we were kids, fingers in our ears,</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Then bang the butcher shot him, and cut its throat mid tears,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It happened fast, the kids will learn; catch the blood in bucket,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Kicking stopped, and bucket full, into pantry put it.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Very hot water poured all over, and scrape the hair all off,</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> He scalded the hooves, with a hook ripped the hoof clean off,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This was the worst when he opened it up, all put into the barrow,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Save the heart, liver and kidneys, same sequence always follow.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Then with a "tree", like a big clothes hanger, lifted pig to
beam,</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Left to set almost week, butcher returns, to watch were keen,. </span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The head comes off to make the brawn, boiled in a great big pot,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The rest is quartered, for to salt down, onto the setlas brought.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Some fresh pork saved to use right now, take the neighbours some,</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Other do the same as well, almost every month a treat become,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Two hams in muslin bags are hung, on hook in pantry cool,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The bacon too is done the same, enough to make you drool.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Mother makes the faggots and black puddings from the blood,</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Nothings ever wasted, fat is rendered down, the scratching's good,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Lard for frying and cooking, stored all in big stone jars,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Lined up in the pantry, all the work done, by our poor old m'a.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Owd Fred<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Mother would not kill off a hen that was young and healthy, or an old one
that was laying<b>, it was always a chalky arsed one,</b> that was almost spent
out. They were <b>never aloud to die</b>, she would get them just before that
get it plucked and in the pot never having gone cold.</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Mothers Mid Week Chicken Dinner</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">In mid week we often had, "chicken" for our dinner,</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Tough old hen more soup than meat, always it was a winner,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So after breakfast mother went, to feed the laying hens, </span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">On her way she would note, the one who's still in pens,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">If it looked as if not laying, she would ring its neck, </span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Hang it in the coal shed, all flap and no more peck.</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Pulling on the old tea cosy, well down over her ears,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">And an old mac kept for this job, doesn't matter how it appears.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Feathers and the fluff do fly, and also mites do run,</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This is why she's well covered up, as it is so often done,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">With the news paper on the table, to be drawn it is now ready,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">And out with good sharp knife, off with legs and neck all bloody.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Nick below the parson's nose, with hand the guts she pulls the lot,</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Saves the heart and gizzard, also neck to make the stock,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Into the pot this tough old hen, no time for it to go cold,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Steamed for a good two hours, till lid is hot to hold.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Into the pot goes all the veg, and a heap of part boiled taties,</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Given another half hour simmering, before it hits the platters,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We all come in for dinner time, lunch to someone posh,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Plates piled up, our bellies to fill, we loved our chicken nosh.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Owd Fred<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">In the kitchen at the Beeches the <b>kitchen floor sloped</b> from east to
west, with the fire place range on the south side. (Get the picture)<br />
It was a blue brick floor the same as in the stable, and the walls were the
bare bricks painted, one colour usually green half way up and a lighter colour
round the top usually green, to the side of the chimney brest was mothers
new Jackson electric cooker, where she cooked the bacon or porridge in a
mornings before the range had properly got going.<br />
I remember the porridge would lift the lid with cooking and spill down the
sides welding the pan to the cooker, Porridge had to simmer for an hour just to
cook, no instant heat and eat, like the two minuet porridge of today, they were
rolled raw oats. </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">To the other side of the chimney brest was a built in cupboard with a half
bottom door and half top door stable door style if you like to call it, there
was some hot pipes running through this cupboard and the Kellogg Cornflakes
were kept to keep dry, along with the sugar and flour. This was a cupboard that
was <b>often raided by mice</b> but they disappeared up into the ceiling
following the pipes.</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">To the north side was a large cupboard with four draws at the bottom, and
two big opening doors on the top half, on the top shelf dad kept his pipe and
bacca though he did not us it that regular, us kids tried it out one
night with dried tea leaves, cus we could-na find any bacca. We all had <b>one
good drag and it literally spun us off our feet</b>, and I never ever smoked
again, perhaps a good lesson learned early.</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Also on the top shelf was the shot gun cartridges, quite a few boxes,
stacked as these were used to get our rabbit dinner once a week, and
occasionally a poached pheasant. In the rest of the shelves were the bottles
and jar that had been opened and part used like jams and pickles and that posh
word for salt vinegar and pepper, a cruet. </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Kitchen Floor it sloped.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">I remember when we were kids, kitchen floor it sloped,</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Sat down at meal times, mother to top end coped,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Kitchen table vinyl cloth, also it did tilt,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Father down one side, safe from anything that spilt.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Always there is one, who's clumsy as a kid,</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Put him at the lower end, own mess he is amid,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Tip the water over, or a cup of tea,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">It runs down the table, straight into his knee.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Four of us took it in turns, not to be so clumsy,</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Other three would laugh, all sitting dry and cosy,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">A dam good lesson that it was, with instant results,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Chair at the lower end, reserved for bumble foots.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Countryman <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">We had visiting mice in the house from time to time but mother was crafty,
and they did not last long, She always had a couple of mouse traps and a lump
of stale cheese pressed onto them, being thrifty the same piece of cheese would
often catch more than one mouse.</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">A Mouse in the Cupboard</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sitting in the kitchen one night, by the kitchen fire,</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Mother knitting father reading, us lads getting tired.</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Then we heard a rustling, in the cupboard by chimney </span><st1:city style="font-size: 12pt;" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">brest</st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-size: 12pt;">,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">It was Kellogg's corn flakes trickling, a mouse the little pest.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">He had sat and chewed a hole, right through cornflake box,</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Found food for his little belly, where our mother keeps her stocks,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He disappeared up round some pipes, still the flakes they fell,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Keeping warm and well fed, if we find him give him hell.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Set the mouse trap on the shelf, loaded up with cheese, </span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">For this it would attract him, one bite would make him sneeze,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Spring will slap him on the head, teach him not to steal,</span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Wasteful little blighter, to us it was our meal.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Owd Fred</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Quotation<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.<br />
</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Aesop (620BC-560BC)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-10080191483474319212017-01-12T10:00:00.000+00:002020-07-29T10:33:10.583+00:00 Jack of all trades --255<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Jack of all trades
and master of none<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A job well done (If you try harder)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>On the domestic side</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Take hair dressing for example, not that far fetched from
sheep shearing, or cattle clipping, when we were kids (four of us lads), father
used to cut our hair with clippers that he had to squeeze with his hand to
operate the blade.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The problem was when he was in a hurry, (and it was always the first day of a new term), which he often was,
he would push the clipper up the back of ya neck faster than what he was
operating the blade, the result was he was pulling our hair by the roots.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He
did make a good tidy job, and many compared it with how he thatched his ricks
of hay and corn, combed down to the eves and clipped up the sides.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<b>On the workshop side</b> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Take welding, unless you get a bit of tuition, and then get
plenty of time to put into practice what you have just learnt, its no use. In
my case it’s a matter of tapping the rod onto the metal until you get a spark,
then keep melting the rod into the joint. In reality, the rod more often than
not gets stuck and welded to the job. After a vigorous twisting and pulling it breaks
free, peeling and cracking the coating off the rod making it impossible to
strike an arc to get going again. Must
admit, my welding has been called and likened to pigeon shit welding. So I get
by on doing repairs that are not too crucial or to essential, just bog standard
welding. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I’ll never be a “sparkie”</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All things electrical are very mystical to me, as soon as a
wire disappears into a wall, it come out a different colour at the other end.
Two way light switches, for example,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
they beat me every time,
its okay to fit a new bulb holder, or new three pin plug and simple thing
like that. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another thing that is always awkward for me that does not
crop up very often is the trailer light sockets and plugs, with , is it seven
or nine wires to connected in to
correspond to what the vehicle wires want to convey. Wiring looms, alternators, and the back or
the inside of a vehicle dash boards are
way beyond my comprehension, Fuses I can
manage, but on the modern tractor there can be thirty or more, thank goodness
for the instruction book, it lists and numbers them and what strength of fuse
to use. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I don’t know the key
to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bill Cosby (1937)<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-56489232826203584352016-04-15T08:54:00.001+00:002020-07-29T10:32:37.417+00:00The Sale Room Clock ---254<ol class="messageList" id="messageList">
<li class="sectionMain message " data-author="Owd Fred" id="post-2359742"><div class="messageInfo primaryContent">
<div class="messageContent">
<b style="text-align: center;"> The Sale Room - Clock</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<article><br />
<blockquote class="messageText SelectQuoteContainer ugc baseHtml">
This story is about the purchase of a clock<br />
<br />
An incidental /purchase that we made at a sale room, it's about a clock, I'm sitting in front of the blady thing now, it aint as if we were short of clocks.<br />
There's seven I can see now in the sitting room three in the kitchen, one in the hall, five in my bedroom, two in the next bedroom and two in the small bedroom, oh yes and one in the garage come workshop, 21 all together.<br />
They were well spread out when were in the big old farm house, but now om in a small retirement house (thank goodness) they look a bit crowded.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>We loved to go to </b><br />
<br />
Some years ago we loved to go, to a sale room down the town,<br />
It was Hall & Lloyds the furniture place, for nick knacks was renown,<br />
Ya could go down the day before, and see what brought in for sale,<br />
Never know what would be in there, a jumble of house hold regale.<br />
<br />
Hundreds of lots, all in lines, and picture on the walls,<br />
Tables chairs cupboards sideboards, sold when the hammer falls,<br />
Whole house furniture shuffled in there, from beds and tools and saws,<br />
To the carpets and matts and the contents of the kitchen draws.<br />
<br />
A clock we spotted, a mantle clock, brass with a nice glass dome,<br />
We hadna seen it before the sale, we’d love to take it home,<br />
The auctioneer took some bids, there was no time to back out,<br />
A bid we put in and then another, it was knocked down with a shout.<br />
<br />
The clock was handed, hand over hand, to the back of the crowd,<br />
The last one who handed the clock turn to me and said reet loud,<br />
It only bloody plastic ya know, and tis true it had no weight,<br />
We’d paid through the nose, an imposter, but easy to cremate.<br />
<br />
So now I watch it, with three weights, moving round and back,<br />
But when its touched it stops agen, od love to give it a smack,<br />
With a two-pound lump hammer, the pleasure that would give,<br />
But I’m stopped, om told it looks the part, let the bloody thing live.<br />
<br />
It’s now bin twenty years, still sitting on our shelf, --- Amen,<br />
Don’t touch it don’t dust it, a new battery every now and then,<br />
If left to me, find it a new home, its weight is no use for scrap<br />
As soon as I first touched it, I knew the dam thing were crap.<br />
<br />
Owd Fred</div>
<br />
<br />
It has to stand perfectly level and has two screw feet at the front to get it absolutely plumb, and they have to be re-set every time you touch it, it stops, or when you change the battery. It isn’t as though it gets a violent vibration on it, that rattles the screw feet down.<br />
But it does keep good time, when it is going<br />
.<br />
<br />
<b>The mind of a man is like a clock that is always running down, and requires to be constantly wound up.<br /> William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830)</b></blockquote>
</article></div>
</div>
</li>
</ol>
Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-54780146851052214342016-04-09T20:47:00.001+00:002020-07-29T10:31:57.705+00:00The Run Away Boiler --253<ol class="messageList" id="messageList">
<li class="sectionMain message " data-author="Owd Fred" id="post-2349238"><div class="messageInfo primaryContent">
<div class="messageContent">
<br />
The Run Away Boiler 9<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<article><blockquote class="messageText SelectQuoteContainer ugc baseHtml">
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 which took place once a fortnight.<br />
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When we moved to a larger farmhouse in the 1980’s we went regularly to this sale room as larger brown furniture would be knocked down at next to nowt, If I had not put my shilling on it, it would have been broken up for scrap.<br />
Well then it got round to what did the sale room do with all this furniture that no one wanted, and asked could I have it for the collecting, they readily said yes. So every other week the day after the sale I went down with my cattle trailer broke up the wardrobes tables chairs into so called flat pack and filled it to the roof.<br />
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You see at home I had one of these large wood burning boilers, one big enough to take four small conventional bales and regularly burned oilseed rape straw which was rapidly running out. Some of this furniture was far too good the break up and some found its way into our front rooms.<br />
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At this point I might add that when the full heating was first put on in the old farm house, after a month the whole staircase came loose from the wall and had to re-fixed, that due to it being dry and shrinking so much.<br />
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On this one day when I had stoked up the boiler with this light dry and brittle timber before going in for tea, and by then it had gone dark, we had just settled down in our arm chairs, the radiators started to rattle and gurgling being red hot with very hot water, I took not too much notice though the misses she was getting jumpy.<br />
Upon going outside across the yard to the boiler, the boiler house was enveloped with steam, not unlike that of the Royal Scot locomotive about to pull out of the station. I looked in and the draught flaps on the front of the boiler were closed but the huge pile of thin red hot coals inside would not cool down and the boiler was running on “latent” heat.<br />
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I installed the whole system a couple of year before, so I knew what the problems could be. I was warned not to install a plastic header tank way up in the loft above the boiler, as a “runaway” boiler like I had that night would melt and soften the plastic down to look like a flat Christmas balloon. Fortunately I had taken heed and installed a galvanized tank and the vent pipe from the top of the boiler hooked over it to blow off the steam. Another thing I was warned about as well was not to put a plastic ball cock, got to be a metal one, this again I had done as they too would collapse.<br />
It was blowing off steam in a spectacular fashion so much so that the cold water feed through a slow ball valve could not keep up with replacing water that had boiled off. The force of the steam hitting the water splashed most of it over the side of the tank. You may have seen folk in these cafes putting a cup or a teapot under the hot water come steam tap to heat the coffee or tea, blowing and gurgling, well this was the same but a few hundred time bigger<br />
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Inside the hot water tank, the cylinder, that had two coils to transfer the heat to the bath/domestic hot water system and to try to alleviate the overheating we turned all the hot water taps on in the house, there again that ball valve could not keep time with what we were running off the cylinder.<br />
Still it kept boiling and the water pump that circulated the water to the radiators was on the flow side to force the water up round eighteen rads, there would be too much faffing about bleeding radiators that would have a vacuum if the big pump was drawing water from the rads to force water back to the boiler.<br />
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(Are you following this, if not read it again and concentrate more.)<br />
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It was not till I checked the pump that I realized that the pump was not designed to pump steam, liquid it will pump very hot but boiling it was useless.<br />
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When things cooled down the next morning, and the steam receded I was able to assess the fact that no damage had been done, the house stayed too hot all night, it was a winters night, and into the next day. I stoked up the boiler but to only to half what I had stoked it the night before. As time went on we had trouble with some of the rads in the house only feeling hot in less than half the surface area, we tried bleeding them to get rid of the air but three or four of the biggest radiators still not working properly. So come summer when we did not want heating on I took the rads off and took it outside onto the yard only to find it was full of rusty silt obviously blown in there from the boiler getting too much of a sweat on. After they were swilled out thing went back to normal and was careful not to over fill it with brittle dry thin timber that burned in the boiler like a blow torch.<br />
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During a foot and mouth period we burnt the odd dead calf and the odd dead sheep, I remember the sheep burnt for three days first laying her on and between two big oak logs, being such a fat old ewe, the tallow ran down out of the front vent forming a tall candle stalactite, or is it stalagmite, ar dunt know, one forms up and tuther forms down, well this one formed up from the boiler house floor into a tall pyramid, if had thought at the time I should have hung a piece of string from the boiler vent flap to make a wick good enough to form a spectacular large replacement candle for the vicar at church. (But I dint know how to get rid of the dead mutton stink)<br />
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During the period we had the boiler there was the fuel crisis (high oil prices) and the Dutch elm disease which coincided quite well where we had a lot of mature elm trees to cut up.<br />
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Eventually the old farm buildings on next door farm across the road from the boiler house came up for barn conversion, and the folk who moved in did not like the wispy wood smoke that came from the chimney, by now I was careful not to burn anything that would make smoke if the wind was in that direction, god know how they would have coped a few years before.<br />
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I did not know that they objected to the slight smoke, and without me knowing they rang trading standards, who, sent a man with a clip board to sit in a van down the village road a hundred yards away for four whole days monitoring the smoke emitted from my boiler chimney.<br />
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The upshit (or is it upshot) of it was that I had an official letter banning me from using the boiler from immediate effect. However the boiler now getting old, I had repaired leaks in the floor of it below the ash line and it was getting beyond repair, so I installed an oil boiler in the house and paid good money out for fuel and a fuel tank, a very depressing experience.<br />
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So the old farm house that I moved out of has now being renovated and in order to re-plaster the walls all my owd radiators were taken out and a new system installed. Bet it wonna ever get the owd house as hot as what we had it.<br />
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<br />
Quotation ----- <b>Wit is brushwood; judgement is timber; the one gives the greatest flame, and the other yields the most durable heat; and both meeting make the best fire.<br /> ------Overlung</b></blockquote>
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Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-86016690333472231812015-11-18T22:16:00.000+00:002020-07-29T10:31:17.257+00:00Wellington Boots.252<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Wellington Boots.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">They
transformed footwear on the farm. In the years up to 1940’s leather tip boots were the main
footwear often worn along with leather leggings which went round the calf of ya
leg fastened on with button hooks and a leather strap at the top. Or as they
did in the home guard shorter canvas spats with two leather straps to buckle
them on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Our
first wellies were very prone to getting punctured or torn and when this
happened to both of them we cut the soul off completely leaving only the top
shell of the foot and leg. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">These
were then pulled on and the leather hob nail boots put on under them. The shell
of the welly then was settled down and protected your boot uppers from dirt,
ideal when working on pulling sugar beet or cutting mangols or kale for the
cows, the ground at that time of year being sticky soil which soon baulmed (my
word for clogged) up your inside of ya feet and legs as you moved about. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Father
had his own last on which he could mend his own and the families boots and
shoes, this mostly comprised of a jar full on hob nails, some were in triple
form where three nails fastened together and held in the leather soul better
round the outer edges of the boot and in filled with a few rows of single nail
on the ball of the foot. Round the front edge he had an assortment of tips of
metal and a complete horse shoe type tip that went completely round the heel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
had been the leather boot worn on farms for years, repaired and re-souled until
the uppers started to burst from their stitches. Then shortly after wellington
boots came in came the boot with rubber soul vulcanised to the leather uppers,
these were at the time called everlasting boots (a bit like when the biro ball
point pen came in they were called everlasting pens). They were ridiculed and
criticised at the time, often being cheaper to buy than their original
counterpart. This spelled the end for the village cobbler as all he could do
for these new type of boots was to supply new leather laces.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<em><b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Ode
to a Welly</span></b></em><b><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">My wellies your
wellies and kids wellies too,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Clean wellies
dirty wellies some there full of pooh,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">New wellies old
wellies some with holes right through,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Country wellies
town wellies, a big long rubber shoe,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Shiny wellies dull
wellies and coloured wellies new,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Chewed wellies torn
wellies, on the bonfire threw,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Smelly wellies
pongy wellies some we have out grew<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Wellies we can’t
do without, often must renew.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Owd Fred<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Wellies
large and wellies small <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Wellies large and wellies
small, of sizes there are many<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Some are black
some are green, and they cost a pretty penny,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Some are painted
in bright colours, but still ya feet they smell,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Trample through
the mud and ditches, through the house as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The kids they have
them round the farm, they hold the water in,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Walking out
through deep puddles, wet through to the skin,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">How much water
they will hold, and your feet an-all,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Tip them out on
the door mat, make mother shout and bawl.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Owd Fred<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Now, what am I looking for? <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ya ware them in
the rain, and ya ware them in the snow,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ya ware them in
the mud, and everywhere you go,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ya keep them in the
car, in case of floods you never know,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ya can’t do
without them, left behind it is a blow,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">And what I’m
looking for, my WELLIES high and low<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Owd Fred<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-2118175201453630562015-09-09T07:45:00.000+00:002020-07-29T10:30:58.182+00:00Weather Blog on my Farm 31st August 2011 ---251<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Weather Blog on my
Farm 31<sup>st</sup> August 2011<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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After one of the driest years since 1976 it looks like the
fodder situation is going to be tight, last year quantities of hay and silage were
lower than normal, and bearing in mind what my farther always said, “A bay of
hay is worth more than money in the bank” we still have almost a bay of hay
left from last year.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We have almost 60 acres of peat meadows that nearly all of it
is mown, some years it’s too wet and spongy and even if you can mow it and even
bale it, the difficulty is hauling it off. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But this dry year has been kind to us on the meadows; the grass
(and a few rushes) has grown well and produced around average yield of bales.
Our biggest problem is the fishing pools that have been recently established on
the meadows down stream, they are the nesting ground now for a few hundred
Canadian Geese. In mid June when each pair has hatched eight or ten goslings,
they emerge from the area of the pools to graze on my meadows, holding back the
growth of grass over up to four acres.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYVcLxXwuPUAHL2b1JkDW-fdyNI0n718uj5wN4Ru2OG4jDH9oi3OzNAcYXrwtgkIb1-pqo2wvigsytYjMZnxCzPYneAWtvo3bsJNrfJxcKAfX24l7KHS9zy7N1qxf17MyK6Ge_ezxpvJXY/s1600/About+the+farm+2008+013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYVcLxXwuPUAHL2b1JkDW-fdyNI0n718uj5wN4Ru2OG4jDH9oi3OzNAcYXrwtgkIb1-pqo2wvigsytYjMZnxCzPYneAWtvo3bsJNrfJxcKAfX24l7KHS9zy7N1qxf17MyK6Ge_ezxpvJXY/s320/About+the+farm+2008+013.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I know the year date does not match the year I am talking about, but the meadows consistently produce a good aftermath growth withing three to four weeks of having been cut for hay or silage</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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The cows and calves have been taken down on those meadows to
graze the aftermath, the only green grass we got, grass on the higher ground
has gradually burnt up and now that some rain has come it will still take a
long while to recover.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We hear about the Hurricane<span lang="EN"> Irene flooding <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state>, we hear about
heavy rain up the north of <st1:country-region w:st="on">England</st1:country-region>
and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Scotland</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
we hear about harvest held up by rain in the South east and south west. But
here in the Midlands of UK 30 miles North West of Birmingham the rain has
missed us since last February. On the forecast maps on TV the cloud formations
seem to part as they come over <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wales</st1:place></st1:country-region>
and head north of us, or just skim south, we see the clouds passing us by.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">However today
August 27, 2011 we have had a few sharp showers, with more rain falling now
will do the pastures good, it will take quite a few nights of continuous steady
rain to soften the ground for the moisture to soak in properly. But that has not happened so far.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Up date to Sep 4<sup>th</sup>
2011 still no rain, only enough to damp the concrete on the yard, no rain water
run down our drains through this spring and summer. I think we must be the
driest spot in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">What bit of damp
we have had has just stopped the grass from dying off, the cattle have stayed
down on the peat ground for over a month now, the only place where we have
grass <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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A father always told us<b>
“A bay of hay is worth more than money in the bank”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-82648102063656037772015-08-25T07:49:00.000+00:002020-07-29T10:30:28.959+00:00Educations What You Want --250<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Never was much good at school, too busy thinking of the work we were doing about the farm, the things we made and used, the new </span>machinery<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> the father </span>eventually<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> bought after long discussions.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The teacher </span>accused<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> us </span>of<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> day dreaming, but bring on any </span>practical<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> job and we beat all others in the class hands down. We learned to plough and to sow seeds, to </span>reap the<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span>harvest<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> and store it, to thatch the ricks of hay and corn (wheat). All this we learned to do at home including plumbing, laying </span>concrete<span style="font-size: 12pt;">, building brick walls, repairing timber hay racks and troughs and gates and hanging them.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Our Maths were not too bad as it was used in the calculations needed to sow the right amount of seed to the acre, the mixing of the rations for the livestock, cows pigs and poultry. The weighing off sacks of </span>potatoes<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> for sale and the same for any grain (wheat for and oats) sold as cash crops. The measuring of milk into churns multiplied by the dozen or more churns that left the farm each day to the bottling plant in Birmingham to have the right totals on the </span>labels. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The writing was my downfall, for years I only ever writ letters and replies, and that was not very often, but I seem to have caught up on that score this last ten </span>years<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> or more. The computer has helped me with its spell checker, and have managed to write down a lot of my experiences in and around the village and about the village folk that I was brought up alongside. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In other words, we learnt the things necessary for farming the land, as mechanisation kicked in there </span>were<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> less and less men needed to do the jobs, making it at times a very lonely job, spending days and sometimes weeks at a time in a tractor seat, ploughing cultivation and sowing. At least in the olden days you had a pair of horses you could talk to and quite a number of other men working about the farm.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqVWpnvg78wzoUY8Y-pdHhX5S5ueVwNJ70IAjhje5HZKK5F3L4wq0wVYZdbV9wDKUzBG70zzWFofMyKpbfyRMI45S7RAm5kMtV9_Nw4z6CPtN1ILixVTWMIixzyaw1Ih017Cwlq72rcu-t/s1600/School+Frontage2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqVWpnvg78wzoUY8Y-pdHhX5S5ueVwNJ70IAjhje5HZKK5F3L4wq0wVYZdbV9wDKUzBG70zzWFofMyKpbfyRMI45S7RAm5kMtV9_Nw4z6CPtN1ILixVTWMIixzyaw1Ih017Cwlq72rcu-t/s320/School+Frontage2.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">The village school as it is today, with now a huge extension build to the rear of it. The right hand door and the two windows was the School house, now offices. Mother started this school at the age of three in 1919 and was taught in the infants class by Miss Pye. When I started this school 1942 I also had this same teacher who learnt all her pupils to write in big bold loops, my hand writing was very similar to my mothers.</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Educations
What You Want<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Educations what
you want, or that is what I’m told,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Get on in life
and see the world, seek your pot of gold.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">More to life
than toil and sweat, let others soil there hands,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Let education
guide the way, nine till five, five days a week demand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Over the years
most folk done this, for better jobs they travelled,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Men they left
the land in droves, off into town they pedalled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">With better
money they bought a car, get about much quicker,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then travelled
even further a field, became the city slicker.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Owd Fred</span><o:p></o:p><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten</b></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">B. F. Skinner (1904 - 1990)</b></div>
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Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-2632969178324256582015-08-23T07:33:00.000+00:002020-07-29T10:30:07.366+00:00Fordson E27N ---249<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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Its ploughing match time again, the old Fordson struck up fourth pull of the starting handle after standing almost six months at the back of the shed.</div>
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Its now looking a bit dusty and in need of a good cleanup, the paint work needs touching up particularly around the engine where heat and oil and the dribble of fuel when the carburetor is drained of TVO (tractor vaporising oil) to allow the petrol in for cold starting. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghiC2DbCt-gXOaQocxf7-h8773qXyPOLVRzEmaPn8TUwzZRqWYQketQ29oHxcfmcDnyX4rEijSORIbu6w3NOefiRf14TmvP9TBnX7m1pqaaNZSUREbNufWgpsoFselDXtTlOLUa9doNNsF/s1600/IMG_0087.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghiC2DbCt-gXOaQocxf7-h8773qXyPOLVRzEmaPn8TUwzZRqWYQketQ29oHxcfmcDnyX4rEijSORIbu6w3NOefiRf14TmvP9TBnX7m1pqaaNZSUREbNufWgpsoFselDXtTlOLUa9doNNsF/s320/IMG_0087.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ploughing at home when I hosted a ploughing match on our Maize stubbles, on this occasion it has its spade lug steel wheels fitted, it also has a set of steel flat bands that go over the spade lug to enable you to drive down the road</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2_DSaXQ4ELOyvoTMb5PqqK-5XOr0ihfr4L1DnSAcj10XEYDPjl2HlN-VF2uBCIXLUx_3xGVZj-lSJsHE7BqG36hPEHAXp2Txr0wHqLODGx8tKdFDqm73iyBK_V9l5CJmloJI9N4JmDZrG/s1600/100_1493.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2_DSaXQ4ELOyvoTMb5PqqK-5XOr0ihfr4L1DnSAcj10XEYDPjl2HlN-VF2uBCIXLUx_3xGVZj-lSJsHE7BqG36hPEHAXp2Txr0wHqLODGx8tKdFDqm73iyBK_V9l5CJmloJI9N4JmDZrG/s320/100_1493.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Almost seventy years difference in age and technology met at a ploughing match a few years ago, both in their own right were top of the range when brought out for the first time.The Fordson had new hydraulic three point linkage and new implements designed to go with it, in this case I have the mounted plough of the same year 1946. The engine thermostat you may notice is the radiator bling which is half down, adjusted according to how hard the engine is worked. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaA61-ug2OxynhfE6IHeFTDjgTBN_NuODZg9NZdN7W_EAWX9cn1qyuQwMly0Ekpjen7fBrD72sXlceL4JiUFjLi2NbPxTTSnkqEyrDbLaa5lSjz5-n9ajfKVK2ok6OtmVl-_5UnOdFMBcF/s1600/Tern+Valley+Ploughing+19.10.08+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaA61-ug2OxynhfE6IHeFTDjgTBN_NuODZg9NZdN7W_EAWX9cn1qyuQwMly0Ekpjen7fBrD72sXlceL4JiUFjLi2NbPxTTSnkqEyrDbLaa5lSjz5-n9ajfKVK2ok6OtmVl-_5UnOdFMBcF/s320/Tern+Valley+Ploughing+19.10.08+001.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A view over the rear wheel of the opening split just about to close it back in. Other tractors at the far end of the field and to the right doing the same thing</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp33NzzcSNqbcKb4wzTNf2yjFHrxHXBwdzwXinig9LT9UOqEDB5ADbpe0P0lQpWDPRKa1-8EYWY3jsAPRpZDFegEqGpUsbQ_c7MzVzmTJrfJ9M-QJA3OA66V3pCX7gph9hn_KSvsM81anQ/s1600/p03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp33NzzcSNqbcKb4wzTNf2yjFHrxHXBwdzwXinig9LT9UOqEDB5ADbpe0P0lQpWDPRKa1-8EYWY3jsAPRpZDFegEqGpUsbQ_c7MzVzmTJrfJ9M-QJA3OA66V3pCX7gph9hn_KSvsM81anQ/s320/p03.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Transport for all the tractors taking part in the home ploughing match with seven of the ninety or more plots in the picture getting close to the finish</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ402gVCnKtl2G4TLtm7TtzDSAYVXs2sotysdnHTt6504pgrtXKwXS4yR5fgfIOz_uWrbTqba3BjesaMpR2gkbnBjZDnEf70abxXc1xnNuwZ0yGIYg2Ye-C-z0SCXZ-RkQVhdcYoWN9KnF/s1600/Road+Run+19.04.08+150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ402gVCnKtl2G4TLtm7TtzDSAYVXs2sotysdnHTt6504pgrtXKwXS4yR5fgfIOz_uWrbTqba3BjesaMpR2gkbnBjZDnEf70abxXc1xnNuwZ0yGIYg2Ye-C-z0SCXZ-RkQVhdcYoWN9KnF/s320/Road+Run+19.04.08+150.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Traveling at speed on a country road at 14 miles per hour</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8My1HmoR3Yj9YYspSo0guuGVGIkwitwtfcPzsbAdAsNVHypi53H5YlT6iSEjsHPQ9051yggCHw8k0Q3pocrT0FmbwYipzfMEadurgduXnpZAXb-z6SBXE3KrwjL6DtB3tpVXsJMvnEKHF/s1600/Road+Run+19.04.08+030.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8My1HmoR3Yj9YYspSo0guuGVGIkwitwtfcPzsbAdAsNVHypi53H5YlT6iSEjsHPQ9051yggCHw8k0Q3pocrT0FmbwYipzfMEadurgduXnpZAXb-z6SBXE3KrwjL6DtB3tpVXsJMvnEKHF/s320/Road+Run+19.04.08+030.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No luxury of a starter motor, its a crank handle </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpcSC5YEGhfRcippCHKbNe08WG4h6pol8cqC_XLim80uPBdzy0jeNmhgyrYoNXcXPVSv5eBvkf-lQ2BaFmUWTS6ue6TyMTQfy6wtDu3YTjdy8vn2cVHpcfWeau-EcKsb68HP0idKFDmmgI/s1600/Road+Run+19.04.08+006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpcSC5YEGhfRcippCHKbNe08WG4h6pol8cqC_XLim80uPBdzy0jeNmhgyrYoNXcXPVSv5eBvkf-lQ2BaFmUWTS6ue6TyMTQfy6wtDu3YTjdy8vn2cVHpcfWeau-EcKsb68HP0idKFDmmgI/s320/Road+Run+19.04.08+006.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stable mates together, The International B250 I drove that from new in 1956 that is diesel with a starter motor and has hydraulics and differential lock, a great step forward in the design particularly the diff lock </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd06UMXRuuOiDUYHUoPunNAd61MIQqRWsOetWUw7u0ECJCMlZnR-vT7XVcnS6F5t9NkTLxsrQeHPhU0tzw88vLL16gKki-JxRr3-fG1LNFGlhT_8zhnvAKnU3eK_CxloV4pbwCb8nx0MeD/s1600/fordson2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd06UMXRuuOiDUYHUoPunNAd61MIQqRWsOetWUw7u0ECJCMlZnR-vT7XVcnS6F5t9NkTLxsrQeHPhU0tzw88vLL16gKki-JxRr3-fG1LNFGlhT_8zhnvAKnU3eK_CxloV4pbwCb8nx0MeD/s320/fordson2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is how it arrived at my farm almost ten years ago, it had been the power unit to a rear mounted turf cutter, not had a great deal of work but left out in the fields year in year out. All the tin work wheel fenders had to be replaced, and the tyres, the engine was in good order with very little signs of ware. It had an extra high/low gear box fitted making it four inches longer to give creep gears for the turf cutting also a depth control fitted to enable the turf cutter to be carried at a fixed height</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-L_MSsRo8Dw034_SqpkAX97DwyyqGnKyGW9qfzZhfsRMUiElIfC4mjIcXU8RYANJ2AVNyA0jIBEK_LTeC-1XIzMVT5L8p6f_YXU9__hOw_tTqcGgaM_pDzeqe8oodlPUwkbKDevUQ2n0l/s1600/E27N+paint+job+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-L_MSsRo8Dw034_SqpkAX97DwyyqGnKyGW9qfzZhfsRMUiElIfC4mjIcXU8RYANJ2AVNyA0jIBEK_LTeC-1XIzMVT5L8p6f_YXU9__hOw_tTqcGgaM_pDzeqe8oodlPUwkbKDevUQ2n0l/s320/E27N+paint+job+001.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stripped down for cleaning and re-painting, the hydraulic unit has been lifted off the rear axle housing it fixes on with six stud bolts, fuel tank and the cast iron radiator also removed</td></tr>
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So now is a good time to re-fresh the old Fordson E27N and get it back to its gleaming self as of 1948 and 2006.</div>
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My father had one to replace the Standard Fordson that he had worked all through the war years, I would be just ten years old when the E27N came and learned to drive it, although we had been steering the Standard Fordson when cutting the wheat and oats with the binder. </div>
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It was nice to have that experience back again after all those years and appreciate how we worked out in all weathers on an machine that by today's standards is very crude and basic.</div>
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<b>A day's work is a day's work, neither more nor less, and the man who does it needs a day's sustenance, a nights repose and due leasure, whether he be painter or a ploughman.</b><br />
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<b>George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)</b><br />
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<dd class="author"><br /></dd>Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-12454167803943044522015-08-01T16:26:00.002+00:002020-07-29T10:29:38.258+00:00The Old Farm House ----- 248The Old Farm House<br />
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I have many pictures of our old farm house, but now we have left for a more modest house in the village not a hundred yards/paces/metres west of the farm, the old house is undergoing a major refurbishment.<br />
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Everything growing close to the walls has been cleared away and scaffolding has been erected all round it, the only exception is an old pear tree growing on a westerly facing wall reputedly being upwardly a hundred and fifty years old. The last refurbishment was when we moved in some thirty three years ago, on that occasion it had twelve extra windows put in, one notably was positioned to one side of the old pear tree so as not to disturb its location having been pinned and trained up that wall for generations.<br />
Another modernisation to bring it up to date back then was the electricity, it only had one yes one, two pin socket on the beam in the sitting room, and that ran the old radio and latterly a black and white TV, they had to be unplugged for an electric iron to be used, there was also a few light bulbs about the house almost one to a room. Over forty new three pin sockets were wired in all round the house to a new fuse board and a modern fuse trip installed, two way switches on the stairs and lights along the landing and over the main outside doors.<br />
The plumbing was noticeable by it absence, It had a rayburn in the kitchen with a cylinder to heat water and a hot water pipe down to the kitchen to a plywood base sink and drainer, this was listing badly as the ply wood was slowly rotting from under it with, or so it seemed the waste drain pipe through the wall and the cold feed pipe into the house being the only things holding it steady.<br />
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There was an old cast iron bath in the back toilet, this had no taps and no plumbing other than a drain plug down to the farm drains, and in the wash room next to it was a big old cast iron 'Copper' ('Copper', a round U shaped cast iron boiler with a round wooden lid on top holding about twenty five gallons, and no it was not made of copper, but that is what it was called) with a coal fire under it to heat the water for doing the weekly wash and for heating the bath water. The water had to be ladled out of the copper to the bath and the appropriate amount of cold water from the well pumped for cooling.<br />
Also in that back wash room was the original well for the house and farm, and I was told by the previous tenants, that it would run dry in summer, so another well was dug in the 1940's just outside only a few yards from the old one, this when I opened it up in 1983 (and opened again a few days ago July 2015) is thirty foot deep and had plenty of water. When mains water came into the village in the 1950's all wells were condemned and never used again, this one is still clean and useable now, even after all those years.<br />
As with most old houses, the nails holding the laths under the tiles on the roof are very rusty and obviously very close to slipping, if that happens it then forces an emergency big roof job, so the roof has been totally stripped off, the tiles now built up in huge piles on the scaffolding that now envelope the old house. The old lath and plaster ceilings up stairs have been fetched down and any remaining walls with the horse hair plaster cleaned back to the bare bricks.<br />
The jackdaws have abandoned the chimneys which now stick up in the air like long fingers badly in need of pointing and re-topping. Some of the main roof beams have been taken down to reveal that they are good straight fir trees with the bark still on them after some 250 years holding the roof up.<br />
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Its hard to imagine that a family of twenty one children were born and reared there in the late 1800's only one of which went on to live there and rear five children of his own. The youngest of this five children went on to farm Yews Farm up until he retired in 1983 . All of this family of five spent their whole life at Yews Farm and in the old farm house, and none of them every got married, three spinsters and two bachelors. Heating back then was the coal fires, three of the bedrooms had a fire place, and water heated in the copper that I mentioned above. Latterly a rayburn was fitted and a hot water cylinder and one hot water tap fitted over a flimsy plywood sink unit in the back kitchen, and a bath tub plumbed in up stairs. When we moved in in 1984 the old heavy cast iron bath (which sat in the downstairs bathroom next to the copper) was taken up the a new bathroom and plumbed in for the first time in its life, it took four of us to move it, such was its weight.<br />
Eighteen radiators were fitted and plumbed in and a boiler installed across the yard to run on logs and straw. After a month of hot radiators we found that the main stair case became loose from its wall fixings due to the timber drying out for the first time in many years, and walls that needed plastering were plastered and we painted and decorated the house from top to bottom.<br />
I must say that it was only partially heated in the first winter, as the radiators were installed in three circuits, only the downstairs circuit was done in time for winter. It was then that we had frost on the inside some of the bedroom windows when it was particularly cold for about a week,<br />
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It will be very good to see the old farm house get its new roof, doors and windows in time for the winter of 2015, a refurbishment that will last another fifty years or more.<br />
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<b>The best way to realize the pleasure of feeling rich is to live in a smaller house that your means would entitle you to have</b><br />
<b>Edward Clarke</b><br />
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<br />Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-79769245596069346342015-06-10T08:52:00.000+00:002020-07-29T10:29:12.978+00:00Calculations and Measurements Old and New -- 247<b>Calculations and Measurements Old and New </b><br />
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There cannot be many countries that have such a wide variety of calculations and measurements as the UK, be it lenght, areas, weights, money and quantities or volumes.<br />
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Take volume for instance you start with a Barrel which is forty two gallons, then there is a Bushel equal to eight gallons or four Pecks or 32.24 litres and on down to cubic inches.<br />
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One Peck equals eight quarts, one quart is a quarter of a gallon and it takes eight pints to make a gallon. from there it is four cups to the pint and one cup equals eight fluid ounces.<br />
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So the complication continues with other measurements which are no better being mixed all up by the metric conversions or equivalents, starting with the shorter ones, a Nail is two and half inches, then a Hand is four inches, then a Foot, a Yard, a Rod five and half yards, a fathom, a Chain twenty two yards, a hundred Links is also Chain, ten Chains to the Furlong and eight Furlongs to the Mile, then a League is three miles. Then all that went metric.<br />
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On areas the hectare has taken over from the acre officially, but the acre is still in the older generations mind and still used for on farm calculations (on mine anyway) as is the square foot and the square mile. An acre is made up of four roods and a rood measures out to be one furlong by one rod. It was always reckoned that an acre was just about what a pair of horses could plough in a day "in one hook in".<br />
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"One hook in" is explained as follows, The horses, usually shire horses in UK, were brought in from their night pasture (in winter they would be stabled over night) and fed and groomed before being harnessed up ready for the job at hand that day. The wagoner, that's the chap who looks after and works the horses then sets out mid morning say 10am, with his team to the field and hooks up to the plough, they would not be taken out again until mid afternoon, hence the term "one hook in".<br />
In that time he would rest them at the end of the furrow every now and then and could if the going was not too stiff, or the ground too heavy, they could cover around an acre a day<br />
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The younger generation who have been through school on the metric do not know how many old pence made a £ (240) or what a guinea is, (one pound one shilling). Some auctioneers selling pedigree livestock alway sold in guinea's, the pound went to the seller and the shilling went to the auctioneer as his commision. Then down to the ten bob note (a bob was another name for a shilling) then to the half crown (two shillings and six pence) then the florin which was two bob, --- are you still following this lot, on again to the shilling which is twelve pence, then six pence piece, then the threepenny piece, locally known as the thrupenny piece, down to the penny , the halfpenny, and the farthing whitch was a quarter of one penny, no wonder we all went metric.<br />
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All this we learned at school, without calculators, adding up money and calculating weights. That's another thing weights, starting with the ton, there seems to be three sorts of the ton, one is the US ton, (2000 lbs or sometime called the short ton), then the metric ton, or tonne,( 1000 kg known as the metric ton) then our own ton,(2240 lbs) called the long ton, all weighing within a different weight of each other.<br />
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Our ton here in the UK was made up of twenty hundred weights, a hundred weight was (and still is) made up of one hundred and twelve pounds (lbs). then there is the stone, this is fourteen lbs, and is what humanity is weighed in as in UK. there are sixteen ounces to the lb. A Quarter equals two stone and eight stone equals one hundred weight .<br />
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Are you still following, because there are still Ounces, sixteen ounces to the lb. and Drams, there are sixteen drams to the ounce, then there is the Grain, there are 7000 grains to the lb. a grain being the weight of a grain of wheat. This was the believed to be the original start of most weight systems.<br />
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Wheat and other grains, barley,oats, beans, peas, are measured in Bushels, bushels being the prefered measure of yields used across the pond in US and Canada. For instance a bushel of good wheat is 60 lbs, and a bushel of oats is 32 lbs a barley is 48 lbs, these weights can vary according to the quality of the grain at the time of harvesting.<br />
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So the complications are never ending and take almost a lifetime to get used to then they, the UK government, decide that we all go metric, All the above vital information was learnt fa nowt, a new metric system is now been in use for twenty or thirty years now, but me brain is still calculating and visualising in imperial.<br />
Ya conna win, so the best thing is to do is join them, and start learning all over again, but in my case its too damned late, ov retired and now I find round the super markets and other shops all goods be it food or furniture has all gone metric. I still have me fathers old wooden two foot ruler, and a tape measure with duel measurements on it, thats a good help, but me brain is still working to the old way of life<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Numbers
Galore<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Phone numbers and
the mobile, bank sort codes n’ accounts,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Credit card that
can be skimmed, all ya savings trounce,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Car numbers and
engine numbers and chassis numbers too,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Model numbers part
numbers, colour codes pursue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">House numbers street
numbers, area post codes an all,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">All across the
country, codes for counties large and small,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Field numbers, map
numbers, parish number long,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Acres turned to
hectares, if ya know where they belong.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">SBI and there’s
IACS, vendor as well,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PI and a Trader
numbers, and Stewardship numbers tell,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">There’s numbers
for every thing, for this that and tuther,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Fill ya head with
confusion, so many thing that got to cover.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Gallons turned to
litres, pounds and ounces gone to grams,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Miles turned to
kilometres, and foot to millimetre crammed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Therms have turned
to Mj’s, power in Hp turned to Watts,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Heat is Btu to lbs,
is now into Joules per Kilogram it jots.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The moneys gone to
Euros, bank rate measures that,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Information all in
plastic, and its in your wallet sat,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Converted into bar
codes, so computers read the lot,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nothing ever
private now, they know all of what you’ve got.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Owd Fred<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b>Me Mind is Like an Old Computer<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Me mind is like an
old computer, memory getting full,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Takes a while to
liven up, and the thinking’s getting dull,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Information’s going
in, it’s difficult to recall,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Need a transplant
right away, but it’s difficult to install.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Co-ordination’s not
too bad, site and hearing too,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Legs are getting
tired and old, and had two knees anew,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Arms they are just as
long, but me back is getting bent,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Me waist is getting further
round, of that I do lament.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So write it down
while its fresh, just now I won’t recall,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Memory’s a funny
thing, as through my mind I trawl,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Of things that
happened years ago, eventually come back,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Think about the olden
days, before they call the quack.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Owd Fred<o:p></o:p></div>
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Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-267813690595532812015-04-25T07:52:00.004+00:002020-07-29T10:28:49.985+00:00Eggs and Omelets ---246We have always had hens as long back as I can remember, mother bought and reared her day old chicks by the hundreds, they had to be collected from the railway station in boxes, where if you were late collecting them, the station master would put them by the stove in his office "to keep them warm", This would sweat up the chicks then would catch a chill when taken out of the insulated boxes, so it was better to be on the spot when the train came in.<br />
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The eggs mother sold to the egg packing station at Gnosall a lorry picked them up every week, the driver paid her for the previous weeks eggs when collecting this weeks.<br />
That meant a steady income of cash from the poultry, and every effort was made not to break or crack any eggs, particularly when us lads were given the job of collecting eggs from the hen pens or field arks in galvanized buckets with a bit of hay in the bottom..<br />
Occasionally you got a soft shelled egg that felt like rubber, or a soft/thin shelled egg which were were almost impossible to carry back to the house. If they were put in the bucket with the others they would squash them, if they went on the top of the bucket of eggs and then broke it would wet nearly all the eggs right to the bottom, and every egg had got to be wiped clean otherwise they would glue to the cardboard egg trays when packed.<br />
Any eggs not saleable ( cracked, thin shelled, double yolked or misshapen)went into the pantry where they would be fried or scrambled for breakfast, mother was not too keen on boiled eggs as that would mean using good solid shelled eggs that could have otherwise sold.<br />
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Omelets seems to have been a modern sort of way of using eggs, I can never remember mother every making an omelet, right now I have recently aquired an omelet pan, its only about eight inches across.<br />
Now doing most of my own cooking and watching Jamie Oliver cooking on the TV I've learnt how to cook a mean omelet, the only thing I forgot to do was to put a spoon full of water in with the whisked eggs before cooking.<br />
One question I would like to ask is why don't you flip/toss an omelet like ya do a pancake, as I seem to have lost our spatula when we moved house. So in a catalogue that gets shoved through our door once a month, it has all sorts of kitchen gadgets and in it, there was an plastic omelet spatula, and I bought it. The problem is, I being owd and not familiar with metric measurements, the spatula was 22mm and round, and the pan 8 inches, it's bigger than the bladdy pan, so I got the kitchen scissors out and trimmed half inch off it all round<br />
So next time I may av a go at flipping it with a big dinner plate handy to catch what missed or don't get caught, but it sound like a big mess waiting to happen.<br />
Advice please from those more experienced than I, "willing to learn"<br />
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<b>Being born in a ducks yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan's egg.</b><br />
<b>Hans Christian Andersen (1805 - 1875)</b><br />
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Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-46102389193576931442015-04-04T10:11:00.001+00:002020-07-29T10:27:51.883+00:00‘The Nottingham Knockers’ ---245<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>‘The
Nottingham Knockers’</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
our farm house I can never remember our back door ever being locked or bolted, on
the front door there was a key hole and a key, and it had two strong bolts on
the inside as well, then there was the side door, to which most folk came and
knocked when they called which again had a similar set up. But the back, back
door was the one where we always used to go in and out of to work and back in
with boots and dirty working clothes that could be taken off at that point to
go into the house proper for meal times and a rest. That door only had one big
bolt on the inside that was never used and the old conventional thumb latch
that most doors had in them days.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIFqt-VmDuxOIhl27nnwMNrLnks8J5ThHwjOphMg1Kq_Js4aI1J7OETj8-CJWj9XUmEDJJWsrmucj9hPc5KG4m3jeCZrqgd3s3nXrmgInWrQ7Jf22q9cuMy_lvFrCPTL1JZzR7GAlEQG3q/s1600/100_1474.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIFqt-VmDuxOIhl27nnwMNrLnks8J5ThHwjOphMg1Kq_Js4aI1J7OETj8-CJWj9XUmEDJJWsrmucj9hPc5KG4m3jeCZrqgd3s3nXrmgInWrQ7Jf22q9cuMy_lvFrCPTL1JZzR7GAlEQG3q/s1600/100_1474.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This big old bolt has been used in more recent years</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_uSzR8xefE7g38dw0UzmhZe4o-fjwALh48Tw5jjMbxXl-3HLNPrBkCP-egObHK-HvZNOMoCQ85kvbbtwlljKTSqzBtEIA96qQwj_T7E75vkznNsdNd1kbOET682sQ5KKknY963nU4_oN9/s1600/100_1476.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_uSzR8xefE7g38dw0UzmhZe4o-fjwALh48Tw5jjMbxXl-3HLNPrBkCP-egObHK-HvZNOMoCQ85kvbbtwlljKTSqzBtEIA96qQwj_T7E75vkznNsdNd1kbOET682sQ5KKknY963nU4_oN9/s1600/100_1476.JPG" width="202" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The old thumb latch the part that you press with ya thumb and goes through the door is missing</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
did have folk calling wanting to pick up scrap iron, and also there was a
market for empty hessian sacks that had been used for different feed stuffs for
the cattle. It got that you sort of trusted some of them who called regular,
but there were others who called who were positively not trustworthy. They had
eyes everywhere, looking in the tool shed, and round the corners of buildings
to see what we were hiding, you never knew if they would be back that night
after dark thieving.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
was where the local bobby came to the fore, the policeman used to ride round
quietly on his bike at night, and if he had had a tip off, would watch and keep
a look out for anyone who he did not know and tackle them if they had gone into
the farm buildings or gate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nowadays
the police are more mobile and in marked cars, and drive through the different
villages and do not make contact with the residents, and do not know who they
supposed to be caring for. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">So
we now have a neighbourhood watch system in place for the police control centre
to give an early warning to a couple of folk in each village, who then will
ring round the neighbours warning of criminals or suspicious folk who is active
in the local district.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
always make a note of the number plate of any strange van or car driving
through very slowly just in case it is a criminal, more often than not it’s
quite an innocent person just lost, but ya conna be too careful nowadays.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">One
such warning came and the news got round just a bit too late, and that there was
of a gang of three touting small household goods door to door. It said that
while one is keeping you talking at the front door the other one is walking
round to the back door to go in to steal anything they can get their hands on.
On this day we had a knock on our front door while we sat having a cup of tea
at 3pm before we started our evening feeding of the stock. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
wife went and answered the door, which was way down the other side if the
house, to be confronted by a dishevelled looking young chap, in her words
looking hungry and tired, he was selling kitchen cloths and towels and other
small plastic kitchen gadgets, she felt sorry for him and bought a few items
which were of very poor quality in relation to the price she paid. (In my words
there’s one born every minute) , then she appeared back in the kitchen (we
could not hear what was going on) and
dug out a can of coke and cut a couple of big slices of cake that we had been
eating and took it to feed the young man at the door. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then
on the evening local new came a warning to watch out for the “Nottingham
Knockers” a gang of three men were working their way around the midlands area,
it said they would keep you talking at the front door while the other two would
be robbing you through the back door. It went on to say, do not confront these
men, just report it to the police and then they would then know where they were
working and arrest them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It
seemed that we had had the “Nottingham Knockers” knocking on our door, but at
our house there were two or three strong farm workmen and lads having a cup of
tea in the kitchen, so the second part of their ploy would not work. To his
credit, the chap/lad who did knock the front door got a drink and was well fed,
it just goes to show how </span>careful<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> you have got to be with some of these
criminals. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
the meantime 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. He had been telling her of his hardship of just having
been let out of prison and trying to make a living selling door to door just
enough to buy his food and clothing. They had chatted for a good ten minutes
whilst he ate his cake, then politely said thank you to her and left.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
it got a good laugh in our house when the announcement came on the news about
these “Nottingham Knockers” and the fact that Eileen had been ‘watering and
feeding’ them, and we pondered as to what the next nights news might have been if we
reported that they had got well fed in our village.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">As a foot note Nottingham is about 40
miles north east of where we live, and these criminals were known in the
Nottingham area for how they worked, and had widened out to new areas to where
they were not known. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Owd Fred</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<dt class="quote"><b>Good manner will open doors that the best education cannot.</b></dt>
<dt class="quote"><b>Clarence Thomas (1948 - )</b></dt>
<dt class="quote"><br /></dt>
<dt class="quote"><br /></dt>
<dt class="quote"><br /></dt>
Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-33040441552094145212015-03-22T08:34:00.002+00:002020-07-29T10:27:18.394+00:00Farm safety a Topic on most peoples minds ---244 <div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Farm
safety a Topic on most peoples minds <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">A
Topic for as long as I can remember.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">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. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Over
the years I have had upwards of fifteen school leavers, some starting while
still at school, but every one without exception had some sort of bump or miner
accident on the way. I recall one who was loading strawy box muck by hand with
me, before we had fore end loaders. To get a bigger load this lad jumped on the
top to level out the load way above the trailer side boards, but just above him
was a pair of electric wires, very old and ragged insulation. He stood up and caught
the back of his head on the wires and he dropped like a stone right into the
pile of muck we were loading. He was okay but wondered what had hit him, and it
turned out to be one of many near misses that lad was to have. After a number
of road crashes he got killed at the age of twenty two, by just shear speed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Way
back in my twenties I recall taking a Friesian bull up the lane about half a
mile, he was always all right to lead in the yard , but as we got nearer to the
field of heifers in the distance he started to bounce, and picked up speed and
I still clung onto him. Then being along side of his shoulder I was getting
pushed toward a steep hedge bank, on top of the hedge bank was a three foot
hawthorn hedge, some eight foot in all. Next thing I knew I was standing the
other side of that hedge still hanging on to the long chain that I was leading
him by. Basically I had run along side of the bank gradually being pushed
higher up it, and with the speed I had thankfully cleared the hedge on top. I
have used that lane all the years since and can never come to terms of how I
cleared that height, but when you are in a tight spot, its surprising what you
are capable of. Fortunately I was not on the end of his horns.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">One
of the most dangerous things that lads tended to do is to hitch a tow chain to
the top link point on the tractor. In the days I am talking about there were no
cabs or roll bars, so a rearing tractor would turn over backward flat onto the
driver in the spilt of a second. I made a point of never leaving the top link
pin in place and not send any lad out with a chain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Another
lad had a narrow escape when he was out with the rota spreader, he drove the
wrong way round the field, in other words he drove on the slurry that had been
spread from the previous load, and on going up a slight gradient and along side
of the slope as well, the spreader started to swing sideways directly towards a
steep drop, the tractor start wheel slip and also hung back in the same
direction, then the whole outfit was sliding backward and gathering speed. This
I witnessed with my own eyes from the distance, and saw it all disappear down
the steep drop, the whole thing stayed in line and as it came to a stop the
front of the tractor whipped round into a jack-knife. No damage was done, the
lad hung onto the steering wheel and stayed in the seat, it was one of those
thing that you can see from the distance, and could predict what was going to
happen, but could do dam all about it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
a lad myself on that same slope a gang of us were loading loose hay onto a four
wheel dray towing a hay loader behind it (A Pitcher). This was before we had a
baler and before contractor balers were about, we were just going down this
same slope, when the pitcher blocked. Two men were on the load and I (the lad)
was driving the tractor, so I stopped and got off to help unblock the blockage.
Both men jumped down off the near full load and decided that the pitcher had
got to be tilted forwards onto its nose. 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 was moving away from him. Nothing
was said but he thought I was on the tractor until he looked and saw me behind
the pitcher helping to unblock it. NO ONE was on the tractor. By this time it
was nearly up to running speed and heading for this steep slope, fortunately
the one chap had a good turn of speed and mounted the drawbar and reached
forwards and turned the steering wheel across the slope and it all came to a
stop. The tractor did have a parking brake but it had not been applied, the
pitcher mechanism was wheel driven and being blocked held the outfit when we
stopped. Moral of this story is to always apply the parking brake every time you
get off.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig5P4O3T18QAHlK5s1C0AHmsDzltomCKPkAJy0py6Fo5l9d8C7yM2-oPt0Ja4nujvblK2chOdinQQytoMi92-IOKq4RE3EIsQaoJjhwalQkIAMbgCSFat8FA_qKHrh4m6hUd8Q80Owzx9g/s1600/Green+crop+loader.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig5P4O3T18QAHlK5s1C0AHmsDzltomCKPkAJy0py6Fo5l9d8C7yM2-oPt0Ja4nujvblK2chOdinQQytoMi92-IOKq4RE3EIsQaoJjhwalQkIAMbgCSFat8FA_qKHrh4m6hUd8Q80Owzx9g/s1600/Green+crop+loader.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">To see one of
these Hay Loaders working, tap in “Hay Loader” into Google and there is a You
Tube clip of Mormons working an almost identical thing that we used to have. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Another
example, one about my grand daughter and the ride on lawn mower a couple of
years ago. At the age of twelve she was getting very keen to learn to drive and
the only thing I would let her drive then was the lawn mower. Set her going,
showing he the gears the clutch and throttle. After ten minuets it was only top
gear and only full throttle. This went on for quite a few weekends until one
afternoon she came walking /limping back to the house. On investigation she had
mistook the turning circle of the mower and still going at full throttle had
rammed it full speed ( about seven miles per hour)under the back of a parked
tipping trailer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrbV24wQ-LM0wfArm3iQMg4qz8GFaEL1Nq6PBUskguRNJ1wOnEyCmb15NZ9NDsCMHV9Qqf9Ps6lUM0KwyxHWAkYK8uWXP_h7BWTP2WjZpt6q-w-m0j3TCYzw9Ta_1KyjZ9VXXFRtyq9QPP/s1600/First+driveing+lesson+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrbV24wQ-LM0wfArm3iQMg4qz8GFaEL1Nq6PBUskguRNJ1wOnEyCmb15NZ9NDsCMHV9Qqf9Ps6lUM0KwyxHWAkYK8uWXP_h7BWTP2WjZpt6q-w-m0j3TCYzw9Ta_1KyjZ9VXXFRtyq9QPP/s1600/First+driveing+lesson+001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
mower is one of those with a racy sloping tapered front so wedge very tight
under the back cross member. She had slid up the seat and bumped her knees and
the steering wheel had gone into her tummy. The mower was recovered with a
scratched bonnet, and the grand daughter had a very severely dented pride, and
bruised knees. It was a thing she will always remember and a good lesson
learned without too much grief.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
won’t let her drive the old tractors, the ones with no cab and no roll bar, she
now has learned to drive the Agrotron and is very happy about that as it has a
good radio and tape player. Its still got its doors and still got all its
windows, the foot pedals are light and easy for her to use, the seat and the
steering wheel both adjust, so she customises them, and now got used where all
the gears are, and four wheel drive is just a rocker switch. The only thing I
cannot get her to learn is when turning (chain harrowing) at the end of the
field, on short ground turn away from the ditch and circle into the field.
Turning towards the ditch you have got to judge your turning circle very
accurately or you will soon be in the ditch.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
one is about my workshop, and the pile of tools that are thrown on the bench
some of which missed, a bit of clear floor space to walk up the middle, and off
cut and other items deemed to be too good to throw away are saved and left
where they land. Only I know where everything is, it’s just a matter of finding
it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Axle Stand and his
Mate Jack<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Axle Stand and his
mate, Hydraulic Jack,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Live in the
workshop, right at the back,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">When they’re
called out, together they work,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Lifting things
heavy, they call it teamwork.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Adjustable
Spanner, he lives hanging on nail,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Expected to fit
every nut, in the box he assail,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">He’s first
responder, carried into the field<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">No hammer to hand,
a thraping to weald.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Poor old Hack he
looses teeth from his blade,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Abused and used to
cut anything for what he’s not made,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hack Saw gets
hacked off, thrown on the bench,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Landing on top of
him, a great heavy old wrench.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Open and Ring
Spanner, Siamese twins in the tools,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Kept in a rolled
bag, with pocket like modules,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Twenty of them,
all different sizes,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Clean and in line
should win all the prizes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Pillar the drill ,
stands aloof in the corner,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">His own leg to the
floor, and quite a loner,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">His energy comes
down, a wire from the switch,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Grips bit in his
chuck, turns quick without glitch.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ball Pane is
Hammer, comes in a good many sizes,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Large for the
blacksmith, hot metal he teases<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Small one that the
Mrs. keep’s, in the cupboard draw,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">And ones in
between, working all have loud guffaw.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Claw is another
member, of the same clan,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Pull bent nails,
blame the hammer and not man,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Soon break the stale,
when pulled and abused,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Thrown onto the
side, no stale and unused.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We know how it
should be all tidy and straight,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But never got time
to put back all polish its late,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">As long as I can
walk up the middle OK,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">And find where I
chucked it, neat pile to display.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Owd Fred<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It is one of the
worst errors to suppose that there is any path for safety except that of duty.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">William
Nevins</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-11668227413685103842015-03-15T21:26:00.000+00:002020-07-29T10:26:50.558+00:00The foundation rock of our family. --243<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This I wrote to the memory of my dear wife who passed away 27 February 2015 , May she rest in peace.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>Eileen, </b></span><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Foundation
Rock of our Family.</b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">A house is just a
pile of bricks, and then becomes a home,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">A home is where
the heart is, where you’ve no more need to roam,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s there to rear
our family, it’s full of love and joy,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The work and play
remembered, our memories to deploy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Mother in our
household, her love was all around,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">She was the
kingpin of the family, she was our queen uncrowned,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For guidance and
opinion, she would always do her best,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">To keep us close
around her, our home it was her nest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">She always filled
the pantry, as if a famine was about to hit,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Would “feed the
forty thousand”, it was her life’s remit,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">A slice of cake a
cup of tea, was the least she ever gave,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Her laughter and
her happiness, on our minds it is engraved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">She was generous
and giving, and would give you her last dime,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“It would always come
back in other ways” she told us many a time,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But now she’s left
us “home alone” and taught us how to live,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Be kind to all of those
around you, and best of all forgive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">With deepest love
and affection, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">OwdFred<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
This is the inscription taken from the poem and transcribed onto her headstone<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">She was the
kingpin of the family, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">She was our queen
uncrowned,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Her laughter and
her happiness, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Her love was all around.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-65538413225469307852015-02-17T08:37:00.000+00:002020-07-29T10:26:15.675+00:00I Dunna Miss the Owd House 242.<div class="MsoNormal">
I Dunna Miss the Owd House.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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 thirty years, and watch the
progress of the seasons and the wildlife round the wood, and all the birds that
come down to the feeders in our new garden.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I fear that some
jackdaws have followed us, but they have nowhere to nest, no open chimneys, the
Goldfinches have finally found where we are and feeding here in numbers, particularly
when the school closed at Christmas. When the school feeders go empty the
Goldfinches flood over to our feeders, and at half term, mid-February, had as
many as twenty four in the garden in one go.<br />
<br />
A beautiful sight, the bird table
and feeder is only twenty foot from the big sitting room window. There are two
pairs of Robins, Wagtails, Sparrows, Great tits, Blue tits, Coal tits, Greater
spotted wood pecker, Finches, Ring necked doves, a pair of Wood pigeons and a cock
pheasant walked in a few days ago. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you want to class this as “stock feeding”, then that’s what
ov dun all me life, and there’s nowt more satisfying than standing back to
watch them come in to get there fill. I shifted the nest boxes from the farm
house walls and positioned then up here, there seems a lot of interest in them already.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, Retirement aint too bad after all. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaHcGu4ZN8lkMnZXhfwoOWebsJtfVlI4ce4VvILgQmOyJdh8QJwhTedONY6geCHoGkySo8fWDqNI5-LSIuMFq6II215FUwtTN-P5ui5k9ID2dSkC86jv8dBHXtV5MR3oGuOOkyYbTq0kRr/s1600/Round+the+yews+house+024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaHcGu4ZN8lkMnZXhfwoOWebsJtfVlI4ce4VvILgQmOyJdh8QJwhTedONY6geCHoGkySo8fWDqNI5-LSIuMFq6II215FUwtTN-P5ui5k9ID2dSkC86jv8dBHXtV5MR3oGuOOkyYbTq0kRr/s1600/Round+the+yews+house+024.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; text-align: start;">
There are ten chimneys, seven of which are crammed full of jackdaw’s nests. There is a ventilation brick hole in the back of the now coal/log shed, (it used to be a ‘down the garden’ loo,)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; text-align: start; text-indent: 0cm;">
A pair of jackdaws (novices obviously) decided to build a nest through that hole, the pile of twigs soon built up, when the pile was removed later in the season there was four barrow loads of sticks, there would have been more than that but for the fact I was lighting the Rayburn fire every morning from those pile of stick for three months. They were very persistent, and failed to nest.</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
I Dunna Miss the Owd House<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
(I was asked)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
Did you ever miss the farm, now that you’ve
retired?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
No I aint is that reply, cus me brain it’s been rewired,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Still up early in a mornings, n’ I conna lay in bed,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
So I write about it when it quiet, just pickin up the
thread.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Miss the movements and the sounds, of livestock bout the
place,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
The Jackdaws on the chimneys, noisy sparrows round they
chase, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Feed troughs keep them happy, as they eat to get their fill,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Then fly off up to the workshop roof, out in the winters
chill.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
I dunna miss the
work, and I dunna miss the cowd, (cold)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
N’ I dunna miss the evy liftin, sacks of feed, too heavy not
aloud,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Me bones are brittle, muscles weak, they’re all wearing out,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
So tek a bit o notice now, and ya know ya not sa stout.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Miss the calvein and the lamdin, the regeneration bout the
farm,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
See them take their first breath, n’ keep them well away
from harm,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Watch them grow with great pride, as they run about the grass,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
With mothers chasing after them, getting all harassed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
I dunna miss the owd house, with its drafts and rattlin
doors,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
The Rayburn in the kitchen, and the winding corridors,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Frost inside the window panes, as out a bed ya get,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
N’ down ta put the kettle on, forecast’s cowdest yet.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Love it in the new house, with its double glazing feel,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
The insulation, n’ central heating, conna believe it’s real,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Comfort for our owd age, that got to be our pledge,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
N’ a little bit of garden, with its well-trimmed privet
hedge.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Owd Fred<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959525637967423074.post-90592053224718160372015-02-03T08:26:00.001+00:002020-07-29T10:25:55.797+00:00The UK Weather and it patterns --241<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
The UK Weather and it Patterns<br />
<br />
Here in the UK we have a relatively calm weather patterns, not too cold and not too hot, the same with the wind and rain. I suppose its because we have only a small land mass compared to US and Australia.<br />
<br />
I know I'm a bit owd fashion, but I remember my mother always "did" the weather for us at home, and all the family, she could give a "forecast" based on what stage the phase of the moon was at, and watching the house barometer closely. Even into her eighties we could contact her and the first thing was, the weather, and was advised during the summer, when to start hay making or combining and so on, and the prospects for the following week.<br />
From what I learned from her, the weather will set a trend in the first few days of the new moon and that trend will often follow through till the next moon. We have just had a full moon, so it seems the weather, the jet steam is set in place for another couple of weeks. Come to think of it mother would have never heard of the jet stream or what it does, bless here.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCVuElONlfCSB3e207r3o7ccIqvMABs5H-zDlcnJ695KHYMGKeClF7KurxzRF8bOEoCn4vI03FJYFqTlp3fiBRdyfvr76azR_cAhqF3336qq3KImPdBOS5o8ncYOEFA76VqsUN-S7tT7Bb/s1600/scan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCVuElONlfCSB3e207r3o7ccIqvMABs5H-zDlcnJ695KHYMGKeClF7KurxzRF8bOEoCn4vI03FJYFqTlp3fiBRdyfvr76azR_cAhqF3336qq3KImPdBOS5o8ncYOEFA76VqsUN-S7tT7Bb/s1600/scan.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thats me on the right in the picture in the snow of 1947 when the roads to the village were blocked solid with drifts, it was all dug out by hand for a mile in both directions. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Whether the weather<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Whether the weather,
be hot or be cold,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Weather is weather,
can’t be bought n’ sold,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Whether the weather,
be dry or be wet,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
The weather dictates,
if you freeze or you sweat.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
The signs in the sky,
and the phase of the moon,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
The tide and the
waves, they all call the tune,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
We take what it
sends, and bow to its power,<o:p></o:p></div>
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A storm and a
twister, or just only a shower.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The sun comes to
bake, the soil into dust,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sun gives the warmth,
warm the earths crust.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sucks up water, form clouds
gives us rain,</div>
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Rains on the earth,
n’ begins over again.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Owd Fred<br />
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<b>The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it, and wrong too often for us to rely on it.</b></div>
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<b>Patrick Young</b></div>
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Owd Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04208524077476780953noreply@blogger.com0