Hydraulics

Was woken at 6:00am by a thunder clap. The straw was still, uncovered, outside on the trailer. Dashed around, barefoot and in a pair of boxer shorts with the first drizzle coming down, looking for tarpaulins. Then the heavy stuff came but luckily the stack was covered by then and the downpour only lasted a few minutes.

Then got around to clearing the stables of all the cobwebs, sawdust from the tree cutting yesterday used to make 7 metre long beams to span a tarpaulin under the roof and directly over the straw store.

In the meantime a friend Steffi arrived with her two teenage daughters and spent the afternoon pooling and chatting and as a bonus, Steffi shore Flash again (she did him in the spring). Big pile of wool and a happy Flash to have been enlightened.

I then tackled getting the four bales off the trailer. As I have one of the old front loaders without any ability to change the "angle of attack", it's not quite that easy and once a bale has been speared, the weight on the non servo-assisted steering and with no counter weight on the back makes manoeuvring a test of the biceps. The front loader can lift two bales but then the chances are very high I couldn't steer at all.

Have to take a bale to the stable, put it on two pallets, get a second bale and put it on top and then with a pallet wagon move the load in to position in the stable. All went well and eventually could join the others for a drink.