Something new for the NCVs to do!
The cropped photo above may well ring bells for regular readers - it was taken a couple of weeks ago when the group were out pulling balsam, while tool meisters Jan and Phil got busy preparing our scythes. They were getting them ready for the first day of the NCVs' big grass cutting job on Glasshouses verge.
Oh, the joy of not having to pull balsam!
The first job, course, was to adjust the scythes to the scythers....
The first job, course, was to adjust the scythes to the scythers....
wishing he, too, could have a scythe.
Sorry Alistair - you'll have to wait until the change over at coffee time.
Then it was time to go down to the verge.....
(This is only the half of it!)
Finally the NCVs started cutting some swathes.
"2 men went to mow, went to mow a meadow..."
Where's Spot?
Ros K. did a grand job on the 'horrible hump' that borders the road.
New NCV, Tom M., took to scything like a duck to water.
Every so often an NCV would take time out to sharpen his scythe.
Of course, all this scything created an unlimited supply of cut vegetation.
This had to be raked up...
...and pitch forked onto ever growing hay stacks.
Occasionally an NCV would manage to lift great quantities of vegetation.
"EEEK! There are biddies running down my back!"
Anita used the Basil Fawlty method of tamping down this stack to stop it falling over.
Ros E. decided to use a more active approach to this job.
(If the video doesn't work for you then click HERE.)
Every so often Liz would appear with the trailer, which was dutifully filled before being driven away to take the vegetation to its final resting place.
The local picnic area provided an excellent place for coffee and lunch.
It was the kind of place where one
could remove boots and give socks an airing.
In one corner the monster from the Blue Lagoon
emerged from one steamy pair of wellies.
By the end of the afternoon the verge was looking very different.
Still a section to do on this half - and all the other half to do next week.
Time to go home folks!
Hang on - what happened to all those trailer loads of vegetation?
Well - they got transported to the barn where this patch of nettles had been bravely slashed down by an elite group of NCVs.
Sally forked it out of the trailer and onto a board...
...where it slid off - to be received by Angela,
who spread it around the whole area.
In addition to all of this Will did an excellent job
of cutting up a pile of rotting tree posts for kindling.
What, pray, are biddies?
ReplyDeleteWill