Thursday 3 July 2014

Haymaking!

Some of the haymaking team...clockwise from top left: Cuba the dog, Alex, Heather, Jessica, Angela,
Jo, Edward, Beate, Ted, Catherine (hiding behind Ted!), Jenny, Victoria, Stella, Pete, Roger, Kevin and Robbie.
Other hay moving helpers not in the photo were Hugh, Roger, Russell, and Mark!

Roger rewing up the hay

Richard in the red tractor baling and Roger rewing up

Angela driving the little tractor

Roger, Beate and Cuba

Hay stack getting higher!

Team work to get the bales from the trailer, up onto the haystack and stacked

With Robbie's expert skill we were stacked nearly to the roof!

As always, we'd like to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who came to help with the haymaking today!  Lots of our usual helpers were out of action with injuries, or had already made other plans so we thought we'd be short of help...but we had a super turnout of helpers - I think the most we've ever had! Our volunteer helpers came from over quite an area to help - some from as far as Exmoor and Chard...and thank you to Robbie for even offering to bring extra machinery down if we needed it!  Everyone worked together as a team, and worked hard too - we had a bumper crop of 734 bales from one field.  The baler was working for a very long time and it was amazing how well everyone did keeping up with the stacking of trailers and the stacking in the barn.  The little orange tractor helped with the hay making for the first time.  Whilst it can only take a relatively small number of bales on its trailer compared to the large tractors, it definitely contributed and played its part.  Angela really enjoyed driving the little tractor for us!

We also need to say thank you's for all the hay making preparation too - a lot happens before the baling day...Roger cut the hay for us, mended the broken hay turner, rewed up for us, and helped with bringing the hay in; Ted has spent hours on the tractor turning hay and Jenny's been supporting him, helped us find our helpers and made sure everyone was provisioned with snacks and drinks, Margaret helped to get the area ready for the hay to be stored in...and Angela came to help all day to make sure all the pony chores were done before the hay making happened.

It's always such a great feeling to have all the hay safely stacked in the barn.  Of course, the biggest thank you goes to Ted and Jenny for helping us and for donating all the hay to p4p for the ponies.

Amazing effort...we're so glad that everyone enjoyed themselves and had fun whilst working hard...thank you so much again everyone!

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