Thursday 19 June 2008

A Change of Plan

And it’s to do with hay making. The plan was to wait until Regis returned this weekend and for him to guide me through the best way to cut the grass, when to turn it, when to turn it again when to windrow it and when to bale it. Hot weather was forecast over the weekend and the beginning of next week.

However with the approach of the summer solstice, someone has switched on summer and we’ve had 2 glorious days already and temperatures predicted to be 30°C or more tomorrow. This lovely weather is now predicted to break over the weekend so it looks like it’s now or never for the hay.

I’ve had a walk through the two hayfields tonight. The alpaca paddock field is still wet in the places it was wet before but the majority is dry. It won’t be particularly good hay from there as it’s mainly flowering grass stalks. The grass is still a bit sparse on the ground but has grown well. I went through the areas where I sprang the hares when I topped it earlier and saw nothing so with luck if there are no hares, there shouldn’t be any leverets to worry about either.

The other field, otherwise known as the hay field, is full of long rich luscious grass, wonderful. The only problem is that at ground level it is inundated with water. There is enough grass that your feet don’t get wet but every step is accompanied by a loud squelch. Maybe I’ll give that field a bit longer in the hope it will dry out.

The car will go in to have its timing checked next week but in the meantime my walk behind lawnmower is playing up. I couldn’t get it started and when I finally did it produced copious amounts of white smoke. I’m hoping it’s just because I flooded it; I’ve abandoned it until the morning and have fingers crossed on that one. In the meantime I might look up the receipt for it but I have a sneaking feeling that it’s a month or so out of warranty, such is life!

2 comments:

Georgina said...

Hi Deborah, J-P cut our hay Wednesday night, turned it this A.M and is bailing tonight. He says we have storms forecast on Sunday night. I asked with Rain? He did the deflating lilo and the shrug of the shoulders. I hope you manage to find a good time to cut and dry.

Sorry about your lawn mower and let's hope it works this morning. Debs x

Oh no! Word Verification wetdewy

aims said...

That old saying is now playing around in my head...grrrrr....I wonder if everyone here is making hay while the sunshines....oh wait...it hasn't had a chance to even grow yet so I rather doubt it.

White smoke does sound like flooding Debs...fingers crossed.