Where has it gone??

Well, well I cannot believe it, we are into the late August bank holiday weekend and don't you just know it the weather is set to be unsettled, thankfully it is not the weekend for the Shackerstone Festival, that happens on the 1st and 2nd September, so fingers crossed.

Does anyone know where our summer has flown off to?

To be fair, the weather of this Summer has not really bothered me, Ok of course I do like the sun, but hey it has not stopped us cruising and it is only a drop of rain. I do however feel for the farms who have really been struggling to get their harvests in.

With the wet weather some farmers are still trying to get their hay baled.

Wheat in the fields will go black if not harvested soon and it will start sprouting and then only be good enough for chicken feed, which of course will lose the farmers yet more money.

To combine wheat the moisture should not be more than 15% and so for many farmers they have to wait patiently for the sun to dry their crops. You can combine and then dry the crop in the sheds, but that costs a lot of money, which many farmers just do not have.

I remember as a child harvesting was a fun time. We would go on bale cart, helping to stack the bales on the trailers, then we would get a lift back to the farm on top of the stacked bales. Sadly that does not seem to happen any more all due to Health and Safety. I remember using a pitch fork to lift the lighter bales on to the trailers or to stack the bales in the field ready for collection. Don't get me wrong working on a farm is in no way romantic, but when you a child it can seem that way, especially when you get paid to pick up bales and stack them LOL.

I still have friends in farming and they are all over the place with their harvests, it has been stop start, stop start and now they just want it over with.