All the jobs come at once for Mathew Cole

The rain has stopped and we can resume our summer. We have been twiddling our thumbs a bit over the last couple of weeks, but as the weather turns, and with silage and hay to make and sheep to shear, all the jobs have come at once.

This next couple of weeks we hope to be baling silage, clamping silage in three pits, making hay (hopefully), and shearing the rest of the sheep. This is lots to be doing, the trouble is everyone else is trying to get contractors of all descriptions to their farms at the same time so I am sure our logistical problems are small compared to the contractors who have to be in multiple locations, sometimes around the clock to catch up. That is until it rains again.

While we are so busy and with one of our employees, Mark off with a bad knee, it has been very handy for us to have the extra help on the farm of my sister Beverly and her husband Graham, who have moved from Kent with their three young children to the green hills of Dartmoor.

They are currently living in the farm cottage and it is very handy to pop out and borrow my brother-in-law when I need a hand. I shall miss his help once he secures a new job, although my sister probably won’t miss me knocking on her door to steal her husband, leaving her to look after three lovely but demanding children, while, in her eyes, Graham is off having fun on the farm.