Adrian Harrison prepares for winter bedding

November is still unusually warm – there are still flies and I still have to mow the lawn. I pinched myself just to make sure I was still in North Yorkshire.

It is still rather wet and windy so any daft idea I had about letting the cows out into one of the still lush fields died when Chris bogged the quad bike up on the moor and had to be rescued by the JCB.

The calendar has moved round 18 months and that means Farm Assurance. I am happy to report that we passed with no issues. We are lucky to have an assessor who is actually a farmer and is able to put over in a very charismatic way what is needed and when. Apparently though, according to the older generation at Manor Farm, “it is all a waste of time”.

Each winter I moan excessively about the “exercise class”, bedding up our straw yards. The wife said she was going to murder me if I moaned anymore, so in order to save my life I have purchased a spread-a-bale machine for the JCB. As the gleaming new machine arrived in the yard, Chris and I were looking and admiring it, when our 67-year-old conscience was heard saying “It is all a waste of money that will never work.” I am pleased to report that the machine does work, very well, and it is case of “why have I waited so long to buy one?”

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