The annual
purge on farm maintenance begins again, this year, with Andrew off sick (who usually maintains the stone walls), Matthew and Steve have been employed to continue all the good work. This scene was this morning, when half of the country couldn't get to work because of the snow fall, Matthew and Steve were already hard at work, with Jed, Matthew's dog. Here they are at
Lalu, straightening up a collapsed wall before starting the re-building process. Most of the stone can be re-used but we will have to get some extra supplies to finish the job. We think there is about 3 weeks work this winter for the two of them. The walls fall down when animals try to jump over them, or because of
frosty or wet weather degrading the wall.
Other winter maintenance jobs include willow
coppicing or
pollarding depending on where you were brought up. This is Derek and Gordon
pollarding the willow on Manor Farm on the
main road from
Conderton to
Beckford. The tree limbs that were cut down were used to make 'Scotch' Fencing further down the road where a car went off the road straight through a hedge! This year we have had 4 cars drive through various hedges causing lots of damage. Most of the time the car drivers manage to get out and escape but with the fields being so wet we have managed to catch the last one before they could escape!
