Thursday 14 January 2010

Oops!

You have no doubt read about animals getting stuck - sometimes a cow gets in muddy ground, or a sheep falls down a cliff and gets stuck on a ledge - and the firebrigade or some such organisation has to be called in? Well a similar mini-crisis has occurred on the farm yesterday; not an animal I am glad to say (there is not an animal about in the fields in this deepsnow)
The farmer took his new slurry tanker on the back of his "best" tractor to help out a neighbour yesterday afternoon. The ground under the snow was soft and soon after arriving in the field the tractor and the tanker both sank "up to the waist" to quote the farmer.
He came back home and collected his second-best tractor to try to pull it out, to no avail. So there it is sitting deep in the snow, both the tractor and the tanker.
The "relief force" arrived at dawn in the shape of another friend who has that magic thing "a winch".
The farmer has just returned - still on his second best tractor - apparently the dawn visit was "just an assessment of the situation" - all will assemble at ten-thirty this morning in a gigantic effort to heave the whole caboodle back on to terra firma.
I'll keep you posted! Would love to photograph the effort, but it is three fields away and those three fields are a foot deep in virgin snow. But I will try to photograph the wounded as they return to the farm.

Lunchtime update: Our meal times are set in stone, so when it got to twelve-thirty and the farmer had not put in an appearance I began to imagine dire scenarios. The tractor had sunk further into the mire with the farmer in it; the tractor had tipped over and the farmer was trapped; there had been an accident and somebody had broken an arm/leg/hip. At a quarter to one home he came with tractor and tanker, followed by second best tractor driven by the friend and a four-track driven by friend's son - all home safe and sound. When he came in I rushed to see what difficulties had held them up so. "Difficulties?" - "Oh, we had it out of the mire in no time, we've just been chatting."
Feeling very sorry for him I had baked a plum pie for lunch (farmer's favourite usually banned because I do try to watch his waistline) - I was tempted to tip it over his head, but as I love it too, we ate it dear readers- with custard!

27 comments:

Jinksy said...

As it's only ten o'clock, I'm in time to send good vibes to men and machines, for a successful rescue at 10.30!

mrsnesbitt said...

Brrrrrrrrrrrr! The thought of venturing out makes me feel cold! I struggled this morning to let the hens out, convincing myself they were warmer in their hut! Mind you 3 eggs were awaiting so they must be happy there!

Caroline Gill said...

I hope all resolves itself - thinking of you all in this predicament.

Our snow has turned to slush today.

I was interested on 'Snow Watch' last night to hear why birds (like ducks, who stand on the ice) don't find their feet sticking... Nature has amazing 'mechanisms' for coping with strange or adverse situations. Incidentally i read your previous winter wildlife post with great interest. A Bittern has been seen on Gower, and a Woodcock in someone's garden...

Unknown said...

Oo-er Weaver!

I hope by now that the situation has been rectified with no damage to men or machinery. This snow's the devil isn't it?

Country Cottage Chic said...

The solution would be to get a third-best tractor to help the second-best tractor to pull out the best tractor! ;-)

Hope they get it pulled out & home safely.

Jayne

Bonnie Zieman, M.Ed. said...

Fingers crossed for a successful effort! That will leave a nice rut! Hope all the oopsies are over.

Ann Christy said...

Glad he and farm vehicles arrived back safe and sound!

Maggi said...

Glad none of your dire scenarios were played out.

Pondside said...

I'm sure that there are always adventures to be had on a farm - but grown men still have lots of the little boy in them, and I imagine that they all thoroughly enjoyed today's endeavour.

Golden West said...

Yes, I fully sympathize with how one's mind can leap to dire scenarios - I do the same thing. You had me laughing at loud by the end of your telling and I'm glad to hear the Farmer got to eat his pie and not wear it!

Gwil W said...

What a lovely ending to the tale of almost woe.

Raph G. Neckmann said...

I enjoyed this! (I wish you had thrown the plum pie over to here!)

Leenie said...

Glad nothing big was damaged. They boys will have fun filling in the big hole when things thaw out. Plum pie sounds good!

Moonstone Gardens said...

Happy to hear that The Farmer and his best tractors are all home safe.
Cindee

Cloudia said...

What a rich, wee, pool of mundane winter pleasures - you lucky Weaver ;-)


Aloha, Friend!


Comfort Spiral

PurestGreen said...

Mmmmmm...plump pie...

I love the way neighbours will all band together to help each other out. I believe that men secretly love disasters like this - the fixable kind that requires them to use winches and tie ropes.

There is a song called The Truck Got Stuck by Canadian Corb Lund. If you have a chance to listen to it, it will make you laugh.

"The Chev got stuck and the Ford got stuck
But the Chev unstuck when the Dodge showed up
But the Dodge got stuck in the tractor rut,
Which eventually pulled out the Ford
With some difficulty"

Heather said...

Men! I'm so glad that men and machines alike are all safe though. It's a wise woman who knows when to smile and serve the plum tart and custard!

Crafty Green Poet said...

I'm glad it was all sorted - it must have been a real challenge to get out of that! Glad you both enjoyed the pie...

steven said...

weaver - plum pie and custard!!! i'll eat almost anything with custard but that sounds too good to be true!!! i'm glad that he got his big slurry tanker out of the mire. i remember his excitement the day he got that new toy!! have a lovely evening in the dale. steven

BT said...

What a traumatic time he had. I'm so glad your envisaged dramas didn't occur! If even farmers can get stuck, what chance for us mere mortals!

I'm glad you didn't tip the pie over his head - what a waste (as it was, what a waist)!!

Midlife Roadtripper said...

Ha! Sounds so familiar. They probably had a grand time figuring everything out in this adventure. Meanwhile, we worry.

We never learn, do we?

Unknown said...

You have a great blog here. I like checking out travel blogs much like yours at times. I have a blog myself which I hope will be a great resource for those looking to go on vacation. I want everyone to get that "vacation feeling" every time they come to my site. You know what I'm talking about.

I'd like to exchange links with you to help spread some traffic around between each other. Please let me know if this is possible. Until then, keep up the good work.

Jason
ThatVACATIONfeeling.com

Dave King said...

With custard - absolutely the only way to eat plum pie. Good story.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Jinksy - your vibes worked - all was well in the end.
Denise - we are not letting our hens out at present, just replenishing their straw so that they keep warm.
Caroline - yes i watched Snowwatch too - I would love a bittern or a woodcock in my garden.
Derrick - agree absolutely about the snow and I don't think it has finished with us yet.

The Weaver of Grass said...

CCC do read Purest Green's ditty further down - you are obviously thinking along the same lines - but our third best tractor is a 1947 Fergie - its an old man now and rather frail.
Bonnie and TAS - your good wishes have been passed on to the farmer.
Maggi - thanks.
Pondside - yes I agree, men do seem to like these little adventures. I took a photograph of the farmer and three other men whilst we were onholiday in Nova Scotia. The scenery was wonderful, the weather was wonderful. what were they doing? They were standing around a motorised lawn mower discussing its finer points!

The Weaver of Grass said...

GW - the farmer was very amused by your idea of wearing the plum pie!
Thanks poet and raph - don't think I could throw that far Raph!

Thank you to everyone else who left a comment - hadn't thought about the hole that would be left and would need filling in. The farmer had to wash the tractor down with the power washer and found it was frozen up when he went to do it.
Love the little ditty - very apt.

Arija said...

Ha,ha, I love the 'áte it with custard' bit or do I mean bit by bit?
Such are the joys of farming.