It is cloudy, cool and still today - the perfect day for spreading slurry and every farmer in the neighbourhood, including this one, is doing just that. For anyone who is unsure exactly what slurry is - it is a mixture of cattle poo and water mainly - from the milking parlours and the cattle sheds. It all goes into a lagoon - usually a round tank - and when the tank is full it has to be emptied.
Today the ground is dry enough, so that's why everybody is at it. The farmer is finished more or less, just tidying up with a few friends and neighbours with odd fields here and there. Once they are all done then he will wash off the spreader and park it up. Then he will wash off his waterproof jacket because something got stuck in the slurry pipe and at one point he managed to catch a shower of the stuff down the front of his jacket. His perfume at lunch time was divine, but as every field for a mile around is plastered with the stuff it doesn't make a lot of difference. The perfume was seeping through every orifice in the house anyway.
If this was 'smelly-vision' you would no doubt catch a whiff too.
Meantime, in a fit of enthusiasm, I have sorted out all my black and navy blue T shirts and washed, dried and ironed them all. Now they hang on the airer looking pristine. I just hope they don't pick up a hint of that perfume.
Wednesday 23 March 2016
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19 comments:
That is the first thing I thought too Pat about hanging out your wash. I don't think they do the slurry thing around these parts. The cattle aren't housed though. They do spray herbicides and fertilizers on fields though, which I hate because of runoff etc. The wind for the last two days has been horrendous - my whole house is making noises and I fear some of it will blow away. My husband actually was nearly blown down yesterday. At least it is sunny.
Fresh air, my dad used to call it.
they havent started muck spreading around here yet although I expect they will in a few weeks proper country smells :-)
Pat, why only those colours of T shirts.
Round here when farmers start spreading the muck, normally in the autumn, people from all the housing estates go mental (not liking countryside smells)and the council get called out to make judgements.
If any of your neighbours should complain, just tell them it is a good healthy country smell! Didn't you once tell us the farmer couldn't stand the smell of garlic?!!! Each to his own.
I hope your wash doesn't catch the "country perfume" after all that work.
cheers, parsnip
It isn't Spring without the good ol'stink. Greetings Maria x
I would say that it was not the best day to put the washing out.
I expect you are due rain over Easter Pat, so that's another reason to get the slurry on the land pronto. It always seems to be timed that way on adjacent farms here.
Still, as you said, the smell is all about so having a slurry-covered husband at the lunch table probably wasn't too noticable!!
Interesting thoughts no doubt, and something to ponder on. Greetings.
That is what my mother used to call a fresh country smell.
The first thing to say is that I did not hang out my washing - that would be asking for trouble. I dried it in the tumble drier.
The second thing to say is that I don't dislike the smell really. Slurry does not have that common smell of farmyard manure - which is a smell I really like - but it is a close relative. An essential part of any farm where there is livestock.
Thanks for the comments.
I don't need "smelly-vision", all the farmers around here are engaged in the same activity. With a light rain forecast for tomorrow, they were all at it full force.
Gotta love it since it makes everything GROW!
I just hope your laundry doesn't get scented, too.
This brings back memories of a childhood spent on the family farm; it always meant spring to me.
Very interesting. It should sink in really fast and not leave a smell very long. We use dry manure, but the wet would work wonders.
Linda
You would be fascinated at the way they do the slurry here. They have giant water cannons that look like huge rainbird sprinklers- they run a thick hose - probably about 6" across - to the water cannons with the slurry mixture and it sprays in vast circles on the fields. The giant water cannons move very slowly backwards across the field until it has all been fertilized. They often use the same water cannons to water the fields during the growing season - but you can tell when they are "shooting" slurry - as it is brown and smells!
I was muck spreading on my veg' patch yesterday; hardly the same. It was like Summer here yesterday.
Although I do live in town, it's not a big town and it is surrounded by fields. Depending on how the wind blows, I can always smell when the farmers are spreading muck, and it is indeed a kind of spring-time smell for me.
If your laundry catches some of the perfume, I find a sprinkle of lavender water helps.
Best part of the 'good' weather is putting the washing out and after 15 mins it's dry.
For too long things have had to be dried hanging in our sort of extended garage under the house. Have never used a drier, sounds too expensive.
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