And so, as promised, the follow up to Monday’s post about the joys of muck spreading on the Purfleet Scrape... It was a bit wet a dank this morning but this did not stop the delivery of three big trailer loads of ripe farm yard manure.
Andrew G, our Site Manager guided the farmer in and directed him where to deposit the properly steaming piles of the good stuff!
All of this went very well and soon the scrape was dotted with large molehills of already smellable (yes, I did just make that word up) bovine deposits. It fact it was not an unpleasant smell; proper country farm yard odours!
Andrew then set about using our tractor to scoop up and redistribute the heaps across the scrape before using the bucket to spread it out even further.
All was going to plan until he radioed in to say that things may have ground to halt as he had hit a sticky spot...
It was not that we all ran to the window enthusiastically to look but how could we resist the sight of our tractor embedded deeply in the front scrape with Andrew scratching his head and wondering how to get out. At least there were now fewer steps to get out of the cab.
Emergency tea was sent out to keep spirits up and the ground crew of volunteers were called in to quite literally shovel...
They did this with, it has to be said, great enthusiasm, while Andrew waited for IFR (International Farm Rescue) to appear on the scene. IFR Three – the Long Arm Forklift Truck duly arrived and was hitched to the back end of RHM One before pulling her from her rather publically viewable location to a cheer from the rather small crowd that had gathered to watch the drama.
Fortified by his tea and, I believe, an apple, Andrew finished off the spreading job allowing the minions in blue to cease their onerous duties...
All we need now is for several weeks of persistent rain to fill the scrapes up and convert all that cowy goodness into an invertebrate rich marshland soup...
Howard Vaughan, Information Officer
:)