Page 11 - The Farming Years proof

FARMInG FULFILLMEnT
They wouldn’t let me carry them but I would have had a go. I do remember we borrowed a wind-up machine from the next door farm which lifted the 2 cwt weight sacks to get them onto your back to put them on the trailer in the rst place.
Clara used to let me drive the land girl’s Hillman Tilley pick up to get this equipment on my own from the next door farm. That was quite a con dence boost, though totally illegal.
I enjoyed going with Bernard to the local corn exchange in Ketter- ing . You can now go there for a blood test rather than sell your corn.
now we come to the summer which was harvesting with a binder which cut the corn and put it into sheaves which were then put in stooks of 3 sheaves with the grain uppermost. I drove the tractor and Bernard rode the binder with adjustments and ensured it all worked.
Then, it was the collection of sheaves where we had the help of the coal lorries to deal with the volume. They set me up to drive a truck but you had to have a very steady clutch foot to ensure no- one fell over in the back. I couldn’t manage the clutch. It didn’t oc- cur to me until now that It may have been better to move the seat.
It was big volume and we would end up with about 3–4 big stacks with room in between for the thrashing unit. I was on the collec- tion side driving a tractor and trailer with a steady clutch foot. I can’t remember who built the stacks but it did involve a lot of skill that, as with many processes, is now not needed. Harvesting seemed to go on for a long time. We may have had better weather.
I carried on farming in my holidays up to the age of 17. At this point Lord Lumburnum terminated Bernard’s Lease and took over the farm but he kept Jack on who looked after the pigs and, I guess, used labour and equipment from his main unit when need-
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