Him Outside went out three times yesterday to sort out the irrigation system on a field of onions for our farmer friend W. who was away working elsewhere, the last time he went out at 8pm and didn't get back until 10.15. Something had made the massive pipes twisted, everything had come to a halt, by which time W. was back from where he had been hay making right out by the River Deben, so was able to help work out what was wrong.
Here are some pictures of the big system that big farmers use.
Here's the winding up end, it tows the squirty end slowly up the field by winding the pipe around the drum
Here is the squirty end that starts off at the bottom of the field and gradually gets wound back up to the winding bit then it stops squirting and turns itself off, ready to be moved across the field, towed to the bottom of the field ready to be start all over again.
The big field of light sandy soil where onions are being grown by a huge farming company that farms thousands and thousands of acres, including all the land around our little 5 acre patch and most of the fields to the right of us from here for miles.
If all fields were a nice regular shape it would be easier but this morning he had to go out at 11.30 to switch a switch to stop the spray going all over someones house on its right hand sweep( I went too to take the photos)
Then back again at 1 o'clock to do the big move.
Meanwhile back at the simple Suffolk smallholding, I've been doing all the usual stuff. Starting off by making a couple of jars of jam with the few red gooseberries off our 1 red gooseberry bush. My entry in class 77- Jar of Gooseberry Jam - for the Knodishall flower and produce show.
Picking and preparing more gooseberries for the freezer and more raspberries too, cleaning the loos on the campsite, collecting eggs - the list goes on as usual. It's a good job I don't have any sort of house cleaning fetish as nothing much has been done indoors for weeks!
