Farm Diary

I watched them unload the crane which was self erecting, and then securing it to the concrete slab, loading the counter weights, and then set the 'overload' system. This was done by picking up a tonne bag of sand just above the ground, at full extension, whilst four burly men sat on it! The electronic sensors were set, and when the men jumped off, the bag jumped up about two feet, such was the spring in the jib. Given the time of year and the type of ground we are on, a crane is so much better than wheeled vehicles, and loaders.

The time table has slipped another week due to the late arrival of all the steel re-enforcing mesh (which is specially made). This has made co-ordination over Christmas difficult, as they need to break for Christmas holidays at a certain stage of the build.

I did offer that they would be welcome to work and catch up a little; we would not mind the noise.

The cows are now learning German! Having mastered Welsh and Russian, Bulgarian, Philipino, Latvian, Estonian and South African, they are picking German up very fast, as the technicians working on the Bio-digester plant are from Germany.

An unwelcome visit from the Health and Safety Executive calmed us down a bit last week. There was nothing wrong on the site, but one lorry was caught reversing without one of those irritating bleepers, and told to get it fixed. We can look forward to more visits in the next few months I expect.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette November 19