Any other harvest widows out there?!

[Lala1980]

Hello. Lonely and frustrated harvest widow would love to chat/vent with other farmers' WAGs...

Hi quietitger - my brother lives in Neath - I go over the bridge quite often! x

Lala We'll have to hook up. :) You can come and see the ponies. :)

All farm machinery in good and regular working order here

Taking the over excited children to the coble boat race in Fife today. Dh like Eeyore again because of the rain/everything but thrilled with all the free nitrogen that the fields got from the lightning storm.

Barley just starting to change colour here so a good while until harvest.

QuietTiger - enjoy your break in Edinburgh! Our GPS is 'aim for that tree and don't take your eye off it'.

We had rain here yesterday so dh got to have his day off, and as it was so hot (above 30 here) we headed to the beach and had a lovely day

this week is going to be a bit mad - straw everywhere!

How has everyone else been over the weekend?

Still raining here, we have one hopeful day then it rain again ! ahhh dh so fed up, going to try for a night out this week, it is weeks since he left the place.

Morning ladies...
DP had his kids this weekend so actually got to see him a bit! But as soon as they were gone last night he was back on the tractor but I was at work so it was fine!
Rather gutted this morning as found out that due to the harvest being so bad, we are not getting our planned extension and new kitchen
V.disappointed as I run a small cake business from home which this extension was going to enable me to expand... Still, now means I have to really blitz and clear my existing kitchen as have rather let it go thinking I was getting a new one...

moocow and Lala - sorry for ing about the rain - we have had a week or so of dry weather here, and people have really cracked on - so only as dh can only have a day off if it rains (hope you understand)

Lala - pants about your new kitchen
I don't know how it's yielding round here, but we have more straw than we need - which is good as we were quite short of it last year

Hi guys, sorry I've been a bit quiet the last few days - been powering on with the wheat. Not yielding too bad at 4t/ha average but my goodness I've never seen such green straw in wheat.

We've just invested in a GPS kit this year cos of the government grant too. Have to say, 13k seems a high price to pay to be able to drive in a straight line.

I managed to hit a post when reversing into a shed yesterday. Cue Dad mentioning it 8 times this morning all ready. It's not really that bad - (well, it is a very big post that is now quite bent but the shed is still upright so hey ho!) but you'd think the world had ended. I got so fed up with him grumbling about it I threw back in his face the TWO, yes TWO walls he has reversed into this year so far. Who's loosing on the driving into things stakes then Dad hey?!

Lala - pain about the kitchen. Hope this doesn't depress you but my Mum has been waiting about 10 yrs for a new kitchen - they don't come cheap do they. I used to live around Trowbridge a few years ago. Well, I lived in Bristol but worked around Frome, Devizes etc. Nice part of the world.

Straw hauling starting here.... DH rings yesterday afternoon to suggest we start sorting out the baby toys for his sister who is pg so I get in the very hot loft and start....next thing I know he's going past on the tractor with the trailer sending me a text to tell me he's going to haul straw instead! Grrrrr!

Lala sorry to hear about the kitchen. I've been asking for an extension and a kitchen since the day I moved in. Been here 8 years now! Although he does now have an incentive to get the planning permission sorted as the neighbour has her house on the market and says she will agree to anything before she sells..! Ladyflip kicks her DH's arse into gear

TBH I kind of half expected not to get the kitchen - the farm always get these big ideas and grand promises, and then something else happens or comes up so I wasn't really expecting it to come off :-(
Lovely sunny day here, the boys have been out with the combines so hopefully they will be tired but happier later...
I am making coconut ice! Blind taste test - one is overly "fake" with condensed milk and icing sugar - the other is made with double cream, coconut milk and uses fresh strawberries instead of pink food dye!!!

Rain stopped play again yesterday...

i hate being a harvest widow....my dp is a farm worker and i never know what time to expect him home, most of the time i have to start cooking after 11pm when he gets home, i got rather peed off with him yesterday, he phoned me at 4ish saying will be home just after 5 as too wet to combine, i started cooking a meal, he phoned again at 5-15 saying boss says to combine anyway,(had got a meal ready) another call at 6 saying he's on his way home,it's pouring down,farms 15mins away....thought i would warm his food up and have it on the table ready, no sign of him at 7....i phoned him, he said oh i got held up i'm on my way i promise will be home in 15mins, he walked in at 8-30....am i wrong to be peed off with him?

Davids - you are not alone! There's lots of us on here sharing similar and different frustrations.
I too would be frustrated - when I used to work in sales, there was a little saying "Underpromise and overdeliver" - I'd rather expect him home at 11pm and get a bonus if he walks through the door at 8... not the other way round!!!

when it's combine time i send him out with extra food, he eats this at lunch time, when it gets to 6ish he's starving, he phones me up moaning, nothing i can do as i don't drive, his boss normaly takes them some food, comprising of 1 sandwich and a banana, then i get another call moaning he's still hungry....sounds silly but all i want from him is a phonecall saying i'm going to be home in 30mins and arrive on time, so i can have a meal ready for him, i feel bad if i haven't got his food ready for him when he's starving......it's not the hours he works that bothers me it's the fact that i get food ready for the time he says and he's 3 sometimes 4 hrs late, and foods ruined and i have to start cooking again.

Hi Davids - I find thing like chilli, cottage/shepherds pie, pasta bakes etc are great because I can cook them but if he's late, they don't spoil and can be reheated. x

Hi Davids - I think lala's advice is good

We classified our heifers yesterday - only 3 of them....

Our Ayrshire went 87 points!!!!! and the Jerseys went 85 (also ) and 80 so pretty good going!

Caz what is heiffer classifying? Sorry we are an arable and egg farm!

a classifier comes out from the society, and marks lots of important traits out of 10 - this is also called linear assessment, and then they put it together to give the animal a score out of 100.

www.ukjerseys.com/services/classification/index.html actually this explains it all if you are interested

Cazboldy Well done on the heifers!

DH is in a good mood - he's won 2nd prize at the local agricultural show on Wednesday for his Spring Barley. He entered it for a laugh as his old farmer fart friend nagged him to. He won a grand total of £8, so we'll go mad and live the high life! He's now just baled & wrapped 200 round bales of silage, so is happily putting them on the stack. Next job is to plough for the OSR. It makes a change to have him in a good mood instead of moaning about the weather!

Davids like Lala says, do stuff that can be warmed quickly in the microwave. I tend to do batch cooking when I know things are busy - stuff like curries, chilli, spag bol, casseroles (can eat with rice). It means if DH comes in really late, I can grab it out of the freezer and it's done in 10 minutes with no work.

if any of you ladies are on fb you MUST look at the page called "50 sheds of hay" - it's hilarious!

Sorry for the late replies, been soo busy the last week. You're right it's all a bit exciting this year, although i'm bored of waiting up till midnight for him to come over. Have been delivering them all lunch, ice creams, and dinner most nights too. Apparently because of it i'm the best gf DP has had according to all his farmer friends!

Poor Dp hurt himself in May & didn't think he'd be fit for it this year, so he's really suffering with his injury sitting in the tractor all day. He's just called to say rain has stopped play, so with any luck we might actually get to go out for a meal or something tonight! Wow!

Cazboldy - THANK YOU!! I went to that FB page and was laughing so hard I started coughing! DH had to come to see what was so funny and is equally Pissing himself laughing.

Truly hilarious.

Been for a family trip out to the agricultural merchants. Children went off to admire the Bruder toy tractors. Then locked themselves in the only changing room and crawled under the door leaving the locked door behind them .

DH milking for the next 9 days exclusively, as relief herdsman and full time herdsman both on holiday. We have sand bags at the door and are all wearing tin hats in anticipation of him being even grumpier than usual! Jokingly mentioned this to FIL, who replied "he should milk twice a day every day for 3 years, that would sort him out". Somehow I managed to refrain from pointing out that, if that were the case, I would be long gone, as funnily enough I'm not here just for running the house and raising the children while he works himself into an early grave. Is it wrong to want a partner who contributes to the house and has a relationship with his children? Is it all just about the farm? Or is it because my parents weren't farmers and I "just don't understand"?

Good morning ladies hope your weekends were all good.
Weather stopped play most of it so got some well needed quality time with DP and my family now believe he exists again!
I reckon if the weather holds they've got 3 long days of cutting left...

so how is everyone doing?...... i believe the end is in sight!