It's Coming...

Scythes 2011

Yes that’s right; the main event for the foresters of the Wimpole Estate is almost upon us! This weekend is the annual Scything Festival weekend. We’ve been hard at work this week setting up and getting ready for the big weekend. All hands to the pump so far with most of us coming in on extra days to help out where we can and make sure everything’s ready to go.

As a bonus we have a work experience lad in this week too, not quite sure how he’s handling the chaos but he seems in good spirits and eager to help. Tom is his name and it’s not short for Thomas either, as I found out today! Jim was in on Monday to get the ball rolling and many of the marquees and our own lean-to’s were already up by the time I arrived on Tuesday.

With the boss off that day it was down to some hard work by Tom and I; putting up the other lean-to was especially hard going with just the two of us. That was before I was hunting around for another 6x3 marquee to fill a gap. After obtaining keys and digging the shelter out, not to mention pinching… er, I mean borrowing…the black nobs that screw on top of the uprights; we had it down in the main area ready for erecting. Or as Shane and I have been calling them recently – Nob’eads!

Despite trying to get through my list of jobs for the day (and picking up an extra one to help someone out) I actually learnt something too. Tom taught me the well used Dolly-Hitch, often tied to secure down things on to our trailer (why? ‘cos it don’t have no back hatch to it and things tend to fall out!). They’re also handy when putting up tents and shelters to tighten up the guy ropes.

I know it’s impossible to tell reading a blog article but I just wasted 10 minutes trying to find a decent picture of a Dolly Hitch! Man there sure are a lot of knots out there, typically all but the one I’m looking for. Ahh well, if I remember I’ll try and get a picture of one over the next few days and if anyone does actually have a photo of a Dolly Hitch then it’d be most appreciated.

Anyhoo, the rest of Tuesday was spent bringing down the pole lathes, shave horses, hay ricks and various odds and ends ready for when needed. Working with all this cut grass and hay does nothing for hay fever, especially when this donut forgets to take a tablet for it! This was made even worse today as for most of the morning (and some of the afternoon) I was raking up hay.

 

Hey, that's MY spoon!

With the majority of the main area having been set up yesterday, attention was now focused on getting the scything plots ready. The marking up and cutting of the plots in the South Avenue had also been started the day before but there was still the 10x10m and the 5x5m speed plots to cut.

 

Copious amounts of raking was also involved, fortunately our methods have evolved a bit since we first started setting the event up a few years back. Yep, no more scythed measuring tapes and wonky plots! Nothing but state-of-the-art equipment nowadays. By that I mean repaired old tractors, reciprocating mowers borrowed from the Wimpole Gardeners and Jim’s fluorescent lines of string!

So what have we got in store for the weekend? First day (Saturday) is usually the courses. Many of the scything dudes (Honestly, the best way to describe them!) will arrive tomorrow for the weekend ahead. Some will teach courses (I think Mark Allory is one, others I’m not sure on) while most will prepare themselves for the fight ahead!

The obvious one is the scything course, which I think our very own Paul Martin will be on this year. Go Paul! Look forward to how you get on in the competition on the Sunday! I think we also have the usual spoon-making course taught by the above mentioned Mark, as well as… er, actually check our sister site for more details!

Sunday will be the main event. Not only will it be the scything competition but the wine and cider competitions, spoon-making competitions; as well as sheep shearing demonstrations, blacksmithying and much, much more!

So stay tuned for the follow up blog next week, hopefully after we’ve recovered from the constant tasting of the cider competition! You think I’m joking but it’s true! Amazing how many of the judges ‘just had to try that one again’!

The photos are my own for a change, but from 2011. A taster if you will for the weekend…

2011 Winners

Back with a Bang! – Bodging at the Bodger’s Ball (Part 2)

Howdy all, and welcome to the second part of the Bodger’s Ball weekend! Running a bit behind still as the Ball was a few weeks back but I’m sure we (i.e. me) will get there eventually. Despite my worries about entry on the day, even with my little silver disc to prove entry (still on my key ring!) I waltzed straight in without being checked. Of course it was fine for those that camped over the night before, all snuggled up in their little tents, drinking beer and having a merry time. Actually that does sound like a good idea!

Shouldn't the sheep be round the fire pit?

That's better!

After gaining forced entry to said site and seeing absolutely no-one I recognised (not a good start), I decided the first order of business was being fed. Having set up the eatery the day before I knew which direction to head. One bacon and egg roll later and I was raring to go, although go where I still wasn’t too sure.

Fortunately Paul staggered up behind me soon after and after a brief discussion over his merriment the night before we wandered around, then began unloading the charcoal kiln…though now I think about it Paul and I got our breakfast after we met up! I suppose that’s what I get for writing this a few weeks after the event, curse my memory!

Mind you I’m writing this blog post on a piece of spare paper in front of the TV while watching the bonus disc of ‘Goblet of Fire’, so quite contrary to my usual writing style. Of course now I’m typing this up a day later I can edit things a bit. And also wondering why I left this paragraph in instead of leaving it out and moving on! Still wonders never cease, bit like the way I waffle on! Mmmmm, waffles…

Pole-Lathing... without the pole!

After that tangent, where was I? Oh yeah, breakfast! So just to clarify, if you weren’t that confused already, I was munching my breakfast biscuits when Paul walked up. Not sure what to do next then we walked over and got ourselves a bacon and egg roll. Free too as we’d been helping set up the Ball over the last week. Winner!

Aside from the vast array of Bodgers and pole-lathers (who I think are known as Bodgers!), there were those with other country crafts; more charcoal makers, timber beam crafting, our very own ‘Have a go pole-lathe area, wool working and most importantly the beer tent! Some of us were a bit shocked (mentioning no names!) to find out that the beer tent wasn’t open until 5 in the evening. Happily though the other bar run by Justin, Jess and Olga was open during the day!

As it happened Paul and I didn’t get much charcoaling done that day. We started off with good intentions, quickly realised that masks and goggles were kinda important so took a break while retrieving the necessary items. What usually happens when you pop off to grab something? Yep, you walk into more problems that you need to straighten out and it takes you forever to get back to your original task.

Lamb burger anyone?

Plus, was it raining? Oh yeah, it was raining too. One thing you can’t do when the weather decides to rain on your parade (literally) is dig out charcoal to put in bags! Though to be fair it didn’t start raining until after lunch. Which brings us up to lunch! We had a good lunch, provided by chef extraordinaire Justin!

Yes you guessed it the Trust eatery and bar were all in the same place, works for me! I have to say they did a mean lamb and mint burger, I even got a spare egg left over from the end of the breakfast service that Olga dropped into my open bun! Even better than extra food in my roll (well apart from the cost) was Graham brought Paul and I a beer to go with our burger! Incidentally that’s Graham I know from the wool working, not Simon’s father.

With the weather clouding over during lunch and the subsequent heavy rain after, we decided to shelter in the marquee set up for the wool working (Jean and Graham) and our own Debbie who was hard at work doing corn dollies.

What did we do while we were waiting for the rain to stop? Make a corn dolly of course! Encouraged by Debs, Paul and I got stuck in with a simple design of dolly. It’s not often I’ve said I’ve played with dollies!

My first corn dolly

Anyhoo, although it looks quite complicated it was actually easier than I expected. There are more difficult designs you can do but for complete beginners this one suited us just fine. I could be that we also had a good teacher helping us though,but I was quite proud when I ended up with my first ever corn dolly. Course, Paul’s was bigger than mine but as they say size isn’t everything!

Speaking of making things (no I didn’t carve another spoon, I’m saving that for the scything weekend in a few weeks), Shane was in the marquee with the charcoal bags making purse nets. The nets are used by us in the winter months when the ground is more open and we set about catching those Wascally Wabbits!

I think after the dollying and the rain we had intended to go back to the charcoaling but Paul disappeared to get a beer and I didn’t realise how long he’d been gone until quite a bit later! By then it was fast approaching the time when I had to disappear myself and by the time I found him it was a quick goodbye and I was heading for the gate.

From what I heard afterwards the event was a big success, everyone had a good time and many people had a bit too much Saturday evening! I should also mention Peter as he also helped out a lot over the Bodger’s Ball event. Even better I’ll include a photo of him and Debs chilling out in the marquee! Is that a roll I see you munching there Peter?

To wrap things up I’ll end with a final gathering round the evening campfire. Not sure if this was on the Friday or Saturday night but you get the idea. Pictures are courtesy of our sister site (you know the address by now!) since I’m still sans-camera man, or woman!

Enjoy and see you next time!