Pipes and Haying

   One of the jobs we least liked on the Farm, was changing the irrigation pipe. Thank goodness only one of the four fields was set up for that. The front field near the house seemed to be of a gravel base and would soon burn up without enough water. And so, the system of irrigation pipes had been put in and it required moving by hand every second day. Although the pipes were aluminium and not overly heavy, they were most awkward things to move. Often the sprinkler heads were clogged and needed attention as well. I took to carrying a small crescent wrench with a piece of wire attached to it. In this way I could remove the small nozzle and free any debris that was clogging it. We got weekends off but it was still necessary to change the pipe on at least one of our days off. If we had been out with the “Eds'” the evening before and if they had stayed over it always went much faster with four of us. It had never bothered Fred to come over and rouse us all and tell us to change the sprinklers, even if we had thought we would sleep in that morning. I for one was always happy to see the pipe go in storage for winter. One day I got a shock when using my little wrench on a car battery and the wire touched a terminal- I thought I had learned that lesson about wires and batteries but apparently not in this circumstance. But these were all parts of our day and for the most part we managed very well I think for two girls.

   Haying was high on the list of not nice things as well. By now the new fields at Lofsted could be hayed and we were sent out to do it. Both Judy and I were susceptible to hay fever,
 and it got so we hung a toilet roll on the gearshift of the tractor we sneezed and snotted so much. Those were long and hot days with hard toil as well. One day after cutting hay all day I woke up to find both my eyes swollen shut. Along with haying of course came machinery failure as well and we would cheer when something broke down and we could not hay any longer that day. The baler especially caused a lot of problems. It had a safety device wherein a shear pin would break when the load was too heavy for it to bale. We went through boxes of these pins. The pins had to be ordered from Nelson and when the box was empty and the last pin broke-we could go home! One day we had just gotten a new box of pins and had yet to return to haying. Fred decided he would do a few rounds. When he returned to the house he sheepishly told us we could not hay tomorrow either. When I asked why he said there were no more pins. Well I knew there had been a whole box but apparently he went to fast and went through the entire box in an afternoon- that was a record that surpassed anything Jude and I had done.

Getting the hay home was no easier than making it. Our hay wagon would often leave the tractor once it was loaded. Again poor equipment and I soon asked if we could have some tractor pins drilled so we could put another pin cross ways and hold the wagon onto the tractor. Eventually the mechanic supplied us with these and things were a tad easier.

   On some occasions when we thought we could get away with it, Jude and I were not above sneaking in a nap or two. We were the most tired on a Monday if we had partied all weekend til the wee hours. More than once I would awake to tell Jude we were on our own time so wake up as we could go home now. Once Fred nearly caught me when I was up on the Airport pasture. The only shady place was under the tractor and I had just woke up and started the tractor when here he came. He unscrewed the cap of the fuel tank and said “Just fuelled up eh?” and at least I had the presence of mind to say “Yup”. In retrospect we probably did not pull the wool over his eyes and he probably knew exactly what was going on.

   Sometimes we would get fed up enough to want to quit out jobs but Fred always seemed to know when we were feeling pushed too hard and would east off a bit. Or we would be invited to an especially great dinner at the big house and all would be well again. The Aldingers of course needed us as farm hands and it left the men free to run the mill and attend to other business. For the most part it was a good working relationship and now when we look back Judy and I both say “Those were the days,my friend! “