Silage Crop In, Orphan Pheasant Chick

The silage is all in and the pit is very full, a superb crop this year and everyone is very pleased. It was glorious sunny day but rain was forecast for the evening.
Younger Son had been mowing until very late on Monday night, then on Tuesday the Farmer spent all day from 10.00am until 1.30pm (!!!) rowing up while the Sons carted the grass to the pit where our good friend S. was buck-raking & levelling the grass. They were all working until 1.30 in the morning but the rain was on its way and so they just had to carry on until the end  and they got it done in time.

I had spent the day cutting piles of sandwiches and making up cold drinks for them all though it was eaten on the hoof as there was no time to stop for more than 5 minutes as the process of raking & carting was finely tuned to keep the chap on clamp from getting overloaded, but also to prevent him waiting for the next load. It is quite a business making silage!
Yesterday morning was then spent rolling the clamp to get the air out and covering it with the plastic sheets and tyres. So that is it now until the next cut later in the summer.

This morning the Farmer has brought a new lodger into the kitchen. He was out early with the dogs and they disturbed a hen pheasant who had survived the last shooting season and had made a nest in one of our bottom fields. The foolish bird flew off and the dogs found her nest but the Farmer rescued a tiny pheasant chick which is now cheeping gently in a box by the Rayburn. It probably  hatched only yesterday . It is tiny but very pretty with its dark striped fluff. They hand -rear quite well so hopefully we''ll succeed with this one.