In the club

A momentous day here at Rock HQ as we are now in the club. We have a trailer! One step closer to being real farmers our lovely Rice trailer will allow us the freedom to move stuff, fetch stuff, even temporarily shelter poorly beasts and take them to the vet if the needs arise.

Fetching it was a real baptism of fire, dragging it out of the muddy grass Rene did very well and thankfully was able to turn in the yard without the need for a dreaded reversing maneuver. So happy were we that this super useful item would make life so much easier that we called on the way home to fetch some straw to make a deep litter for Hetty.

No problem said Mrs Farmer, just back up and go through the other gate and its there, help yourself. Mr Farmer arrived. Straw you want, its over there, cant move that he said pointing to the massive tractor barring my way, have to back up, go through the other gates, you know where it is, help yourself.

I could see there was no way out of this, except backwards. Master Farmer arrives, pockets jangling with tractor keys, salvation! Whats he want (not addressing me) Straw, he thumbs the direction of the straw, have to back up. He grinned.

Yes I know. With heavy heart I climbed back into Rene while they sorted out picnic chairs and score cards and settled to watch the entertainment. In terror I gripped the steering wheel and selected reverse. Somehow, and I feel much to their disappointment, Rene and trailer managed to miss the stone garden wall, the side of the barn and the Warrior 4x4 lurking by the side. We cautiously made our way round to the other gates, a huge yard awaited with massive turning circle. Usually.

Today there was a cattle lorry, a giant tractor and trailer, another tractor, an open barn door and a curious dog whose mission was to pee on all 8 of our moving wheels. It was a virgin trailer reverser's nightmare that could only have been made worse with flaming oil drums and snipers on the roof. My audience reappeared and while I composed myself plotting a new escape route they nodded approvingly while Tracey loaded the trailer under the dogs supervision. By extreme fluke I managed to get the trailer and Rene facing the right direction without damaging any one's paintwork or dog. Next test reverse a slalom on a live firing range whilst blindfolded with one hand tied behind my back. Easy. Bring it on.