Earning a Crust

So my last couple of months have somewhere between busy and hectic.  At the farm I was offered a job up until harvest (about a month), then just before I was told that there was no way I was finishing until the end of harvest, and then after harvest the job kept going for a couple more weeks until I said that I was going to travel again.

The job was great.  Being back on a farm reminded me how much I had missed it.  Living with a family here I was just another son and was looked after like it.  If they were doing something then I was too, if they were invited somewhere then I was automatically part of the invite.  And they have a dog.  The actual work part was general farm work and harvesting.  So there was stock work, farm maintenance, hay and silage making, grain haulage, storehouse work, cultivation and the everyday little jobs that pop up.  Everything from delivering calves to emptying grain bins to days spent in a tractor cab.  Long hours meant that I got paid well and limited options for spending it.  During harvest I was doing 80+ hour weeks with one week I did 95 hours.  It was good and I worked hard enough that they have tentatively offered me the same gig next year.  So might end up back this way in the future.

Aside from working for the last 3-4 months, I have tried to throw myself at any opportunity with the family, farm and community.  I have attended weddings, a 90^th birthday, agricultural shows, plowing matches, parties, Pilates, sports events, stag dos, regular locals evenings at the pub and the Kent only game of “Bat and Trap”.  Turns out bat and trap is a sport that I am not very good at.  However I have played a few times when the team has been short of players.  It is a game that is a cross of cricket, lawn bowls and tennis, with a health amount of drinking taking place.  I can’t explain it more than that.  It is more of a social thing than a competitive one, and fun.

I have made a lot of friends here and will hopefully return to see them all again.  It has been a good way to see this part of the country.  I feel that people who travel all of the way over here and live in London tend to get stuck there and not really see the real country.  By living in a little village I feel that I have had no choice but to see the real England, or atleast the real Southeast.  Now I have an urge to travel again.  I am going to see more of Germany and surrounding areas.  Seemed a good opportunity to see the Oktoberfest and the largest country in Europe.  Afterwards I think I will move north towards York and try to find something up there.  Who knows.  Time will tell how it all works out.

"Home", Huntstreet Cottage

Puppy

Ready for harvest

Westgate, Canterbury