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Sarah Todd: The plague of ragwort proves back-breaking work once again
"WHEN I had a 26-inch waist one of these didn't bother me …" This was the Husband on the subject of the knapsack he'd carried on his back while spraying the fields. He's still, a week later, rubbing his shoulder blades and talking about inventing a deluxe model with non-rub straps.
Poor chap. He'd been getting earache about the dock leaves and thistles in our front paddock. Only where horses have been can fields look such a mess. They've not been helped by the tractor blowing up, rendering the grass cutting – or topping – machine redundant.
More importantly, in the higher back fields, the dreaded ragwort was back. It's been an annual moan for more years than we'd care to remember and the usual digging out was impossible. We needed to get some spray. To explain a little more, we're upwind of a busy main road. The kind of road that every year is flanked by ragwort. We've spoken to people right the way along its route and they all find the same, that because the council doesn't do anything about this poisonous plant the seeds are carried into neighbouring fields by the wind.
Perhaps we should send the authority the bill for the chemicals?
On a lighter note, there's been some really uplifting correspondence about ex-battery hens.
Readers have provided the details, listed below, of two charities which organise the distribution of hens whose egg production has fallen below the weekly requirement – which seems to be around five or six – to make them commercially viable. Donations of between 1 and 1.50 per hen seem to be the norm.
One family told how their girls enjoy listening to the radio as they lay an egg every day. "They were scabby and bald and ugly and could not walk at first," says their proud new owner. "But now they are truly beautiful and reward us back every single day by making us smile.
"If you can help give some poor little hens a home, then you should do it – definitely."
Photography isn't a strong point, but the other day Tetley was sitting next to Jim the cat and it was an image that shouted out to be recorded. If nothing else, it might be of interest to all those people who told me not to get a lurcher because "it will eat your cats" …
www.henrehomers.net or www.bhwt.org.uk
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Weather for Yorkshire
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 1 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: West
