sheep at the airport

[mitchmaine]

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Penny and I just got back from a ten day stay in devon and cornwall. The west country in England. We tried to eat and drink our way across the district, but the task was too great. Skrumpy, cornwall rattlesnake, yarg cheese, blood sausage or black pudding, haggis, every sausage known to man from the butcher down the street. We stayed a short walk from a very famous 16th century free house, The bridge inn in topsham, where the queen stopped off for a pint just a short time back, and closed it up each night we were there.
John (jac) m. gave us a few pointers about the farming in u.k. and we talked by phone a few nights we were over, and he introduced us to jonathan waterer in north devon. A full time horse farmer and trainor. We visited his farm that dates to 1127 ad. Built of cobb and once thatch. It’s on a knoll looking west over miles of English countryside. A truly magical place. Big shire horses, waiting for rain to get to his plowing. He hooked up and we harrowed his pastures, while breaking in a young ardiennes horse for a young, very pretty, horse logging woman named Frankie, from kent,or west Sussex. She has been chopping wood for about 15 years now.
Even though horse farming seems to be shrinking into corners here and there in England, there is a feeling, just like here, that enough people still care and do it keeping it alive. The good news is that farming over there is literally everywhere. There are sheep grazing at heathrow. There are sheep grazing 100 yards from Stonehenge. There are pigs, lots of them, within a half mile of Stonehenge digging faster than the archeologists.
We went out on to dartmoor and true to fashion, the rain and wind came up sideways. We hiked for miles over one tough looking piece of country side. We walked into widecombe village on the edge of the moor and stepped into their 900 year old church, and there, pulled up inside the abbey was the neatest old two way plow I’ve ever seen. One share traveled upside down over the one that was in the ground. It had one set of handles like a walking plow, and looked like you threw the handles over the plow to land on the other share going back. I’m trying to post a not so good picture of it and hope you can see enough of it to get the idea. Not sure I have the true idea of it yet but it was a wonderful surprise, given the setting.
Not only have I never been to England, I’ve barely ever been out of new England, so forgive me for babbling on, but we sure did have a good time. mitch

[goodcompanion]

Thanks for the post! Great to read about your travels and insights.

I think that type of plow is what they call a “turnwrest” plow over there?

[Carl Russell]

Mitch, I’m envious. I was in the UK for a short visit about 30 years ago, and it’s nice to see your photos.

Thanks, Carl

[mitchmaine]

carl, they’d love you over there. all you’d have to say is draft horse and i know two places you’d stay for awhile. wonder if it’s changed much in thirty years? probably. i was thinking about our history over here, and somebody from england told me “well, you haven’t been gone all that long, have you?” kinda put it in perspective. like going home to see the folks. erik, do you know anymore about that plow? thanks, mitch

[jac]

Hey Mitch… Glad you both enjoyed the trip.. That plow is painted in Ransomes of Ipswich colors but I cant be sure if the one in the foto was made by them.. Must’v been a real hard day for the plow man, especially with a fresh team. That mould board looks like the long board that was used for the high cut style of plowing that was used for oats and wheat before the wide spread use of grain drills.. The plowing was left in a sharp peak and men went over the plowing scatering seed by hand. The seed fell into the valleys and then they simply cross harrowed and the seed grew up in straight rows..
John

[mitchmaine]

hi john, thanks for all your help and great talks while i was “on holiday”. i’ll see if i can’t post a few pictures of jonathans farm for you to see. he said he didn’t mind. nice view from there. thanks again, mitch any guess on the age of that plow?

[goodcompanion]

@mitchmaine 17955 wrote:

carl, they’d love you over there. all you’d have to say is draft horse and i know two places you’d stay for awhile. wonder if it’s changed much in thirty years? probably. i was thinking about our history over here, and somebody from england told me “well, you haven’t been gone all that long, have you?” kinda put it in perspective. like going home to see the folks. erik, do you know anymore about that plow? thanks, mitch

It looks exactly like a plow pictured in John Seymour’s Self-Sufficiency. One of my favorite, favorite books.

[OldKat]

Beautiful pictures. Amazing country. I hope to make a trip over there someday, glad you got a chance to go.

[mitchmaine]

hey oldkat, penny’s dad was from there. he lived here for thirty years, and a few more after pen’s mom passed. but finally he had to go back. we had a place to stay and a built in tour guide. he took us to a place he was sent as a ten year old when they evacuated london, it’s called polruan. sounds like paul ruin. right on the cornish coast. across the bay from foye. it’s a town built on cliffs with streets that seem almost verticle, and of course it’s 1000 years old, ho hum. but it sure was beautiful. he said a german fighter came streaking across the channel and right up the river and straffed the place with him standing with his pals up on the bluffs. no one was hurt. but he took some enemy fire which is always good for a three hour story some time. loved it. thanks for the chance to bubble some more, mitch

[mitchmaine]

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a few photos of jonathon and fiona waterers farm in north devon, thanks, mitch

[jac]

Hey Mitch you certainly stayed at a beautifull corner of Britain. Great fotos.. I wouldnt want to put an age to that plow but certainly late 1800s thru to the 1920s mabey ?? but now iv said that, im wide open to be corrected:rolleyes:.. The middle horse looks distinctly Clyde like to me..
John

[mitchmaine]

ha-ha! can’t fool an old clyde man. yes, a sad tale. apparantly, a friend putting up a barn frame several years ago, had a terrible accident and left a boy badly injured, and maybe killed him. the barn sat unfinished for some time and everyone got their courage up again and tried to continue, but this time, a bent got away, and crushed a man, leaving him injured for life. this is one of his horses, being worked on, apparently for resale. the plan is to replace the heavy horses with a pony to keep the injured man in horses. not a very nice story, but maybe a happy ending. don’t know about the barn. there is another picture with the young woman working her ardiennes. see if i can find it. thanks, mitch

[jen judkins]

Looks like an awesome trip!

[mitchmaine]

hi jen, thanks. everyone should be able to get a chance to boost their batteries now and again. don’t know what that means but i came back like a ball o’fire. i feel like one of those windup toys that goes till it crashes into something, then heads off in another direction and hits something else, then heads off again. right now i’m building a stonehenge out of used farm machinery out here in the pasture. i actually saw the magna charta, sitting in salisbury cathedral. 1215. the great grand-daddy of our constitution. i’ve never seen our constitution. hmm? life is good. thanks again, how’s that plowing going? mitch

[Gabe Ayers]

Mitch,

Sounds like a wonderful trip. Our trip was great also, but was so focused on the search for a good Suffolk colt that we went directly from farm to farm seeking out a colt of our satisfaction. We were fortunate to have a dedicated native guide in Simon Lenihan, so we worked very hard traveled over 2000 miles in country and saw every possible Suffolk colt under 24 months in the U.K.

I am writing a story about it for the pubs, so I haven’t written much about it on the boards. But reading the pleasure of your trips makes me remember the awe of just being there. Such an old country, so deep in historical factors influencing our modern world.
We did drive by the Stonehenge exit on the motorway headed toward Dorset to visit Randy and Eugenie Hiscock. It is inspirational to come back to the new world and continue our unique cultural lifestyle.

Now, of course we are unsure if the colt we bought over a month ago will actually make the flight over tonight around the volcanic ash cloud. Best laid plans of mice and men…. we’ll get him here eventually, I just want it to be swift so he will have the least stress from this move. I’ll keep the DAP group up to date on what happens with Eyke Sovereign.

Meanwhile still collecting our senior sire for A.I. Got to run see the “good time” doc again this morning….

~

Jason

[Author]

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