That bloody Hugh Fernly and his suggestions

Millymollymandy · Wed Jun 07, 2006 6:21 am

shiney wrote:Shirlz, Monty is 5 but will be 6 on Thursday.

How funny - my Mum's new next door neighbour comes from your town Shiney - and they just had a new baby and were canvassing everyone as to names - one of their choices was Monty and we all said Yes, MONTY! It's a great name!

Millymollymandy · Wed Jun 07, 2006 6:24 am

ina wrote: Re livestock, and getting up early: When I did relieve milking a couple of years ago, we started at 3am.

Blimey! My brother did relief milking for many years (in the south) but I think the earliest he started was 4.30am. Maybe it is because you are in Scotland and it is light earlier?

Stonehead · Post: # 22150Post **Stonehead** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 9:44 am

Shirlz2005 wrote:(spotted on a label while out with Ina.... 'it's chic to reek' !!)

Yes! I'm fashionable at last...

Stonehead

Stonehead · Post: # 22151Post **Stonehead** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 9:50 am

I get up between 0530 and 0545 most days, although I've been known to indulge a sleep-in until 0630 on a Sunday.

I tend to work all day, make dinner and then collapse for an hour or so while the OH gets the boys ready for bed (hopefully by 2000, usually 2030). Then it's back to work again - outdoors in the lighter months and indoors in the darker months. I usually finish around 2200-2230.

It's not too bad, but the bad days are when the boys decide to go rampaging around the house after midnight. It happened last night with the result that when I was having a coffee and a slice of bread and jam 20 minutes ago, I woke up at the kitchen table with the jammy bread stuck to my face!

Stonehead

Andy Hamilton · Wed Jun 07, 2006 10:16 am

I was out last night drinking and did not get up until 10.30 how lazy is that.

ina · Post: # 22290Post **ina** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 5:57 am

Millymollymandy wrote:Maybe it is because you are in Scotland and it is light earlier?

I think it's just that particular dairyman who likes to start early... It also depends on what time the milk gets picked up - you simply have to be finished before that. Sometimes they came at 7. I didn't take 4 hours to milk - but you have to get the cows in first, and the milk has to have a chance to cool down before it gets into the tanker. If you start milking after the pick-up (which might not be before 8 on some days), it would get to late - tank would have to be cleaned first etc. And then you'd be working half he night... This way at least you were generally finished with the afternoon shift at 5.

Millymollymandy · Thu Jun 08, 2006 6:18 am

Did you find it a lonely life Ina? My brother gave it up several years ago (thank god) as he had no social life whatsoever. In fact he had even bought his own house but spent hardly any time there whatsoever. Now he is working in a cheese factory but has a great social life so I'm happy for him. Plus he has suffered many 'minor' injuries due to cows over the years so had too many aches and pains to carry on with the herdsman job any more!!

Stonehead · Post: # 22302Post **Stonehead** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 7:18 am

Millymollymandy wrote:Plus he has suffered many 'minor' injuries due to cows over the years so had too many aches and pains to carry on with the herdsman job any more!!

It's the same with pigs. Despite wearing steel toe-capped wellies, my feet are always covered in bruises from being walked on, I have bruises on my calves and thighs from their affectionate nibbling, and getting rubbed between two big pigs is not fun. Still, they are lovely creatures and tasty to boot!

My least favourite job is feeding them in the early morning during a blizzard. The ground is hard and icy, the wind-driven snow scours your skin off (hence the beard), the wind-chill leaves any exposed skin frozen, and you can't see a thing. But that's only a couple of weeks a year, so it's worth putting up with for the rest of it.

Stonehead

Wombat · Post: # 22305Post **Wombat** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 7:49 am

I get up at 6:00am during the week but weekends are MINE!

Nev

Millymollymandy · Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:19 am

I got up at 5.30am this morning and it wasn't even proper daylight!

ina · Post: # 22357Post **ina** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 3:07 pm

Beat you

I was at the computer at 4:45 - but it's daylight from about 3am, anyway...

I only did weekend milking, MMM, so it didn't bother me. I love the milking and working with cows, but the way it's done nowadays, when farms have to be so huge to be viable, it's split shifts, and you basically do nothing but the milking, twice a day. The farms where I worked when I was younger were smaller, so in between the milking you still had time for other farmwork, which made it a lot more interesting.

Millymollymandy · Fri Jun 09, 2006 11:14 am

Ah yes, it's just not like the old days when we did it by hand!!!

hedgewizard · Fri Jun 09, 2006 3:32 pm

I've got the same problem Tigz - I love getting out into the garden when the world is still asleep. Trouble is, Harry's on a hair trigger and wakes up if I so much as swallow. 5am this morning and he still got up with me!

shiney · Post: # 22529Post **shiney** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 6:04 pm

Millymollymandy wrote:
shiney wrote:Shirlz, Monty is 5 but will be 6 on Thursday.
How funny - my Mum's new next door neighbour comes from your town Shiney - and they just had a new baby and were canvassing everyone as to names - one of their choices was Monty and we all said Yes, MONTY! It's a great name!

Small world. Monty is a great name, I love it. He's actually a Montgomery but the shortened version works well when he's being good. It's the full Monty when he's being a bit of a monkey.

And....

He gets up at 7am, which is fine by me. I hate getting up these days. But...I am awake most nights at about 2-4am! Insomniac just like me mother. Lucky I don't have any milking to do!