Monthly Update - June 2025

A great friend of mine first came to Rushall Farm as someone school couldn’t cope with. He worked for us when he “left” the school system. His somewhat biased approach to the process or even those who went on to higher education was “But can they make a bird table?” He has gone on to form a successful fencing business, is married with two young children and has just bought a farm with plans for a new home.

When one of our key staff died his comment was “All that knowledge and skill gone”. The man worked here for 45 years. He could shear sheep, win ploughing matches, do the cultivations, drill corn and operate the combine, always working long weeks. He was an expert welder and repairer of stuff, and managed 100 acres of woodland with chainsaw and forwarding trailer

Coming from a different route, my boss and I mused over the problem of extraordinary brain power, and whether that was best suited to the many times when work in farming was repetitive and very straight forward. An extreme example of this was when I left the trailer in the tipped position as I was so anxious to get back to the combine waiting in the field. The result - a massive crash with a bent ram to repair - and still the combine waited.

Yesterday at 6am a huge digger on tracks arrived in the field by our house with Jason the driver and Rob. They had come to fell a very large ash tree which had finally given up from ash dieback. The tree dominated the amphitheatre (an old chalk pit) which is used for toasting marsh mallows and camp talent shows. So Health and Safety was paramount. Access was difficult, and the work was tricky, which means it was expensive. They did an excellent job, sorting a couple of dead trees at the same time, but left a tiny branch caught up in a very tall oak tree. My task that day had been to replace two broken toilet seats. It should have been simple but just was not. After hours, some counselling and careful instruction I managed the first one. I was surprised to see Rob return in the evening with a colleague who was there to climb the huge trunk and sort the hanging branch. Amazed at his ability with lines and ropes I asked him whether he was any good at replacing toilet seats. That, he said, was definitely beyond his skill set.

John Bishop