Thursday 9/7/26  Fred gave us two scaffold planks to make ramps for loading the mower into the trailer for taking it to the mill. This will save petrol as we had to drive the mower two miles every time we use it, the top speed is only 5.5mph so it will also save time. We hooked up the trailer and took it to the mill with the scaffold planks, last week we removed seats to fit the mower. Eddie drove the mower to the mill for the last time. 

At the mill we saw the two stock dove chicks in the nest box, they have really grown, we didn’t see the parents again today but they must be feeding them or they wouldn’t have survived. The free Heritage Open Days materials arrived so I brought the package to the mill and opened it while we had tea, there are only flags, bunting and a carrier bag this time, as we have several banners left over from previous years.

It was very hot so we parked the trailer in the shade and tried the planks resting on top of the trailer floor, we fitted screws near the top to fit over the lip of the trailer to stop them falling out and loaded the mower, but the cutting deck scraped the ends of the planks and got stuck, so we put thick pieces of wood in the trailer against the planks which gave extra lift, the cutting deck now clears the ramp. 

The planks bent under the weight of the mower and operator, so we cut wooden supports with my mitre saw and fitted them to the ramps with hinges. This has limited the bending, we loaded and unloaded the mower several times to test the ramps.

Eddie got buckets of river water for Anne Marie to water the gardens, Hollyhocks and Lobelia are flowering around the trees. We all had lunch outside and Anne Marie told us about her 34 mile walk along the entire Nar Valley Way with her friend. They walked from Pentney to Kings Lynn last Sunday, then from Pentney to a B&B in Litcham where they stayed on Monday night, then on to Mileham. Unfortunately from Castle Acre to Mileham it doesn't follow the river and the source of the Nar can't be seen.

After lunch Anne Marie walked back and Eddie took the push mower over to the Nar Valley Way and cut the grass on the footpath opposite the mill including around the bench seat, while I cut paths through our wildflower meadow again as well as the clearing for the picnic bench. Eddie also filled the bird food.

Last week I took the insect hotel home to repair as canes were missing again, this time I used much more glue, so I hope the birds won’t be able to pull canes out. I put it back on the stand in the meadow today.

We watered the gardens again as we had two buckets of river water left, then loaded the mower into the trailer with the ramps beside it, with the supports folded flat. We went back to The Maltings and unloaded the mower, we need to modify the ramps to ensure they don’t slip out of the trailer, which we’ll do another time.

Graham Bartlett  

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