27th January

They say things come in Three.

Well, we are on two already, and it is only nearing the end of January.

First thing this year was the van engine blowing up, with the wet belt breaking, we were forced to put a new engine in the van.

We were due to change it in May, but with a new engine we will keep it for another two years, so that will pay for the price of a new engine.

Then we have had the second disaster.

Fridays storm, was a biggie, and we have lost the sheeting of off three tunnels because of the strong winds.

Luckily, we haven’t lost any framework this time.

They have been saying this was the worst storm in decades.

But they are wrong.

Three years ago, we had as stronger storm, and that year we lost the polythene of off five tunnels, and one tunnel was flattened, the wind managed to bend the 50mm hoops of a tunnel flat to the ground.

But Friday’s wind was strong, to strong for tunnels to survive unscathed.

So now it is clean up time.

First job is to get all the ripped polythene of and out of the way,

One tunnel gone is a cosy tunnel, this one has ropes to keep the polythene fixed to the hoops.

This tunnel takes a lot longer to get re ready for re sheeting.

There is around one thousand meters of rope to take off.

One other thing that is a problem with high winds, is the shaking of the tunnel breaks the irrigation.

After a full inspection, we have irrigation broken in every tunnel.

So, after the tunnels are re sheeted it will be irrigation inspection.

This job I will wait until later, around march time.

After I have sorted all the irrigation I do need to test it, but i have the water pump of right now, and it will not be going on until winter is over.