Well, harvest 2022 is officially over and it was our biggest harvest to date, with 300 hectares (740 acres) of combinables under our belts.
To some reading this, 300ha may seem like childs play, but we are situated in the unpredictable plains of Lancashire Moss and have 600 beef cattle to tend to.
And when I say we, that is just me and Dad. I did bring up in December when we took on an extra 40ha (100 acres) that we may need another pair of hands, however no-one materialised and we had to rely heavily on willing, and sometimes unwilling, volunteers in the form of our family.
My 14-year-old brother was a massive help carting (across fields obviously) and took payment in the form of a new Nintendo Switch, which was technically a steal but do not tell him that.
My sister and mum also had a day baling for us, the latter after a heavy night out may I add, so she packed paracetamol and Gaviscon in her lunchbox; a stroke of genius in my opinion and a hack I will definitely use in future.
However, most of the time it is just me and Dad; we are lucky to get on so well. You would think that spending all day every day together would mean the last thing we would want to do is go for a carvery together.
However, with the rest of the family away and the idea of cooking for our tired selves on our first early-ish finish in months not sounding appealing, we decided to go the pub.
Now, maybe my dad was a lucky bloke until I came along, but a lot of times in life we do end up looking at each other, with strained smiles, and thinking well isnt this just our luck and unfortunately this was one of those times.
After getting changed we started walking to the carvery in the village but, after we got 300 metres up the road, the heavens opened. We ran back home to grab the car and arrived at the pub tired, hungry and drenched, only to be told they were not taking walk-ins.
We then changed tack and went to the local and walked in on the sticky floor, past a clearly closed kitchen and was told my a barmaid, who obviously takes the line and one for yourself very seriously, that the kitchen was closed. At least I think that is what she slurred.
We were running out of ideas but on our third attempt we did make it into a reasonably affordable pub. At last.
All in all, harvest 2022 felt like a complete marathon for us. Our family and the dry weather helped out massively and any other year we would probably never have managed it so maybe, just maybe, we are not as unlucky as we think.
