Slacking Stacking Bales!

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When I was seventeen I was shown how to stack hay bales. The stack I made yesterday looks superb from the front. However if you were to look around the back you would witness my shame – the stack has completely collapsed! My former boss would be so disappointed…

Many years ago today
I was stacking hay
When my Boss shouted to me “Come here you!”
“I will only show you once
Cos unless you are a dunce
You’ll pay attention and do exactly as I do!”
So I concentrated hard
And stacked bales in the yard
My corners the next morning were askew!
So he made me stack again
On my own it was a pain
But I learned to make my corners always true!

Fast forward to yesterday
When I was stacking hay
And my corners looked like the hind leg on a ‘Roo!
From the front it looks OK
But really I have to say
The back would make that bosses face turn blue!
It’s lucky now for me
That he will never see
That in forty years the things I’ve learnt are few!
So please don’t you repeat
My secret stacking feat
Or I’ll be a farming-laughing-stock thanks to you!
© Baldock Bard 2012
For more verse click on ‘Home’ above
The Baldock Car Boot Sale’s 20th anniversary season continues Tomorrow morning 7am!

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Dolly’s New Shoes!

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I’m not the only one that needs to diet! Dolly the horse who lives on the farm is forced to wear a bucket-like contraption on her head to stop her eating too much grass. She has become very adroit at circumnavigating the contraption and so it has little effect apart from making her very bad tempered…

It’s a bucket day for Dolly
Who lives upon the farm
She’s also feeling angry
A case for great alarm
She canters around the meadow
To find the tastiest munch
All the while she’s frowning
Today’s a light-ish lunch
And then she’s collected
There’s nothing to amuse
It’s her friend the blacksmith
To fit a pair of shoes
While he’s working behind her
She dreams of an arena
If only he fitted ballet shoes
She could be a ballerina!
With thanks to blacksmith Tim Prutton for being patient while a rather irritating Bard mooched around with a camera.
© Baldock Bard 2012
For more verse click on ‘Home’ above
The Baldock Car Boot Sale’s 20th anniversary season continues on Saturday!

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BootLine: 07852 707 074
E-mail: baldockbard(at)u-boot.co.uk
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Rogueing Ragwort!

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As a precursor to more silly haymaking, we’ve been pulling Ragwort. Despite having pretty yellow flowers it can be fatal to horses when in its dried form in a bale of hay. So we went a’rogueing…

Many years ago
When I were just a lad
I’d be sent to pull Wild Oats
‘Cos Wild Oats in Wheat looks bad

Yes we had the chemicals
The effect just didn’t last
And the fields had to look perfect
For when other farmers passed!

We’ve been pulling Ragwort
In the heat so the hay is ‘clean’
We’ve pulled enough to clear the field
No yellow can be seen

So we’re off a’baling
Now the rouging’s done
And we’ll be jolly haymakers
Drinking cider in the sun!
© Baldock Bard 2012
For more verse click on ‘Home’ above
The Baldock Car Boot Sale’s 20th anniversary season continues next Saturday!

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BootLine: 07852 707 074
E-mail: baldockbard(at)u-boot.co.uk
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Aurora!

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It’s been a bad week for Auroras. Few had heard of Aurora, Colorado before last weekend’s terrible shooting in a cinema. Possibly even fewer have seen the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights (except in photographs). However one Aurora is fighting back! Aurora D is graduating from Southampton University today with a First. Her parents and all her friends are mighty proud of her. Go Aurora…

Aurora D is graduating today
Hip-hip-hip, hip-hip Hooray!
She will be throwing mortarboard in the air
Knowing hard work has got her there
For learning she always had a thirst
So we weren’t surprised she gained a ‘First’
Watch this Aurora set new trends
Congratulations to you from all your friends!
The Bard Family

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Big Boys Toys!

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Having the right sized tool for any job is vital. When I received an SOS from a friend there was only one thing to do, hitch up the giant mower to the JCB tractor. It took ten minutes to do what would have taken the friend a whole weekend…

From a friend I had a call
Could you help my grass is tall
The summer rain had made it grow
There was no way he could mow

So we took down our big tractor
The tall grass height – the deciding factor
On the back our big wide mower
Cut the grass then cut it lower

Didn’t matter that the grass was wet
Was a piece of cake we lost no sweat
Now he’s happy we’ve saved his life
‘No longer the doghouse’ says his wife!

© Baldock Bard 2012
For more verse click on ‘Home’ above
The Baldock Car Boot Sale’s 20th anniversary season continues next Saturday!


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BootLine: 07852 707 074
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Perfect Summer Evening – at last!

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The Gulf Stream has finally shifted North! Up and down the country winter coats are being put away and shorts are resurrected. Looks like a sausage shortage could be next…

We’ve had to wait until the 21st of July
To sit outside under a summer sky
Found garden chairs at the rear of the shed
Under an old car tyre and a rat that was dead
The neighbours joined us for a drink
Exposing flesh most of it pink
None of us could quite remember
This warm an evening – was it November?
I hardly drink so it was quite ironic
When I celebrated with a Gin and Tonic
We might be rash this evening it’s true
And attempt to find the barbecue!

© Baldock Bard 2012
For more verse click on ‘Home’ above
The Baldock Car Boot Sale’s 20th anniversary season continues next Saturday!


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BootLine: 07852 707 074
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Noah’s Surprise!

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The wettest June and July since Noah. Shows cancelled, houses flooded, hose-pipe bans lifted and weather forecasters vilified. An almost normal summer here in Baldock! This morning the dove has returned to the Ark with a leaf. Maybe, just maybe, we can break out the shorts…

Half-past five on a Baldock morning
Hardly a cloud up in the sky
It can’t possibly be a Saturday
And certainly not in July!

The Gulf Stream at last has shifted
Apparently has moved up North
We might now get a summer
Rain is needed in the Firth of Forth!

Many shows have been cancelled
At a loss of millions of pounds
Holiday makers have been disappointed
Only ducks have been spellbound!

So I’m off down to the Boot Sale
Leave my boots and coat at home
I might celebrate with a burger
A boot-less farmer-gastronome!

As Bill, who worked here on the farm
(Long-since gone down life’s final drain)
Once said on the first dry day of summer
“Could really do with a drop of rain!”

© Baldock Bard 2012
For more verse click on ‘Home’ above
The Baldock Car Boot Sale’s 20th anniversary season continues this morning!


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Protesting Farmers!

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Farmers have taken to their tractors in protest. Certain supermarkets (including one started by farmers as Associated Dairies) have used their power to drop the price of milk paid to farmers to less than the cost of production. I used to be able to name at least twenty local farmers who milked cows. I don’t think any are left in Hertfordshire and I think only one in Essex…

Everyone wants cheap milk
Cheese and yoghurt they can afford
If some supermarkets have their way
It’ll all come from abroad.

© Baldock Bard 2012
For more verse click on ‘Home’ above
The Baldock Car Boot Sale’s 20th anniversary season continues tomorrow!


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A Sheepdog Rants…(part one)

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Hi, I’m a sheepdog and my human calls me Rover
(that’s me in the picture by the way, looking rather handsome even though I say it myself)

Unfortunately there are a few grammatical errors in that statement (the sheepdog and Rover bit, not the handsome picture part).
We Collies absolutely hate being called sheepdogs, in fact we hate anything that is remotely connected with sheep. We cannot stand the animal. Do you like everyone that you work with? Bet you don’t? I bet there are many hundreds of staff that sit at their desks all day, unloved and ignored as sure as if they turned up for work having forgotten the deodorant. Well, that’s what it’s like for us, we like the shepherd and even his wife and children but draw the line at the sheep, we’d like to ignore them completely but unfortunately they are our work so we are forced to tolerate them.
They are the most stupid animals on earth, not a degree, ‘A’ level or even NVQ amongst them. Ah! I hear you say, “Neither have you?” I’m afraid that is where you are wrong! I’ve got a First-class Diploma, no less (that shocked you didn’t it?), from the Collie College on the Isle of Dogs. It took many hours of study and constant exams to pass, it wasn’t just a walk in the park you know.
We have a special name for sheep – we call them ‘Brendas’. If you go into a field full of them what do you hear them saying? Very good! That’s nearly right – ‘Baa-aa’. What in fact you are hearing is them using their one-word-vocabulary ‘Bren-daaa’, this is their word for food, rain, sky, humans, dog, err – that’s about it I think.
They are also only good for one thing and that’s being tasty. Look at a can of dog food, what does it contain – lamb. Look at a bag of sheep food, does it contain tender-terrier or crusty-corgi? I don’t think so.
So cut out the sheepdog bit, call us Collies and we’ll get along just fine.
Anyway that’s enough about sheep, we’ll return to them at another time, onto the name I was given – Rover.
I like my Land Rover, I’d prefer a Range Rover but we can’t always have what we want, can we?
To call me Rover is just plain insulting. I mean do you know a Skoda Sam , Lada Linda or Fiat Frankie? I think not.
It would of course be different if I’d been called Porsche, Lamborghini or Ferrari: one who is sleek, attracts admiring glances, corners well and of course with film-star looks. But honestly – Rover – Old man with pork-pie hat who wears a suit every day, farts into the velour seats and smokes a pipe – Yuk!

I’ll try again.
Hi, I’m a Collie and the Shepherd calls me Vlad the Sheep-Impaler!

To be continued…
© Baldock Bard 2012
For more click on ‘Home’ above
The Baldock Car Boot Sale’s 20th anniversary season continues next Saturday!

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BootLine: 07852 707 074
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Protecting the Workforce!

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We have a terrible disease in this country called OP or Over-Protectiveness. It has crept so covertly into our lives that we agree that it’s often ‘for the best’. Nowhere is this illness more visible than on our motorway system. Even the smallest repair requires mile upon mile of cones. I agree that workforce protection is paramount, however it would seem that common sense is not a requirement in the salary/pension-sated world of the desk-bound rule-makers…

They’ve closed two lanes of the motorway
The traffic is moving real slow
Was clear at the junction behind us
We’re stuck there’s nowhere to go

The average-speed cameras above us
They are not needed today
The fastest we’ve moved is a snail’s pace
Top-up taxes they’re not going to pay

Still no workforce needing protection
The two lanes are empty and bare
Health and Safety is protecting nothing
No need for the cones to be there

Mrs Bard says it’s absolutely typical
I’ve chosen the wrong lane once more
Cars that were once sat beside us
Are now on the M54

We reach the cause of the hold up
They’re mending a crack in the road
Why so many miles was denied us
Of common sense is the antipode

Soon we are out of congestion
The hold-up is all in the past
The rule-makers have a justified pension
While they sit behind a desk on their arse!
© Baldock Bard 2012
For more verse click on ‘Home’ above
The Baldock Car Boot Sale’s 20th anniversary season continues this Saturday!

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BootLine: 07852 707 074
E-mail: baldockbard(at)u-boot.co.uk
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