In the neighbour's backyard.

The neighbour called wanting something done with firewood and the tractor. I've often told him just to use the tractor but touching another man's tractor is not, it seems, something traditionalists do.

I followed him into the woods behind his house.



What he'd done was to fell a couple of trees that had died, they had been close to the house but on a steep slope. He'd pushed the trunks down the hill and cut them in half. Now he needed them pulling out to the road so he could cut them up and haul the pieces up for the fire. He chained one to the bucket




and I pulled it backwards out of the woods.



Note that the ground is far from flat and a tree trunk must weigh as much as the tractor. There was some alarming tilting involved, operating the bucket control tended to tip the tractor as much as lift the log. I wonder just how many lives have been saved on farms since tractors have all had roll over protection systems (the metal loop over the operator's head).



We got the logs out and all weekend the woods rang with the sound of axe, sledge hammer and splitting wedge. There were numerous offers to come and get some exercise but none proposing a firewood donation so I just kept on with the house staining.

Where we had gone in with the tractor was originally a trail they used for horses. He suggested that we could ride out that way and into the fields so as to get started on a loop without having to cross the road. Last night we tried it. If there was once a trail it's now well overgrown. It was a pleasing ride though, we took the horses into an unfamiliar wood, one we didn't know so we couldn't guide them with confidence, and asked them to climb a steep hill through the trees with fallen brush underfoot. They did that with no problem so we then took them across some fields with frightening groundhog holes, along a road where a loud ride on lawnmower was operating and past two loose dogs, one very close to us. Several vehicles passed us, some wide and slow, some quick and close. The only thing that fazed Austin was a herd of cows a hundred yards away. Nothing bothered Dixie. Very pleasing. It's different to be out and about on a horse than in an arena, even if you're just walking rather than jumping, as there's so much to be aware of, to walk past such a range of spooky things without incident was a real confidence builder.