First there was the battle of the potato harvest, followed by the pea straw, the wood chop and then the linseed straw. The South Island of NZ weather really had an impact this season.
Several enthusiastic Ashburton Plains Rotarians decided the afternoon was good, so they started picking up bales of linseed straw from the Taylor’s paddock. All went well with the loading, but then the fun began ...
You have probably heard of the children’s story The Little Yellow Digger. Well, it was a real life enactment of that story when first the truck got stuck, then the trailer was stuck, both up to their axles in the paddock mud. They called in a vehicle to help and it got stuck! Next they called in a tractor … yes it got stuck too!
After much heaving, pushing and pulling all vehicles were freed. There were 500 bales to be picked up, which these energetic fellows thought would be no problem for guys of their calibre, but after three hours they had to be thankful that they were able to transfer 250 bales from the Taylor’s paddock to the storage paddock in Carters Road.
Later in May, another fine sunny afternoon was chosen to “bring home the rest of the bacon” (straw) to Carters Road as the forecast was for more rain! Eight Rotarians responded to the request to pick up the 250 remaining linseed bales. Armed with renewed enthusiasm and know how (they thought) they set off, but it wasn’t long before they realised that mud, glorious mud was still a challenge. Yet again The Little Yellow Digger saga unfolded before their eyes. Trucks, tractors and trailer got stuck again, but perseverance and fortitude got the last bales off the paddock, with less than 150 left to sell.
In total, Ashburton Plains Rotary does around 3000 small bales of a mixture of pea straw and linseed straw plus about 100 large bales of the latter. The small bales all go to gardeners as mulch and garden cover while the large bales go to farmers as calf bedding and to gardens as well. This project has raised a significant amount for the Rotary Club of Ashburton Plains projects over many years.
This year it was Murphy’s Law because if it could go wrong, it did! It wasn’t as straight forward as it should have been but a lot of laughs and good fellowship eventuated for all involved.
By - Owen Moore
