Horses can not tell time.

I got a call last week from a lady from the Leicestershire & Rutland Bridleway Association [LRBA]. She had been given my name by the Mike the Director of the National Forest Foundation. Mike was letting the riders picket their horses and pony,s overnight on part of Rawdon country park. The lady explained what they were riding their horses round the perimeter of Leicestershire or as close to as bridleway would allow. The only thing was they needed some water for the horses. I asked how many were involved. Thirty was the answer. You will be needing quite a bit then I thought to myself. We have a container which holds a thousand litres. I figured that would do the job. Thursday evening Steve collected the poo trailer, replacing it with his dinky trailer, I took off the box that makes it a poo trailer and positioned the tank on the trailer frame. It was a snug fit but it was fine. Before we strapped the tank on the trailer we had to clean it out. I scrabbled about to remove the comfrey and nettles we had put in the tank to start a plant tonic. Steve decided it was not clean enough and cut some Willow to make a brush. It worked remarkably well cleaning the inside of the tank. We needed a quick way to fill the tank so I disconnected the water pipe from the water trough and pushed a piece of Alkthene pipe over the end to extend the pipe. It was just the job.

Note to the readers: Alkathene pipe is the blue plastic pipe used for potable water supplies. If you cut a five foot length off a roll it makes a very natural semi circle. Cut a couple of these lengths, jam the ends in the ground either side of your growing bed and you have a fairly firm set of ribs over which you can stretch netting or fleece to protect your plants. Most of our plot holders have a good supply of them.

Once the tank was filled we could not move the trailer far. We managed to "park it" i.e. wrestle it, close to the water trough. I was to collect it Friday, top it up if necessary and run it down to the lower car park for tea time when the riders were supposed to show up. I was supposed to get a phone call one Friday lunch to give the organisers the keys to the gates. At two thirty I left work for the lottie. I topped but the tank and hooked the trailer to the car. The trailer was very low on its suspension. Just I was about to leave the phone went it was Hannah from LRBA. She was waiting at the lottie gate. I slowly towed the heavy trailer to the bottom car park, let Hannah and her truck in and parked up the tank trailer. [It's got a tank on the trailer so it is now a tank trailer not a poo trailer]. I gave her the gate keys and said I would drop back after tea to top the tank up. When I got back to the car park, after work it was full of horse boxes of one sort or another. The tank was almost empty. I trundled away to refill the tank. Another 900 litres later I trundled back, even slower, to the bottom car park, re-parked the trailer and left for the evening.

I watched a brillant on Film4, Kingdom of Heaven. I have seen the film before but this the Director's cut. The director is Ridley Scott so it worth watching. The film works on many levels.

H and I went up to the lottie at 9am Saturday morning to see off the thirty riders. There was some water left but everyone had had their fill. The organisers came over and thanked us for our help and the provision of the water. They were not due off until 10am so we had a walk round the picketed animals. There were horses and ponies of all colours; Bays, Strawberry Rone, Black, Chestnut, Skew-balled, Palamino and a very nice dappled grey. H favorites were the pair of Exmoor ponies. They looked powerful but just in a small packet.

H had a word for and with everyone. I took a few pictures and stroked a few horses. The appointed hour for the departure came.......and went. 10.15 the first group was dispatched. They were to travel in small groups to the next overnight stop. Not the mass departure I had expected or hoped for. Nevertheless they were somthing of a spectacle as they left. I manned the gate. The organisers seemed to have a great deal to do. By 11.30 the last party had left us. I hitched up the tank trailer said my goodbyes to Hannah having agreed where she should leave the keys when she finally departed.

I got up to the trailer up to the lottie dumped the remaining water in the tack the unstrapped the tank from the trailer. I rolled the tank to a tidy spot next to the big poo bin. I then had the job of wrestling the box that makes the poo trailer a poo trailer back onto the trailer frame. Not that easy really as I was on my own. I managed it without hurt myself. The only thing was a had left the nuts that secure the trailer to the frame at home....doh! Then the went home for some lunch. H had left me at the lottie trailer fettling. By the time I got home H had made me some sandwiches, which was nice. Southend Sue's visit last weekend, although wonderful to spend time with her, had left me with a list to catch up. The rain had brought everything on too. I earthed up the spuds. I found a new way of doing it did not take to much time of effort. Instead of just using a spade to dig soil from the space between the rows to earth up the spuds I stood facing the row and used the mattock to loosen then draw the soil on to the row. As I finished each row I stepped back to the next row and repeated the process until all the rows were complete. Then I turned round and went back the other way drawing the soil on the other side of the row. When it was done it looked really good. I finally got time to dig the holes for the grape vines. No vines just holes. Then it was a whip round with the hoe. I finally got the Climbing French Beans and Dwarf French Beans planted. They do not not look like much. I have resolved to sown some of each seed directly into the ground rather than growing them on at home first. Unfortunately I do not have the seed box with me. It was the I realised I still did not have the trailer nuts either...double doh! And the weed are starting to take hold between the Onions. That means only one thing, hand weeding. I am not looking forward to that. The jobs I should not have taken me as long as it did but every plot holder turned up at some stage in the day and all wanted the chat. So I must have spent more than an hour in idle chat, or was it relationship maintenance as my new boss likes to put it.

Sunday morning I realised that it had been quite sunny the previous day. My arms, face and neck are all pink and tight. Still work to do. I tried for a early start but earthing up the spuds had taken its toll. I needed to get the vines planted and sow Parsnip which should have been in a month or more and more Peas. I decided to use Roundup's method. Dig a Pea trench as usual but sow at least twice as many seeds as normal then back fill the trench with compost. Roundup reckons in this way the mice can not eat all the Peas. We will see.I planted five rows of Parsnips just in case germination is a problem. As I was planting the Peas I created a pile of soil from the row which I put in the wheelbarrow. I took the load up to the fourth mini-veg bed and dumped it in. There is hardly any depth of soil. Steve and I resolved to add some soil and manure to beef it up. Later in the day generated another barrow full of soil. That too went on mini veg bed 4. Whilst I had the barrow in my hands I dug out two barrow loads of manure and dropped them on mini-veg bed 4. Perfect Pete was rotivating one of his beds and spotted what I was doing. He shouted over to volunteered to rotivate the mini-veg bed. I snapped his hand off. Bed 4 now looks a peach. Just need a resident now.

I have decided that I need to empty my big compost bin. A couple of barrow loads went on the French Climbing Beans. The Vines were planted in my compost. It was very satisfying planting the vines. I am interested to see what they do. The soil which which they are planted is really deep even though it is against the edge of the ditch. The compost is a bonus. Three barrow loads top dressed the Asparagus bed. The barrow loads used are about a quarter of the bin's volume. I think I am going to have the top dress the Pea bed with the remainder.

Just as I was about start tiding up Steve pitched up. We had a chat, as you do. I figured I should plant out the Celery that I had brought down last week which was still languishing in the tray. Steve was having trouble starting his petrol strimmer. They can be temperamental things. I got away at 4pm having caught up and indeed got ahead of the job list.

When I got home I still had some time before tea so I got the big terracotta pots out that I had bought a few weeks ago, filled them with compost, the bought stuff not the home made, and planted them with the herbs I have grown from seed. The pots are arranged on the decking. The pots contain Basil, Dill, Sage, Sorrel and Coriander. Steve have me a clump of Lemon Balm but I have yet to find a home for it. That's enough for one weekend. I have appointments every day next week except Friday so it is going to be a busy week.