Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Using the cattle to plough

Today I went on my usual walk, apart from some obnoxious taxi drivers that pounce on the odd tourist that bravely decides to come off the crocodile island and go for a walk about. I had a good day lots of wild life, (not including taxi drivers) then I saw this , its something I have wanted to photograph ever since I first saw them plowing a field in Daraw when I was volunteering refurbishing the Eye Clinic in 2002 on my first visit to Egypt.

Wonderful brought back memories of my Childhood and the first days of being fostered out on a farm in Bodfari Near Denbigh,at the age of eight. I was ploughing with a shire horse called Betsy within a week of arriving at the farm two years after they bought the Massey fergy tractor, this was harder work for me as I was too short in the legs to sit on the steel seat, I had to stand on the runners in order to change gears good job there was the throttle under the steering wheel on a ratchet so I could keep the tractor at certain revs. poor old Betsy was sold when they bought another tractor the ford dexter . it was named after the cattle breed the short dexter,This photo of a dexter bull must have been the same time as I was on the farm,
One of the cabbages here most grow to this size even bigger and without spraying with pesticides,
It must weigh 14 kilo if not more

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting photos..thanks for sharing.

ADRIAN said...

You would think word would have got round by now and they would leave you alone. Remember on my visits they used to shout Macgregor. Took me ages to work out why. Red hair and tall. After a year or so I used to answer to it. Great pictures of the ploughing. To think in the UK folk plough for fun with horses. Puts the world in perspective!

Elisabeth said...

It brings back thoughts of life pre the industrial revolution. you're lucky to have experienced some of it.