install 11 Yorkshire

Instal 11
Sun 17 june
Well just when you thought i had dried up...bad luck ..here is an update
As per the last instal...we got back to peter and julia's 10 days ago (thur 7th )...spent the weekend there on a few chores...some horse transporting and whacked down some errant tree branches in garden.....however on the sat we went to the "east of england show "...it is near east grinstead and is an annual 3 day "agricultural "show......well there was a lot of car parks so guessed it was going to be big...first thing we noticed when we finally footslogged it from distant car park to entrance was that they wanted nz $36 per per adult or $80 for a family ...and that was per day!!...holy moses it was huge and it was packed...welcome to britain in a financial recession....the trade displays were endless and while the area would be greater than the field-days at home...the emphasis was more domestic than agricultural...ag equipment stands were quite small as was livestock...although a lot of horses of course.....it all came to a finish about 6.00pm and we decided to wander around while the trade stands packed up so as to let the traffic get away...we were talking to a guy who sells medical beds...high tech sort of gurneys that you lie on and they massage you....i said how was the show given that times are hard in the uk and not everyone would have a vibrating bed high on their priority list....he said the thur was so windy 10 marques blew away so things were quite that day and same on friday cause it rained all day...but today he said "i couldnt get a cup of tea in as too busy writing out sales dockets for beds "nz$6000 each.....an over all he had a sucessful show....so not much recession in the south east of england anyway
Mon 11th june
Caught train up to st pancreas station...it is an old station that has been renovated and the eurostar leaves from there to Paris....we got lost looking for megabus terminal(they are like naked bus at home...fares are cheap and on spot market)..after a bit of running about we discovered we were on a megabus train up into the midlands and from there we got an old tired double decker to york but cant complain as total fare london to york was nz$36 for both of us !!(getting the relatively short distance from peter and julia's cost nz $44 on conventional district train)
From york we got local bus to malton which is in the vale of pickering ie east yorkshire...scarborough to the east and north yorkshire moors to north....picked up by les and elaine who are cobbers of ours...i used to work with les around york in the 70s mission and him and elaine stayed with us in nz back 2004......they have been spoiling us all this week and we have seen a fair bit of the territory which we didnt see when we last stayed with them in 2007.we have roamed a lot of small villages on the edge of the moors which all fall into the "north yorkshire moors national park"..one of such is called hutton le hole and there went to the rydale folk museum which is a large outdoor museum which gives you a good idea of the history of the area going back to the iron age ...
Les and elaine live in a detached house which was once the coachhouse for the coaching inn which is attached at the other end of the row....it dates from 1776 and is called the "coachman inn".....the village we are on the outskirts of is called snainton and a tidy little spot it is too ....just outside of village live a young couple which are cobbers of les and elaines....they have 20 odd acres and he is a stock agent and has a transhipping terminal for sheep there....they also have a free-range egg operation which his wife runs ....it is a purpose built shed holding 7500 hens...they are free to go out in the paddocks but two-thirds of them dont bother....feeding is automatic and right through the length of the shed is a conveyor and on top of this are the nest boxes......so with a bit of training , they lay in there and the eggs all turn up in the packing room off the end of the conveyor...so the only manual work then is grading them into trays ...600doz per day....hens last 13 months before change over to next batch....payment from wholesaler is every tue so cashflow good and it is a slick operation....apparently this is a growth industry as battery hens have been banned since the start of this year and there is a shortage of eggs as a result .
Sun 17th june
fathers day if you live here....today les and elaine are taling us to another couple of cobbers we have down by york so more from yorkshire later