article by Duncan from Larkhall

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MY LIFE: PART1

By

Duncan  Stewart

When I was at the school I could not read or write.   The teacher did not help me at all.    I was at the front of the class and I was left to work on my own.   The pupils at the top of the class can read and write, the teacher helped them.   One day I had to read to the class but everybody just laughed at me.   I was very angry when they laughed at me.

I went to the school reunion and I saw a lot of faces I remembered.     I spoke to one person that went to school with me.   He said he had a good job on the building site he is married with a little boy.   There were other people there I spoke to it was a very good night.

I left the school at fifteen and started work on the farm.   My first thing   in the morning was milking the cows in the byre, and feeding the calves in the shed.   Then we went to the highland show. We went there every year.  We looked at the different things  then we went for our lunch at  Howie of  Dunlop.  

I went into the field with the tractor, l had to roll the field.   Somebody was in the next field harrowing it.   The best time of the year is hay time.   I work very hard on the farm.

I had to put the dung into the dung spreader on the back of the tractor.  I took the tractor into the field and put the dung on the ground.  It was a good smell.   We had a wheel barrow to muck out the byre every day.  We fed the cows in the morning and at night time.  We fed them with hay and cows cake.  The cows ran towards me when they saw me coming with the hay.

We had to feed the animals out side all winter with hay.  We put the hay in a trailer on the back of the tractor.   We had to put the hay into the feeder so that they had food all the time.

One Sunday morning the big bull broke its chain in the byre.   The bull chased us and I could not shut the byre door in time.   The bull went into the field and would not go back into the byre.  The bull turned at us, we ran towards the hay shed.   We were standing on the top of the hay! 

When I went up the field to look at the calves the fence was broken.   All the calves were out on the road and I had to open the gate and chase them back into the field.  Then I had to go to the farm and get wood wire nails and a hammer and fix the broken fence.  It took a long time to get the job finished.   Then I went back to the farm to do some thing else.  There is always plenty to do at the farm.

I was only ten at the time but I remember the old milk cans on the farm.   When all the cows were finished milking it was put into the milk cooler.  The next morning the lorry came and picked up all the milk cans and took them to the dairy.

We had to spring clean the byre every year the cows came to the byre door.  They would not go into the byre because it was a different smell.  It took them a long time to go back into the byre.

I left the farm ten years ago  because the farm was up for sale, it was a sad day for me.  After the sale all the byres were empty, it was very quiet on the farm.

I’m  now working  with South Lanarkshire  Council.   I have been there for five years and I like my job very much.  I have got my own area to do in  Green hills in  East Kilbride.

Webmaster replies

Thank you for that Duncan.

I'm not too sure that many people would agree with you that dung was a good smell.   I prefer silage.

Anyone: how's about contacting us and saying what you think of Duncan's life so far.

I look forward to reading Part 2 Duncan.