I know it doesn’t make sense but it’s just something I have to do. You see, the winter period is very quiet with just the cattle to feed and maybe a bit of spraying or machine maintenance.

But it’s important to be fully occupied during the dark days and creative activity is a good distraction from other burdensome thoughts.

I’m going to build a shepherd’s hut. You know the sort of thing I mean – basically, it’s a corrugated iron affair with cast iron wheels and a drawbar. A roadman’s living van would be similar.

Inside the cosy wood-lined interior, it’s simple living with just a stove and a bed, similar to the narrow boat which was an earlier passion. However, personal hygiene facilities are not brilliant and are really limited to an occasional dip in a stream.

Yes, I know we don’t have any sheep, let alone a shepherd to camp out on the plains of Kildalkey. It might make sense for Nicholson to have a hut but absolutely none for me. I fully agree, it’s a mad idea and that I’d be far better to build something useful like a Claydon-style straw rake. But if it was parked up in a sunny and secluded field corner, the shepherd’s hut would be an idyllic space for some time out. A friend, who didn’t get it at all, asked would I not just buy an auld caravan online. I tried to explain to him that I wouldn’t be camping along the Limerick road and while shepherd’s huts and chrome caravans have similarities, they are two totally different concepts.

Anyhow, my mind was made up. I’ll buy in the wheels and ironmongery and build the rest myself. But I’ve had to do a workshop clear-out before the work can begin.

The old stone workshop isn’t very big and was already stuffed with two vintage crawler tractors. These were bought about 10 years ago, the result of a whim at that time. One is electric start but the other, a Fowler VF, has a five-litre single cylinder diesel engine that takes considerably more human effort to swing into life.

However, with the help of an expert, Ted, we successfully fired her up on the bank holiday Monday. With the crows circling overhead in the rapidly failing light, I happily headed off for a nostalgic put-put drive across a stubble field. With the workshop now clutter free, there is no going back.

WET AND MILD

Boy, was October wet! With 179mm rainfall it made up for the dry summer and the water table shot up surprisingly quickly. I’d held back on sowing an 18ha field of second wheat to reduce take-all but now it looks like not being sown.

But all the other autumn sowing is completed and the remaining stubble fields are for spring break crops.

The grass fields have become increasingly softer and while we still have some cover, housing isn’t far away.

The min-till fields have absorbed all this water better than the ploughed fields, which is encouraging.

Spraying the herbicide/aphicide mix is up to date but, as ever, volunteer beans have been a major problem. With the mild weather, I included CMPP with the Stomp Aqua and DFF, which has produced a fairly good result.

The oats (Barra and Mascani) have yet to be sprayed for weeds (Bacara) as they are too soft and need hardening up with some frost first.