Thank you for reading my story, I hope that you enjoy it. Love Mica xx, Yorkshire England. All email comments good or bad welcomed. I will try and reply to each and every one but please note that all email comments from an invalid email address will be deleted immediately and will not be read. Please note that I write in British English.
A further story set in the Dales, it can be read alone, however the other Dales stories will help set context.
My new barn was built, well the structure was, and the electrician had installed lights and power sockets. The floor however was still raw ground. Jacob had put me in touch with someone he knew at a local quarry, and we had done a deal on two lorry loads of stone, all around one inch in size. They had said that they were used to travelling on unmetalled roads and they would reverse up my track to deliver the stone. It was due today.
I emptied everything out of the barn and laid membrane over the floor, I had the loader bucket fitted to my tractor and it was at the barn end of my track awaiting the first lorry. Let's be honest, I have absolutely no idea what I am doing. I looked at some YouTube videos, the problem is, those guys are experienced and make it look easy, I had no doubt that this would test me greatly.
I heard the beeping and in the distance I could see the first lorry reversing. It hadn't rained for a few days and so my track should hopefully be hard and would withstand the weight of the lorry and its load. Hopefully. I went and greeted the driver.
"Hello, I'm Mica, you have some stone for me?"
"Hello Mica, I am Toby, and yes I have forty tonnes of stone for you."
"Brilliant, would you care for a cup of tea?" I asked him.
"Thank you, no issues, love, and no tea. If it's alright with you, I'll tip, then return to retrieve your second load and then have a cup of tea."
"Perfect, I'll stand out of the way."
I stood inside the barn, well out of the way of the lorry and the driver reversed and then the back started rising, the tailgate opened, and stone poured from his lorry into a frankly huge pile. There was a blast of his horn, and he drove off with the bed of his lorry slowly returning down. I looked at the pile and my small loading bucket and sighed. This was going to be a long job.
I started the tractor, raised the bucket slightly off the ground and drove at the mound. I was unprepared for the jolt as the bucket dug into the stones, and I may have let out a little squeal. I raised the bucket, tipped it back slightly and turned to the barn and tipped the bucket slightly to allow the stones to pour out onto the membrane. I did well, the stones poured and as I edged slowly forward the stones spread evenly over the membrane. Back for more.
It took me over an hour to spread the stones over the membrane and I managed to spread them evenly over half of the barn. Rather pleased with myself I nipped in, put the kettle on and had a celebratory wee. As I was leaving the loo I could hear the beep beep of the reversing lorry bringing my next and final load.
It was Toby again, the same driver. He reversed and then got out and looked at what I had done.
"You did that?" He asked.
"Yes, just finished it."
"Bloody good job there lass."
"Thank you. Do you still want that cuppa? I'll go and put the kettle on whilst you tip."
"Yes please love." I didn't take his words as condescending, it was just the way he spoke, lass and love and all that.
I went in and as the kettle was boiling I could hear the screeching as the stones tipped from his lorry. I went and stood by the door and when he had finished I called across to him.
"Teas made, come on in and have a seat."
I put two mugs of tea on the kitchen table along with milk and sugar and a spoon, and an empty saucer for the spoon to go on after use. I hate wet spoons put in sugar bowls.
He came in and I pointed at a chair. "Grab a seat."
"Thanks love and thanks for the tea, any one?"
"Yes, just grab one and add what you want."
He took a mug, added milk and stirred, no sugar, that surprised me, in a good way, sugar wasn't healthy and too many people just added it to food and drink without a thought.
"I wasn't joking," he said, "when I said you did a good job, you really did. Have you done it before?"
"Gosh no, that was my first time. I only got the tractor three days ago. I have been practising by driving up and down my track and emptying pretend stone. It was a bit of a shock how the tractor jarred when I drove it into the pile, but apart from that, it took ages."
"Nah love, you did that really well. May I offer you one piece of advice?"
"Yes, of course," well I could always ignore his man advice after he had gone.
"Get down to the hire shop in Keighley and get a plate compactor. It'll flatten all the stones and stop little ruts appearing in your floor. They are heavy mind, so if you have some forks for your tractor, use that to lift the thing with some straps, you have straps?"
"Yes, I do, I got some from a farm sale last week."
"Excellent. As I say, it is only a suggestion, but it is what I would do."
"Thank you, I shall do that."
He drank his tea, we chatted a little about the plans I had and then he was gone and I had a mound of stones to spread. I decided that before I spread them, as it was Friday, I would go and see if I could get a compactor. I had an idea of what he meant, I had seen them used, how difficult could it be?" I also put a container in the car to get some petrol, as it would probably need that to run on.
At the hire store they just had the one left for hire. The girl behind the counter said that if I had left it any later I would have missed out. Lot's of people hired them on a Friday to use over the weekend.
I reversed the car around to the loading bay and a man loaded it into my car. I knew darn well that I wouldn't be lifting that at the other end. I strapped it down in my boot to stop it rocking around and then headed to the petrol station. I filled the car and my little container and then headed back to the cottage.
I decided to leave the compactor in the boot and worry about getting it out after I had finished spreading the stone. It took me another hour to spread the stone and to be honest I was quite bushed when I was done.
"I am bloody shattered," I told the tractor. Typically the tractor ignored me and just carried on looking the other way. Bloody inanimate objects. "You have no soul," I told my tractor. It ignored me again.
It was tea time and I decided to leave the compacting until tomorrow, the concentration of driving the tractor and spreading the stone had tired me out. Beans on toast, a glass of wine and a slump on the sofa were my plans.
I had just finished my beans when I heard a car pull up. I went to the door and looked out, it was Jacob.
He got out of his car and went across to look at what I had done. I followed and joined him.
"Good job."
"Thank you, I have got a small compactor to use tomorrow, it's in the boot of my car, I'll sort it tomorrow."
"Would you like me to lift it out? They can be a tad heavy"
"Oh, would you? Yes please."
Jacob went over and opened the boot, undid my strapping and lifted it out.
"I'll just pop it in the barn, you can sort it tomorrow. Shall I send Mandy over to help?"
"If she is doing nothing, yes, the company would be good, but don't force her, okay? Let her come only if she wants to."
"Of course. She is eighteen, she only does what she wants, not what her parents tell her to do."
"Good girl."
After Jacob had gone I decided I was really a lot more tired than I had thought, shut the door and headed to bed. I don't think my eyes stayed open for more than a few moments, I was out for the count.
I awoke early, showered and made some breakfast, Weetabix and toast, and went out to face the day. In the light of a new day, I had to admit I was pleased with my efforts yesterday. There were some straggles of rocks left on the track and I would need to clear them up before they got trodden or driven into the grass of the track. I faced my days nemesis, the compactor. There was fuel in the tank, so I read the instructions, turned the choke on, throttle half way, grabbed the toggle and pulled. Nearly.
I pulled again and it started, ran for a moment and then stopped. Now then, was that too much throttle, or not enough? I had vague recollections that you could flood the engine, so, I backed the throttle off a little and tried again. Bingo, I left it to warm up a bit. I decided that I would do laps of the barn, and spiral in on each lap until I got to the centre, then I would go up and down, basically in the opposite direction to my first tracks.
I had no idea just how vibratory they were, I was sure my boobs were going to fall off, the vibrations from the compactor were juddering me and them all over he place. I lessened my grip, basically just directing it and off we went. The compactor more or less moved itself and needed little guidance and I was about half way round my first lap when Jacob dropped his daughter Mandy off. I stopped juddering and went across to meet her, we briefly embraced and then I offered her a chance of a go.
"Fancy a turn, it's a bit juddery, so only hold it loosely."
"Fab, yes, okay, never done it before, it'll be cool."
Kids. I showed her how to make it go, basically you just pulled a lever and off it went. Let go of the lever and it stopped. Pretty simple. Mandy grabbed the handle and squeezed the lever and I couldn't help myself, but I laughed. Her boobs were bouncing around inside her polo top looking as if they were having a party. She let go off the lever and everything stopped moving, the compactor and her boobs.
"Wow," she gasped.
"Hold it looser and your boobs won't try and disco off your chest."
She nodded and had another attempt. Much better this time, and I left her to doing circles whilst I used a rake to try and get the renegade stones off my track. That was harder work than using the compactor. Eventually we were done. All the stones off the track and the floor of my barn pretty much solid. Excellent, I was well pleased with our efforts and Mandy had been a great help.
"Come on, let's grab a tea." I said leading the way into the cottage.
