Ploughing competition

Saturday 13th June: Another warm sunny day, high of 15 degrees. Very nice. In the morning we went to a Ploughing Competition we had seen advertised on the Waimate Councils' website. We drove out to the middle of nowhere and found about 40 tractors in a field which was all pegged out, and a red flag flying (photo). In the next 30 minutes or so nothing much happened... except our imagination went wild as to how this was all going to work, and our ideas got more and more silly. First I thought what a good ruse this was. You have lots of land that needs ploughing. So you create a competition which lots of serious people are so eager to be in that they pay money to take part. So 40 other people plough your land at 40 times the speed you can do it and you give the winner a small prize. Result: ploughed field AND keep the rest of the money! I like it.
The boys wondered if the red flag was to do with shooting and had the idea of clay pigeon shooting whilst ploughing, then the ideas of synchronised ploughing to the 1812 overture and shooting in time to the cannons at the end came to us.
What actually happened was completely different. A truck left the field towing an animal trailer in which were about 12 men, standing up, and they drove off down the road (photo). They drove to a community hall a mile or so down the road and all disappeared inside. But first they all removed their boots and left them neatly outside with their hats positioned on top (photo). Nothing happened in the field because there was no-one there! Perhaps there was a theory test first??? We didn't hang around to find out....
After lunch the boys played in the garden, creating chalk drawings on the concrete. I was kept busy converting two of the boys' single beds into bunk beds which created a lot more space in their bedroom for them to move around and even play in. However, Edward, who now has the top bunk, has not settled well this evening so it might be a temporary change.