I got off the tractor and waited at the entrance to the field for him to approach me. He was a big man with a round face and an even bigger rounded body. He was probably fifty to sixty years of age, dressed in bib and brace overalls, which for all the world looked like they needed some young girl to take them and their owner on a visit to the farm shop! Although I think that on this occasion we might be struggling to make much of an improvement. On his upper body he wore a check shirt with sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Topping it all off on his head was a flat cap.
We greeted each other.
"Hello." I said.
"Hello. Phew! It's warm." He announced all out of breath. He was even more massive now viewed close up.
"Have you come to bale the straw?" He asked.
I think it was either the baler on the tractor, or the fact that ten minutes earlier I had called him for assistance on where I was to bale, that gave the game away.
"Yes if you're Mr Reeves,"
He confirms that he is and goes on to give me permission to call him Lou.
"I'm Katie."
"Ken's girl, yeh?"
"His niece." I corrected him. I wasn't getting drawn in to any technicalities over the validity of that claim, so quickly asked where it was he wanted me to bale.
"Yes, I'll show you round. Can we go on the tractor though as I'm fair jiggered walking across the field in this heat."
I'd no objection to driving him round on the tractor, I was just concerned as to whether he was up to climbing in to the cab, and would there be any room for me in there if he did manage it. Anyway we squeezed in, I was virtually sitting on the right side armrest though, and we even got the door closed. So there you go Nigel, my cab is bigger than yours, even if I don't know what to do with it half the time.
"Do you know how to drive this then?" He said, looking round.
I looked at him, he wasn't joking!
"I think if I've managed to get here down these lanes there is a good chance that I can drive it around an open field." I said with the amount of sarcasm that I thought the question deserved.
"Aye, that's true. Was it you driving for Ken the other day?"
"Yes, but I was driving for myself." Honestly my mood was not good today, and he wasn't making it any better.
"Right. Well done. It's an extremely big machine and you're very young."
I didn't bother to comment on him being a big man or his apparent age.
I think he interpreted my silence as being put out by his statement, but in reality I was now concentrating on maneuvering my seemingly big machine through the gateway from an extremely narrow lane, without reversing in to any cars that might be approaching from behind and at the same time avoiding the gate posts.
Dad's words about not being rushed in to anything came to my mind. So I took my time and even with me being afflicted by my limited age problem, limited room in the cab, limited view out of the cab and limited room outside of it, I managed to get the big machine safely in to the field.
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