a fairground life (mud glorious mud)

Since the start of June it seems to have never stopped raining.

At Selkirk we tried out the winch, 60 tons of Superbowl ride was pulled out over some tracking boards. No one was more surprised that me that the wee 4x2 unit at 6t managed this with only chocking the four wheels and pressing the footbrake.

Melrose we were lucky, coming in off the hard path and stopping on the plots. Getting out was a bit trickier but we managed it using 8 nylon tracking panels. Pity the horse boxes from the previous weeks ride out hadn't used precautions. The rear of the ground was all ruts and no doubt onlookers blamed us.

Galashiels was tricky getting in, but the winch and tracking panels saved the day, only to be thwarted by torrential rain from Wed-Sat. The whole fair turned to mush under the patrons feet and a tractor was needed to drag everyone out. On the bright side he also came back the next day and rolled it, spiked it and generally made it good. Hopefully the grass is sprouting and the re instatement bill will be less than the thousands from 2008.

Alva was wet, I was last in on the Monday morning but unfortunately the overnight rain had softened the park up lovely.There was also a van partially in my way, unfortunately the owner was back in Glasgow-with the keys. JI coupled his double drive rigid to the front of my ride and we started off from the hard. It went right around the park and onto the plot best we could. But from there it would not reverse to straighten up or uncouple and the rigid also got stuck. I went over to a JCB driver working on the road and offered him £30 cash to give a tow out the hole, but he refused. Nothing for it but to dig the rigid out on mats and using a jeep to give a little extra tug. Two large ruts to fill after. Then a trip to Glasgow to pick up the hand turfer to pull out our unit from under the ride. 2 hours to move 8 ton about 50ft up a slope.Back breaking work, even using a 6ft bar for torque and a snatch to half the load. We did get built up, 20ft behind the front line at one end and 5ft over it at the other but its all we could do. The weather is set to knack the event anyway, unless its called off before hand.
Well roll on to Saturday and it has rained all week. The fair is sodden and the ground conditions impossible. They had a partly dry afternoon but a heavy downpour around 4pm seen off any chance of moving vehicles. I had already decided to take the winch lorry through to recover the ride. It was mission impossible, nothing could move on the turf. The unit sort of got down the hill with the aid of the turfer winch and then was turfer winched under the ride to couple up.  All we had to do now was get it turned 45 degrees and over 500ft of soft, grassed mush. Another ride had tried with a double drive unit, I thought it was going to make it but half way it bogged down, right in the way of our exit, 40t 22m road block! I had to winch it out to clear a path before I could attempt ours. We started at 8:00pm and by 9:00pm that ride was out. We didnt have enough wire rope to cross the field so I had to rally the winch unit halfway across the park in reverse to be able to reach my ride. It was hooked on and dragged about 60ft then we hooked another stuck truck on to its rear. We pulled them both over another 50ft but the going was so tough we needed to use the snatch block to double the winch power. Eventually the snatch stripped its eye and we had to revert to one load at a time. When the were halfway over we used the previously rescued double drive with ride attached for weight to pull them over as it was on hard standing now, shortening the ropes as we went in stages. By around 10pm my ride was out but we had 3 more to go. Next out was the truck via winch then towing with the double drive again, then another ride pulled out halfway, this was so we could put a snatch on its rear to tug a lorry stuck perpendicular to the winch and another 2-3 hundred feet away. So about 500ft of wire rope through a snatch but we didnt have enough winch power as it cuts out at 2500 psi.When we tried to re rig the winch the strain on it was so great that the winch unit shot back 20ft when the footbrake was released. Luckily JI had another snatch block and we doubled the winch power enough to get him moving on our second re rig. Quickly we removed the coupling pin as he drove over the field much to our delight and saving a couple of hours winching time. Then we used this 6 wheeler to drag out the last ride over the park. Using a bungee rope, a few charges dragged it into alignment and out. All we had to do next was drag out the winch unit using the L200 pickup in 4wd. At 1:30am we were all out. The next hour was spent tidying up and packing away the ropes,boards,chains and other assorted recovery tools. I got to the next fair for 4am and we erected the ride again for 5:30am. Then I drove the winch unit home for 6:30am, in kip for 7am and up again at 9:30am to go and open. Thanks to all, as it was a team effort to get the vehicles out.

No doubt in years to come (if anyone looking back on this blog) to confirm the wettest of summers anyone could do so by reading newspaper archives. As always it seems to be a financial struggle juggling fuels bills, mortgage and other family costs. The weather has really knackered every fair this month and so forth. The galas were mainly cancelled and the those that weren't would have been as well being. Its unfortunate that we are not properly equipped to deal with or move events to proper hard standing facilities/ venues. Mud mud and more mud, tiring, damaging equipment and soul destroying. It seems a different lifetime ago when the summers were mainly hot and dry from June through August. Our fairs have suffered constant rain days on end ruining Selkirk, Melrose, Galashiels,Innerliethan, Burntisland and no doubt Alva. Others affected were Armidale,Peebles,Whitburn and the Hoppings at Newcastle. The latter was cancelled the first weekend and only got open a few days of the second week. The ground conditions were impossible and the biggest of tractors and the Army were called in to vacate the site. Welcome to global warming and it will only get wetter for us. Meanwhile at the Mall, hard standing is a relief but no consolation,there are few people and those present have little monies. The whole world must be on their knees.