Vandalism!

The problem with hay, of course, that it burns with a fury that delights the arsonist. For this reason, we decided on three small stacks, rather than one large. Each was covered down in brilliant blue tarpaulin - far from environmentally friendly, but all we could afford. I'll point out here what most smallholders would assume - having bought the field, we were just about penniless... Today, small acreage fields are in great demand, and sell for well over the current price of larger units of agricultural land. It was days before disaster struck...

Perhaps the school holidays were drawing to a close, and boredom had set it... Whatever. One stack was quickly robbed of its tarpaulin, with the central square being taken away, we guessed for "den" building, as all the signs pointed to children or young people having done the damage. Country crimes are hard to solve, all we could do was replace the tarpaulin immediately, be thankful that the rick hadn't been burnt, and hope that the second tarpaulin would remain in place!

Incidentally, the police recorded the cost in terms of the vandalised tarpaulin - about £60. The cost of time to replace it - about 10 man- hours to finally track one down, collect it, remove the remnants of the old one and tie-down the new - and the resultant damage to hay from damp, were not taken into consideration.