Jim, the man in charge of the retort and who trained me on them, was off this week ill. That left me in his place all week. It isn't the first time that I have been the top man at the retort. Last year I was also head retort man for a week but then things were a little harder as I was less experienced at the job. Things didn't go all smoothly though. I did have one small mishap when I under cooked one batch of haggis by ten minutes. That require the whole lot to be re-cooked for the full time so it wasn't too bad. It was a simple mistake in entering the wrong programme number into the control panel. Such an easy error though it could have been costly and one to watch I don't do again. Other than that everything was fine though it did mean a lot of unpaid overtime. I might be able to take some of those hours back this coming week as Thursday is to be a cleaning day. That is because next weekend is a long weekend with Friday and the following Monday off. You can hear me cheer. Anyways the head supervisor says that I could possibly get half of Thursday off. It sounds good. I wait and see if I get it.
Rain is expected over the weekend which will limit any time in the garden. Sunday might offer some drier conditions so we'll see if I can get some weeding done around the strawberries. I was out looking over the plants when I got home today and noticed that the corn is coming along nicely yet I am not sure if I shall see anything from them. The stalks are starting to flower but it might be too late in the season. Something for me to keep an eye on. I will also need to spray my apple tree with the return of the wetter weather. I have only one eating apple on my tree this year but the cooking one is well laden with fruit and they are looking a good size already with over a month more till picking season. Yum lots of apple crumble and custard to look forwards to.