'I can't recall how the Hippies came on the scene. I have a feeling they just wandered onto the yard and into the kitchen out of curiosity and on the lookout for congenial casual work and ready cash.

They solved many problems. Some jobs I had subcontracted, but some I couldn't by their very nature. There is hardly a more discouraging sight than a hayfield littered with bales, all needing to be stacked in blocks of 5 in case the weather worsened, then to be loaded 120 at a time on a trailer, transported gingerly half a mile over a rough track and only then put in the haybarn. It was daunting but they pitched in and somehow a couple of thousand bales were stored for the winter, and the animals would be fed.

My way of life with it's rapidly growing and somewhat haphazard menagerie seemed to meet with their approval: though pitying me for having fixed myself with the permanent responsibility which went with it: while they wandered free as they pleased and at the end of the day went back to their teepees and benders and free range children.

Most of them were more travelled and better educated than I, their commune was clean and tidy and the children utterly unselfconscious and socially integrated, without a thought of formal schooling.

I think we developed a sort of mutual respect society and I was sorry to lose them but very pleased to have met them'.