Dancing digger

What started as a trick at a school fete has turned into a festival favourite for farmer Wilf Bown and his dancing JCB digger, as he manoeouvres it at gravity-defying angles to a soaring rock n'roll soundtrack.

"I've driven tractors and diggers for some 40 years and at the weekends I do this for a hobby because I enjoy going to shows, talking to lots of different people and giving people pleasure."

It all started about twenty years ago when Wilf took his JCB along to a summer fete at the school attended by his three young children.
"I pinned a balloon to the floor and the kids tried to burst it using the back bucket" he said.
"Then I tipped it over a bit and lifted it up a bit and they all loved it". A few local shows followed but then in 2004 Wilf was invited to the popular Elvaston Steam Rally in Derby.

The Farm And The Furious

A Chinese farmer is fighting off property developers who want his land, firing rockets from a homemade cannon made out of a wheelbarrow and pipes, state media said on Tuesday. 

Yang Youde, who lives on the outskirts of the bustling city of Wuhan, in central Hubei province, said he had fended off two eviction attempts with his improvised weapon, which uses ammunition made from locally sold fireworks. 

"I shot only over their heads to frighten them," he told the China Daily of his attacks on demolition workers sent to move him off his land. "I didn't want to cause any injuries."The rockets, which can travel over 100 yards, exploded with a deafening bang, the official paper added. It did not say if anyone had been injured.

His approach is more aggressive than most, but Mr Yang's problem is a common one.

Anger over property confiscation is one of the leading causes of unrest in China, with many people forced to give up homes and land to make way for anything from roads to luxury villas.

Mr Yang said the local government had offered him 130,000 yuan (£13,000) for his fields, on which they want to erect "department buildings". He said the land is worth five times that amount.

Construction ditches have already been dug across the land of less obstinate neighbors.

A first eviction team attacked Mr Yang in February after his rockets ran out, but local police came to his rescue. In May he held off 100 people by firing from a makeshift watchtower.
The government is planning to reform property confiscation rules, but rights groups say the changes do not go far enough to address the potentially destabilizing issue.

Which way to the ground ?

A Russian news report says a small plane has crashed when the pilot lost his bearings and decided to ask a tractor driver for directions. No one was hurt. RIA-Novosti news agency quoted a local police spokesman as saying the accident happened Friday in southern Russia's Stavropol region.
It said the pilot lost his way, saw a tractor below and decided to land to get advice from the driver.
Oleg Ugnivenko, a spokesman for the regional branch of Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry, said the An-2 agricultural plane grazed the tractor while landing in the field and broke its landing gear. He said no one was hurt but gave no further details.

Accident prone

A farm worker, Mick Wilary, who is thought to be one of Britain’s most accident prone men has been injured again.
In the latest in a long line of injury mishaps, the 58 year-old is recovering in hospital after his legs were crushed under a JCB. It follows breaks to both ankles, after he fell over a potato, and cracking his head open by tripping over a cat. He has also fallen out of a raised bucket of a JCB, and was left with a broken collar bone when the horse he was riding got spooked by a plastic bag. In total the grandfather-of-two has racked up more than 30 injuries, including 15 broken bones.

Manure love

According to this man nothing says "I love you" like a half-mile wide heart made out of manure. A southern Minnesota man gifted the Valentine's Day to his 37 year old wife for Valentines day yesterday. Bruce Andersland told the Press that he started the project in their farm field about 12 miles southwest of Albert Lea with his tractor and manure spreader on Wednesday and finished Thursday. His wife, Beth, said it is the biggest and most original Valentine she has ever received.