It's sort of goodbye to the tractor, we won't be needing it in Wales, it's too big for the amount of flattish land we have so we were going to put it on the market, or trade it in for a much smaller one, but then a few weeks ago our landlord stepped in and made us an offer for it and some of it's accessories which we accepted. It's good in that it does mean that we still have the use of it while we are here if we need it for loading anything.
We hadn't really thought about the fact that we didn't own it anymore until last night, when our landlord sent an email asking if his handyman/gardener could use it for a job on Saturday and we had to send a reply back saying 'no need to ask it's yours now', I don't think he'd remembered that he now owned it either !
So although we've said 'goodbye' to it, it's still sat outside the front door reminding us daily of all Lovely Hubby's hard work in his complete renovation of it. We got the animals to pose on it for posterity, some were more keen than others :-)
Suky sits shaking and terror struck, she has no head for heights and isn't a 'jumping down' sort of dog ...
... Rosy looks slightly worried ....
... then she decides getting off this is a doddle and makes a run for it.
In answer to some of the questions yesterday ...
To bottle my apples I merely stew them as usual and then pour into oven heated, sterilised jars and seal whilst still piping hot. As the apple cools a vacuum is formed and they will then keep indefinitely as all air has been excluded. I always keep an eye them though checking the jars that are left in the cupboard each time I take one out. If you use a couple of jars with recycled 'poppy out button' lids you will know if you have reached the required temperature and a vacuum has indeed been made as you will hear the 'pop'.
Is the truck full .....
Yes we are moving ourselves bit by bit, load by load. Using the back of the Mitsubishi on a weekly basis and towing a trailer load down whenever we have a bigger amount of stuff to take. I will post some photos of our trailers one day (when I have taken some) I did have some photos stored on the computer but we seem to have lost a few complete months worth of photos.
... not quite ... I can squeeze my ladder in ... look!!
Just when we though security might be an issue with all our abandoning of our house here at weekends it has all been solved in a very timely manner, the high fence between us and next door is no more, it is like living open plan with our neighbours. Luckily all the dogs get on well, but we do have to remember not to leave our back door open when walking over to feed the chickens, or we have little, and not so little visitors that finish off all the cat food!!
Seemingly they are having a wall built eventually, but in the meantime wanted to get rid of a broken and dangerous in places fence, it suits us very well, visibility to our property and a whole gang of guard dogs is more than we could have hoped for. Isn't it funny how things sometimes just all fall into place.
Sue xx
Simple September - Tops Tips #16
If you have things you love and are either having to get rid of them for space reasons, moving house or simply having a good declutter, take photographs of them for posterity. Think of the things you do already have photographs of, your wedding dress for instance, children wearing their first little dress or tiny shoes. As long as you have the photos to back up the memories do you need to keep the actual item in your closet or up in the loft taking up room.
Freeing your space frees your mind in the most amazing way.
If you have lots of little useless items that remind you of happy days or times, souvenirs, children's toys etc arrange them on a shelf or table and photograph them individually or as a group. Either print out and store the photos in an album or simply save them to your computer. If you decide to take this option save them also onto a memory stick or device so they are never deleted by accident.
If they are ..... it doesn't really matter, learn to live in the moment not in the past, it's invigorating.
Great result selling your tractor.
ReplyDeleteWe bought back the large fridge when we moved here eight years form the house sellers ago as it didn't fit in the kitchen where they moved. If they'd measured up first the fridge could have stayed put !
how great that you don't have to worry about people coming to look at the tractor etc and time wasters. Fantastic news.
ReplyDeleteI cant wait for the pictures mentioned. if you had asked me 10 years ago what I was looking at to buy I would have said shoes. Strange how things work out. From reading blogs like yours and just a little less, I am slowly down grading all of my things. 17 items to the charity shop today that couldn't be sold.
I would never have thought that I would be avidly looking to live like my Grandparents, some land and some chickens. I hated going their as a child. Now, heck I wish they were alive so I could ask them about chicken breeds, how to get rid of Mr Fox and how big the coop should be etc.
I will relearn these things. Thanks for blogging,. your posts make my day. Cheer to the dream!
I agree with Sol, your posts make my day too!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Pam in TX
Good job selling your tractor - that's one less thing for you to sort out!
ReplyDeleteAs a practical minded farmers son (and pretend farmer) I impore you not to get a "small" or hobby tractor when you get another. They're never big enough for what you need, all the attachments cost more and aren't built to as good quailty as something thats built to work on a farm. Good idea to sell the one you had though to save moving it all the way up there.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for your apples do you add sugar to the mix so it's like a jam or is it just apples? With a new baby on the way this might be a good way of stocking up on baby food if it will keep for 6 months or more.
We did look at the tidgy tractors, but can you imagine going from a 3130 to one of those ... we might as well buy a pedal car. So we are thinking of the mid size Kubota. We have around 2.5 acres of reasonable flattish land and can maybe edge a little bit more into the woodland so our John Deere would have just had too large a turning circle for any ploughing etc we might do. We were quoted over £1,500 to move it so it made much better sense to sell and rebuy. Of course as it was road worthy I could have made LH drive it to Wales :-)
DeleteThe mix is mostly apples, I do put some sugar in to taste, but I like it a bit tarty and LH likes it sweeter so he adds more when we use it. For baby keep it a little on the tart side and add sugar until little ones face puckers less alarmingly :-)
How much land have you got in Wales susan?
ReplyDeleteNot telling until you call me by my real name Mr Gray!!
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