Tractors and Dogs

Awww ... have you ever seen such a scared and basically pi**ed off little doggie!!

Rosy hates tractors, she hates when they drive past our house ... which they do numerous times each day ... she hates them when they are parked up doing nothing. she hated our last one, and it was a LOT bigger than this little Series 2 version we have now it was a John Deere 3130 that Lovely Hubby renovated from a wreck to a thing of beauty.  It would have been much too big for the type and amount of land we have here so it was with much regret that it was sold to our former landlord where as far as we know it is still in use on his land. 

 Lovely Hubby has been trying to get Rosy more comfortable around this little one and keeps picking her up for a ride on it ... but each time it's still ears back, wide eyes and itching to be let off so she can bark at the nasty green thing that chugs around the place with Dad on it's back.

At totally the other end of the spectrum is Suky, she plonks herself down and totally ignores the green monstrosity coming towards her, completely confident that Dad would not dream of running her over.

She was far more annoyed at having to wear a bandana when she came out of the groomers.  It was the first time she has ever had a professional grooming session and seemingly she enjoyed every minute and was very well behaved.  She lost a total of 300g in fluff and fur after an extensive brushing session which will help for the weigh in at Tubby Club next week ... hopefully she feels a tad cooler too without all that excess Pug fluff,

Sue xx

It's Here ......

It's here ... in all it's glory ... Lovely Hubby's BIG purchase of the year .... his John Deere Series Two tractor.  It's what I was referring to as his 'green' purchase in THIS post.

It's a big investment in our future and one that is already in use as I type, whizzing around the field and the paddock cutting all the grass and overgrown nettles while he gets the hang of this mini version of what he used to have.

His John Deere 3130, which he renovated and added to while we lived in Oxfordshire, which he sadly had to part with when we left Berkshire as it was just too big for the layout of our land here.

This new one is smaller, more compact and is much more suitable for our smaller patch of land here in North Wales.  It has a grass cutting bed that can be added when we need it, with a collector as you can see in the top picture, as well as the front shovel shown in this one, it also has forks for the front to lift things, and a back box to carry things around the smallholding.  This will really come into it's own when we have pigs again in the future for moving heavy loads of pig food around.

So ... lots of you were right, and Jane jumped in first with her plea for the mystery 'green thing' to be a John Deere tractor   :-)

And yes ..... I'm still happy with my smaller purchase of two jugs!!

Sue xx

Well it's Sort of Goodbye

 

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.

 

Tractors and Chairs Weekend

 

 

 

The Bank Holiday weekend is all about tractors and chairs for us, oh and a bit of tidying and sorting out around the place. 

 

Lovely Hubby replaced the windscreen on the second love of his life yesterday, it had shattered into a hundred pieces, a mixture of age and the heat, so now it is resplendent with a brand new windscreen.

 

 

 

He also put new decals in place after it's paint job and it looks all smart and fully dressed again.  For those tractors enthusiasts out there (Jane!!) it is a John Deere 3130 with a 'designed by LH' hydraulic system now in place, a very useful big boys toy!!

 

 

 

While he was tinkering with his toy I was beginning the renovation of Jessie's chairs.  They are sturdy dining chairs that we inherited from my lovely Mum in laws house and although are in good condition do not fit in with our style at all, so I am going to help them to fit in just a little bit better.

 

 

 

First job pop out all the seat pads, then sand down the frames and undercoat.  Then they will be painted with two coats of our favourite colour.   I'll post the 'after' pictures when they are done, I am concentrating on two at a time, as LH was actually using one all day yesterday to give him a leg up to climb on the tractor., our jobs usually overlap nicely when we work together.

 

 

I was out taking the photos first thing this morning after getting the chickens up and look who ran over to greet me, the dogs were still snoozing in bed (they are not morning dogs!!).

 

 

Take my picture Mum he seemed to be saying..... so I did!!

 

Hope your weekend is everything you want it to be, whether that be a lazy time off work weekend or a busy, get jobs done kind of a weekend.  I do so hope we have just a little bit of sunshine....fingers crossed, nope better not do that........  I won't be able to hold my brush!

 

Sue xx