After 4-5 weeks of work and about £1500 of parts and paint, the tractor is finished and ready to go. Its looking great and now runs without leaking, steers and (most importantly) brakes. Brian took it for a test drive down the field with no problems, other than attracting a couple of curious ponies who thought he might be delivering food. The next job is to put it to work, starting with fixing up the transport box so we can move stuff about and then progressing to harrowing and topping.
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Field maintenance has been taking up quite a bit of time recently, in particular Brian has sprayed large area's of thistles. It would have been very helpful to have been able to harrow the fields that were used over winter, so we decided it was time to take another look at the tractor. The aim is to get it to a functional state so we can use it, so Brian has been cleaning it up so we can see what we actually have. We already knew the brakes didn't work at all, so he's also taken them apart and identified the seized component responsible - we're just waiting for the new shoes etc to arrive. The list of new parts required is ever-increasing, so it will definitely be a phased refurbishment. We had suspected one of our chickens of developing an egg eating habit, but they have now been absolved and the culprit identified as a magpie. Also a lot of the local jackdaws have got wise to the chicken feed and have been nicking any leftovers. Finally, we needed to separate them more effectively from the ponies who have also been a bit too interested in their feed (particularly Sully who finds chicken feed delicious). So they have now been moved into a completely enclosed dog run. Hopefully this will keep the thieves out! Brian has constructed a nifty little tunnel so they can be given access to the main enclosure whenever we want. Brian took down the last bit of the thatch this afternoon, we considered holding a small ceremony or something but were too exhausted. The necessity of removing all the thatch has been a constant burden and a barrier to progress on many of the crucial jobs on the house. I think its fair to say its also the least pleasant job either of us have done, its difficult to describe the dust and the smell if you haven't experienced it. Brian has been the one getting it down (I just help with getting it out and disposing of it) so he's had the worst of it, its a good job he isn't either claustrophobic or acrophobic. Its been impossible to do it continously (I think we'd have gone mad, or given up and left, plus Brian would have probably had a physical collapse of some kind) so it has probably only taken a couple of weeks of actually working on it. We can now see exactly what we have and start to firm up our plans for the house. Since the thatch was a metre thick we have a lot of extra space now its gone. To give you an idea of just how much was involved, below is the straw (separated into two heaps with the "good" top layer behind and the horrible dust layer in front) and the turf from above the small bedroom, about a tenth of the total we removed. In other news, Brian had his first look at the tractor the other day. The engine appears to be in surprisingly good condition and all the hydraulics and stuff at the back work, but as to the rest - there is quite a lot to do! Most noticeably all the leaking seals spurting out diesel and the total lack of functioning brakes. He took the cab off, so it is starting to look a bit more like it should.
Brian moved it out of the shed so he could clear out the hay loft (which had an active wasp nest in it). It starts okay, but has no brakes. It is a Massey Ferguson 35 from 1960. A lot of them are still in use on small farms and you can still get all the parts. Although pretty much every seal leaks and it probably hasn't had any maintenance for over 20 years it seems to be fundamentally sound so we may keep it. This is what it should look like.
Tune in next week for even more straw (I suspect it will take at least that long!).
We had all (or at least most) of our scrap metal removed during the week, by a chap in a huge lorry with a big grab on the back. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo as he couldn't get the lorry into our drive so Brian and I had to drag most of it to the gateway and were absolutely exhausted by the end of it (the bigger stuff was dragged by the grab using a chain). Its a shame as it was quite a sight, Freya went and got her binoculars so she could watch better. One highlight was Brian ripping a Stanley range apart with his bare hands a la incredible hulk. The only farming machinery left now is the tractor, which we received the key and the documents for this morning when the former owner stopped by to officially hand it over. We are assured it has run within the last two months... |
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Laura Nash and Brian Brett's blog about our move to Ireland. Archives
December 2020
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