britainswomble

Sorry to hear about your cat li'l feller. Life really is sh** for you at the moment. Haven't heard about your mum recently, so I hope she's ok. We know all about losing cats. We have eleven, one of which is missing. We lost one last year which got run over in our street. She was really special and a Bengal cross Siamese. She never got on too well with the other cats and often wouldn't come in the house. We spent two years coaxing her into the house when the other cats were there, and she hadn't long started to sleep on our bed when she was run over by a woman, who we think was watching a bride getting into her car. She would have been looking in her interior mirror instead of looking forward. Sadly lat year we lost one cat after an operation, Row Row (Row as in argument!) got run over, one of our week old Bengal kittens died, we lost three, three week old kittens to a mystery virus, and recently a Siamese kitten we were fostering died when it was four days old. We had to look after it as the mum rejected it. Each loss was as painful as the one before so I know how you feel. Hopefully things will start getting better for you. Keep smiling, and may the good times come back to you soon.

Spent most of the day under our Leyland Freighter putting the diff back in after the planetary gears exploded. Fitted a new rear spring, repaired the wing mounting and fitted a new rain suppression flap. (Mud flap) I left it idling after the work was completed, only to discover there was oil dripping out of the exhaust pipe, so it looks as though the seals have gone on the turbo. Oh bu**er I've also been contemplating what to do with our Foden. Yesterday the wiring burnt out behind the dash and destroyed the starter motor at the same time. Hopefully I'll be able to get a new wiring loom for the dash, but the truck is quite old and has tanker wiring, so it could be a bit of a problem.

Eeee.........when I were a lad we used the 1-9 (Channel 19) for a copy, to contact people initially. Then if it was a quick message, you'd just say what you had to say quickly and then get off the air so others could use the channel. Talk too long and someone will chew yer ears. If you want a longer conversation then you go find an empty channel and tell the recipient to go to that one. You've got forty to choose from so there should be one available. I don't know if anyone uses the lingo any more, as I haven't been on air since the late eighties when it almost died out. I was a sales rep for Sussex Tractors at the time and frequently used it to contact contractors who were often difficult to locate. Well that's about all for now.........10-10 Roger and out.

This post has just conjured up a very amusing scenario. I can just imagine Miss Horserider stopping to flick a turd over the fence........a nice fresh warm one........not realizing that someone is having a picnic on the other side of the hedge............just what you need in the middle of yer Pavlova..............anyone care for a slice.

Eeeeeee.......when I were a lad we had to kiss them first before we could squeeze their ..........um..................er................bottoms........after a few dates of course. This um.........er.......Quote, "Sticking the lips on her".........is this the current technique of modern youth, roughly equivalent to gazing into each others eyes, holding hands while facing each other and moving slowly towards one another till the moment comes when you know it's going to happen,and slowly and gently it does. Scooze me I'm having a nostalgic flashback here about the heart pounding moment of that first kiss. Oh to be young again. As regards to the acquisition of a pair of testicubes.........they are best retracted if you are goin' to "Stick the lips on her", just in case that wasn't what she had in mind. After all you don't want to be led round the garden on tippy toe while she tries to relocate them somewhere else on yer body.

Cows and bullocks are weird when it comes to anything different. On the farm where I used to live; we had three guinea pigs that roamed loose in our garden and the cows reaction to them was hilarious. Middle aged cows with large udders, tail in the air, leaping around and bellowing when they came up to the fence. God knows what that was all about.............they aren't exactly threatening are they? We also stood in our garden one day and watched a cow eat a newspaper...........highly nutritious........not! I suppose their reaction to a fox, is that they may instinctively know that they are predators, and react similarly to dogs. As Ma said in Babe (the film) wooooooolf, never trust a wooooooooolf.

Is he the one you once described as very desirable................hmm.......You pay attention my girl; when you are supposed to be watching the film..................Ve vill be asking ze questions vhen you come home, an' keep your hands where we can see them too................

Billy no mates,..................you?...............Never in a million years. Have a hug an' a twiddle from Wilyum. I still love ya, an' you got more fans than Madonna, aaaaaand you are a lot younger and more desirable than she is.......so there. Who needs thoughtless people any way. * twiddle twiddle twiddle * twiddle twiddle twiddle, and lots of hugs too.

Scooze me pokin' me nose in. Many moons ago; when I worked for Sussex Tractors, we had problems fitting Bomford hedge cutters to John Deeres because the hydraulics on Fords were open centre and John Deeres were Closed. We had to change the end plates on the spool valve on the hedge cutter to one suited to closed centre hydraulics as they just wouldn't work with a normal one. I think it is because if a JD doesn't have some resistance in the flow; the hydraulics wont pump. The difference being that open centre pumps all the time, whereas JD's pumps only work on "Demand", and if it can't sense a hydraulic requirement, the pump wont work, or only works slowly. Trailer tip pipes work ok because there is an immediate load on the hydraulic system, which keeps the pump working. Hope that is of some help.

Bought ten watches off E bay. Wanted more but the seller limits purchases to ten over a ten day period. never heard of that before. Mrs Will wants some more too, so she's going for another ten on her daughters account. Hope they sell well...............could be a miwyonaire soon Rodney.

Sorry to hear about your mum and her illness. It's very worrying for someone of your age to hear news like that. Anything that contains the word cancer is really devastating. I don't know your mum, but wish her well from me and I hope all goes well for her. One of my uncles had bowel cancer, and I'm no medical expert (Just old) but it is a very treatable disease. He was operated on some years ago and hasn't had any problems since. He's in his early seventies now and obviously at that age, more likely to develop problems than someone who is quite young, like your mum. I know it's hard, but keep smiling and make sure your mum knows how much you love her, and that'll help her get better too. I'm sure they will have her fit and healthy soon, so we hope to hear some good news from you in the next few weeks.

Southover Contractors used to have bright orange signs on the front of their cab roof with the name on it. They were affectionately known as the Mc Clusky's. The real name of the two brothers is Rick and Chris Moderski. Just to confuse things, there was a company called Sussex Contractors who specialized in muck spreading. That was run and owned by the Thomas brothers. They ran JD's in spite of the fact that they were previously Sussex Tractors (Ford) employees. Jus' fort I'd mention that.......

Wass goin' on 'ere then. I log on to a new website address; only to find that some of the members have gained titles? I do hope you are keeping your right arm covered up, or else everyone will know that you drive for a living. It's what is called the truckers trademark--------having a heavily tanned right arm, and an untanned left one.

Thanks for the reply and replies from you all. I'm honestly not bothered by its value, and only looked out of curiosity. To me it's a piece of history, a nice looking tractor, and a nicely made one too. It is certainly old enough to warrant a place in my collection and in my eyes is one of the eighties desirable classics, that will remain with me indefinitely. I'm pleased to have bought it cheaply too. Obviously it was unboxed too, but I aint too fussed about boxes; I'd rather have it sat on my desk so I can admire it and have a little "Trundle" up and down my desk every now and then.

Having bought an Ertl 2294 in mint condition; I was rather surprised but not disappointed to find that it didn't have three point linkage fitted, and appears never to have been. There are no marks or holes on the back and I rather suspect it may be a US spec tractor as it has an SMV triangle on the back. The drawbar is the flat type with the large hole in it. I had a look on E Bay to see what they were worth as I only paid two quid for mine, and the one shown was fitted with the hideous prolapsed protuberance known as three point linkage. It would be nice to fit a realistic and usable three point linkage but really the tractor is in too nice a condition to start messing around with it. Would I be correct in thinking that the three point linkage is omitted for safety reasons, bearing in mind the nature of the "Compensation culture" of some countries, and would this tractor be sold in this fashion in any other markets. I look forward to hearing your comments, and hope that someone is an expert on these. Many thanks, Will.

Me an' Mrs Will (Karen) did a boot sale. Our first for this year, and sold a lot of clutter. We didn't make a great deal of money, but it was fun. I was a really happy chappy too, because the stall next to us unloaded a car full of toys. I was over there like a shot and bought an Ertl Case International 2294 (1/32 without rear linkage as manufactured) It was unboxed and absolutely mint and I got that for two quid. I bought two Britains cattle lorry bodies and a spare Iveco front end for a pound. Aaaaaaand a chuffin great Ertl 1/16th or 1/12th scale (Whatever they are.) TW 35 2wd with dual rears a four wheel trailer and some spare tyres for fifteen quid. There is some minor damage to the roof and paint, but generally they are in very good condition for their age. The decals are a bit grubby but undamaged I don't really know what the TW is worth, but I hope to mess around with it and make the dual rears removable and add three point linkage, a better drawbar, more cab detail etc. A nice winter project. I don't mind modifying one of these as there are still plenty of them around and they are very basic but have good potential. I would also like to get hold of a JD 4020 at some time to do the same to that.

I know what was wrong........................I spect he didn't like you slapping him on the forehead and pulling his ears and told you off. ;D (Ref joke of the day..........subject .......Martians )

Wonder what they'll do with that when it gets old. Praps they'll take the cab off and put it on the yard scraper. Big ol' bu**er innit. (As we say down 'ere in Sussex)

Looking at the front casting, I would say it's definitely an International, and the vapouriser on the exhaust manifold is TVO.

Aint done nuffin yet. Got up late, an' bin on this bl**dy forum and E Bay since then. Bl**dy computers; total waste of valuable time.

The program you are talking about is brilliant and absolutely fascinating; and made me lose interest in all the things I should have been doing today. I've not seen this on TV before. P.S. Also sat reading the newspaper today about someone who had a holiday in Gambia, and came back with a naaaasty rash on his leg. Turns out he had been the victim of the bot fly. The eggs are deposited when mosquitos bite and they live under the persons skin and grow into flesh eating maggots. They had to be surgically removed when they were seen moving about under the mans skin. Best check yourself carefully ol' kiddy. Oh...........an' tryin' to sign up with youtube................now thats really annoying in the extreme.

Its saying "The only reason I'm here is fate. You and I are meant for each other Marky. All you have to do is get rid of that wife of yours, and we can be together. With some TLC and some new clothes, I could look like a million dollars. Slip a 140 turbo under my bonnet and I'll be the best little goer you've ever had. I'll give you the ride of your life" Thats a lovely bit of kit................just gagging for a restoration. They are getting a bit thin on the ground and will probably soon be very collectable and appreciate in value.

Nice to see some unusual tractors for a change. Sadly we seem to see too many of the same at our shows in England. I just love the Lanz Bulldog and I'm also rather fascinated and amused by the seating arrangement on the Deutz with the seat hinge in front of the driver and the gear levers poking up through the seat support. Nice to see the JD 4020 too. I love those and wish I could own one, having done some subsoiling and grubbing tree roots with one of them, when I was a teenager. The one I drove was about five years old. Lovely sounding tractor that was years in front of anything else on the market at the time. Its nearest competitor for charisma in my eyes came along a little later in the form of the Ford 7000.

That's really sad. We've had the same problem at work over the last four years with a Pied Wagtail. Every year until last year, she built nests around our yard and each time the babies were born, they mysteriously disappeared. We blamed the cats nextdoor, but I suspect Magpies may have had a lot to do with it as some of the places where she nested would have been difficult for a cat to get to. She has nested between the cylinders of our air compressor, in spite of the fact that it was in use; she also nested under the cab of our tanker which we use as a yard pump, and on top of its meter box. One year the babies grew to be big enough to learn how to fly before something got them. We tried making the nest more inaccessible and that didn't work either. We haven't seen her yet this year so I don't know if she's still alive, although I have seen evidence of another nest being built in another of our tankers. Last year she had two nesting sessions and neither broods survived. Nature can be very cruel. \ The good news was that last years young Swallows survived, as they nested in the wall at the front of our offices.

I bet the owner of that is really proud of his work. What a fantastic looking conversion. The cab doesn't look at all out of place on the tractor. A nice combination of modern comforts and classic tractor. If the engine's turbo'd, it's probably putting out about 140 hp and those old Perkins 6.354's (That type if that's what it is) are usually pretty quiet too. I' love to see it in the flesh and have a quick drive.