britainswomble

I don't know if it is caused by interbreeding in farm cats; but it never ceases to amaze me; the variety of colours that farm kittens appear in. On the farm where I lived at Lewes; we had about thirteen cats around the farm, and there was just about one of everything. We had grey ones, pure white ones, the usual "Felix" cats, harlequins, tabbies, shorthairs ,longhairs etc. Some were possibly fathered by stray cats which may have brought in new colours. I have a really bad memory of kittens when I was about six. A friend and I found some kittens in a barn and told a neighbour about them. He asked us to show him where they were, which we excitedly did. He promptly picked them up one by one and smashed their heads on a nearby concrete beam. What an insensetive a***hole he was. It really upset my friend and I. :'( On another occasion we saw him put some in a sack with a brick and throw them into the slurry lagoon. I hated him after that. I could never do anything like that. As I get older I get more sentimental about animals, and could never harm one unless it was in self defence. Some people are really callous in their attitude towards animals. I had some friends who sold a rabbit and a few months later the buyer returned, asking them if they wanted it back because it was too much trouble to look after. The option was euthenasia. I was very annoyed, as that poor little animal had as much right to life as the selfish owners. If you are going to have pets, they deserve the best possible treatment, love and care. They can;y look after themselves in captivity.

A Christmas present from my bosses. They warned me it was a funny one although I still have a more serious one at work to open. My funny present was a Blood Pressure Monitor. Praps I can use it when I have an attack of "Rage" at work. ("Rage" sufferers include Marj Simpson who was successfully treated for it). :D

I've had numerous rabbits over a twenty year period, and they are really funny animals that to my mind; are greatly underestimated. We've often had them in the house in the past, and had hours of fun and laughter with them. I had two Flemish Giants that I used to have paper fights with. They also used to either push their earthenware dishes out of their hutch door when it was open, or physically pick them up and throw them out of the door. We had a doe that was like a garbage disposal unit, stole sandwiches from right under your nose, loved sausages, crisps, burgers and Kentucky fried chicken, and built a nest behind our settee, which included hay, crisp packets, a coke bottle and a hacksaw blade. She had two babies which nearly went up the hoover because my wife didn't even know she was pregnant, and when they started to get around the house, they looked like little furry frogs. We had a doe that survived biting through the TV wire. My wife rang me at work to tell me that the rabbit was acting weird and the telly had gone bang. When I got home I looked at the rabbit, only to find that she had some magnificent whiskers on one side of her face, on the other side she had a partly bald top lip, and some very short whiskers that looked like springs. I had a buck rabbit that bit my nose quite badly after I had made a fuss of another buck that he would have killed given the chance. I had seven stitches in my nose as a result of that, and got laughed at by the doctor and two nurses at the hospital; who at first refused to believe me when I told them how my injury occurred. He was a very gentle rabbit otherwise. I once had to rescue our three cats from him when he was put in our house while his hutch was cleaned out. He had rounded them up into a corner and wouldn't let them move. He was a very healthy chap and died at the ripe old age of twelve. I don't know of any rabbit that has lived that long, particularly as he was one of the smaller breeds. Large breeds of rabbits live longer than small ones. It makes me really sad to see most rabbits confined to a shoe box sized hutch, tucked down the side of their owners house out of the way and usually living on wet dirty bedding, being fed when someone remembers to do it. There are some really callous and thoughtless owners of rabbits, who should never have had them in the first place. Treated right; rabbits are beautiful entertaining creatures with a sense of mischief. They aren't as silly as they first appear.

Annoyed me.............HUH..............I was 'kin fuming. After sitting through a five mile traffic jam approaching the Dartford tunnel, I discovered that most of the hold up was caused by Porcus Trafficus. About half a mile before the tunnel they had a police car and van on top of one of the bridges with three of those bloody laser cameras trained on the traffic. A bit further on there was a Subaru Imprezza persuit car and a couple of motor cyclists lurking in a slip road, and when I pulled into the dangerous goods holding area; there must have been at least fifty or sixty police alongside a long tent that was divided into compartments. They also had about five cars and vans as well as more motorcyclists. In the corner they had two recovery trucks and another with a crane and lifting frame. The whole place was a sea of Hi Vis clothing. Talk about overkill. Ok it is wrong for people to drive around without tax MOT or insurance' but I'm sure it didn't need that much coverage, especially when there are five lots of speed cameras with number plate recognition on the approach to the tunnel; and a total of eighteen cameras in the last five miles. When to add insult they had another setup coming Southbound. What really Pi**ed me off is that when someone reports a crime little seems to be done about it so how the hell do they justify wasting that sort of money and manpower on an exercise of this kind. I used to know the traffic officers in East Sussex, and they had only two dedicated traffic units covering the whole area. This Dartford fiasco must be to pay for Gordon "The Grabber" Brown's Christmas goodies and a very expensive trip to somewhere exotic. "kin GRRRRRRRRRRRR > > > > > > ??? ??? > > > > ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

Har har har...................snort.........that's me posh laugh again. :D :D

Nah................not unless he's got an eyebrow for a moustache. Oh, an by the way; when me mum takes 'er teef out; she can stick her tongue up 'er nose. :P :D

Oooh yuuus my dear. Bought a big tractor and dumper for grandson, from Woolworths A Little Princess pram kit for granddaughter, A kettle and toaster for my oldest stepdaughter and husband. (What they wanted) A wardrobe for youngest stepdaughter and husband A Subaru Imprezza model kit for oldest stepson For Mrs Will, some slippers, some bedsocks, a blouse (Sort of snakeskin pattern and very silky, a long flared skirt with a belt, a mini dress length, top with a leopard type pattern and long sleeves, (A bit of a novelty present as much as nice looking; as she loves big cats), some calf length brown boots with wedge shaped rubber soles as she does a lot of walking, an Egyptian style gold (Costume jewellery) bracelet and a matching set of ear rings and a necklace. (Costume again) Hopefully she'll like it all. I've gone for the classy every day type of clothes as we don't go out a lot, and she will have something she can wear on any occasion. She asked for the slippers and bedsocks. It all came from Matalan. I like shopping there as they have a good choice at affordable prices, cos I'm not a wealthy man. Still got some more presents to get though.

Huh............that's two of us that are curious and a little jealous now. And how did Simon pleasure you............hmmmmm. ;D *

Paying a gorgeous girl assistant a compliment in Matalan's at Brighton and getting a thankyou, and a really appreciative smile from her. :o :P * * She actually seemed genuinely flattered by my comments. I couldn't resist it. Everything about her was stunning from her looks, the way she was dressed. how she was standing and her facial expression at the time. I never thought an ugly old git like me would ever get a favourable reaction by paying a pretty young woman a compliment. After all she could have snapped at me or told me to far cough.

I bin shoppin' for Farver Tritmas, I 'ave. Did pretty well for a first day, but thank God for Argos. You read the catalogue, get some ideas, then check online which store has the items you want, reserve it and then go and pick it up. One of the few good things about this day and age. :)

Always reminds me of the morning on TV AM breakfast show when Ulrika Johnsson was the weather girl. She was quite young and naive at the time and Lorraine Kelly was talking about the amount of snow they had heard about across the country. Ulrika chirped up, "Well I had a good eight inches last night". The whole studio erupted into laughter for some time afterwards, although it took Ulrika a few seconds before she realized what she had just said. Lorraine Kelly ( *) was hysterical with laughter, but then she's always been a giggler. :D

I haven't got the Jan issue yet and I'm looking forward to it as it is an excellent magazine. I particularly like the wide range of topics covered and the way they do it. There are often articles on people who have lived interesting lives and have immense knowledge of farming and machinery. I like the articles by Jo Roberts, articles about animals and a wide age range of machinery and tractors. It's a magazine with something for everyone, very well printed and presented with superb pictures. I usually carry mine in my work folder and read it from cover to cover. :)

All I want more than anything would be an MF 500. I hope to buy a Matador, when or if I ever have any spare money. Second choice for a "Classic" combine would probably be a New Holland 133. If not perhaps a Claas Senator 70.

When I was at school, we had a rhyme about ...........you know...............thingies, [ It went like this.............. Short and thick, does the trick, But does not please the ladies, Long and thin, goes right in, And that's what brings the babies. :D

How wooooood. That'll teach you to mess around with old ladies. Stick with the younger ones; they usually keep their bushes trimmed and certainly wouldn't have it growing round their back door. Mucky li'l devil.

Mandy's dads ................................wife????? :P How did he do that............does his ding dong dangle in the dirt....................can he groom his eyebrows with his tongue,....................is he a real charmer, does he have a really big...................bank account Give him his due though, he is a very distinguished looking gentleman to have such a gorgeous wife. Lucky man.

Is that a special model or a repainted Steyr; as I believe the last of the Marshalls were actually Steyr's repainted in Marshall colours. Were there any differences in cab design etc?

East Sussex, blinkin' wet and windy. Been raining since about 5 am and hasn't stopped. Most noticeable thing about the rain is the direction it falls in. Sometimes about 60 degrees, sometimes nearly horizontal.

Sme again. Once you've discussed it with your engineers; if there's anything they don't understand; send me a message and I'll do my best to help explain. If they want a picture or a natter, I will happily speak to them. One other thought I've had is about the size of the airholes. They would need to be about half an inch so they don't block up too readily, and may need to be graduated in size to make sure of optimum airflow at the back of the tanker. They must be facing downwards though. If in their opinion the idea might not work; they may be able to develop it and have some ideas on how it may work better. It may be better to have the holes angled towards the front so they dont collect starch so easily when the liquid comes in from the back. Catch ya later.

Scoozy please. May I poke my nose in with a very simple solution to your problem. Your slurry tanker wont pump out the starch because it sits in the bottom as a solid. To get it out you need a way of getting the solids into suspension again. My suggestion is that you could have some perforated tubes welded in the length of the bottom of the tanker. You may need two or three tubes in the bottom of the tanker to agitate all the solids. The tubes would be fitted with the air holes facing downwards so they don't fill up with solids rendering them useless. I would suggest you use pipes of about two inches in diameter, joined together by a manifold which would allow air to rush into the front end of all the tubes at the same time, to give maximum effect. No need to buy a new trailer, all you need is three holes cut in the front end of the tanker for the tubes to go through. The rear end of the tubes would be joined by a manifold inside the tanker as you will still need to be able to open the rear door for cleaning. The pipes can be similarly joined at the front and fitted with a large spherical ball type tap open to the atmosphere. (About a three inch tap) As I said earlier, build up the vacuum in the tanker, open the air valve and the air rushing in will put the solids back in suspension long enough for it to be blown out of the gate valve on the back door. Hope you understand what I'm getting at, otherwise I may have to resort to drawing an explanation of what I'm trying to explain. Whatever you do, don't go spending loads of money yet.

May be wrong, but I thought Massey ploughs were made by Huard. Anyone know better

I don't think any of the bonnets are 100%, mine certainly isn't. The steering has a lot of movement at the steering wheel and the front wheels move independently on mine; but I'm hoping that tightening the screws on the stub axles will overcome the problem. Not really a carpet farm model, but a beautiful model all the same. At seventeen quid including postage, they are still fantastic value for the money.

I aint done nuffink yet. Been wasting time writing replies on here when I should be doing things around the house. Well you know what it's like, me an ol' powerrabbit are men of many words. I reckon we must have been educated around the same time; in the days when we had to write a comprehensive reply to a question or statement, so the reader fully understood our point of view. One word answers and one line comments don't do it for me an' ol' PR Er............have I killed this topic...........or just seriously injured it. Thinking about retiring when I get to a thousand posts, not long to go.

Did your friend spend his money on parts, or was that parts and labour? It is a lot of money to spend on a restoration, but if it's been done properly then it should last for a very long time without deteriorating; unlike what I call a refurbishment type restoration. In one of the classic tractor magazines recently; there was a fully restored 135 sold for about eight and a half grand at auction, so maybe he isn't totally off his trolley. The better the restoration; the more it's potentially worth. No doubt soon there will be a backlash in restored tractors like there was in the mid eighties with classic cars, and in particular Jaguars. At the time; the sixties Jags started to fetch silly money when they were restored, and all of a sudden there were a lot of "Tarted up" and poorly restored cars on the market for the asking price of the top restorations. The next argument that arose was whether the car was totally original and had ALL the original parts and panels. All the bickering led to a substantial drop in values, with only the really genuine ones holding their price. It amazes me when you look at pictures in the adverts for "Classic" tractors. Initially they look quite smart and you think "That doesn't look bad for the money"; and then when you look a little closer at the picture, there are all sorts of "Give aways" that tell you that the owner has made it look more visually appealing by painting over all the rust with often the wrong shade of paint to get top money for what we call down here, an "Old shi**er". The most annoying thing for me is the claim that a tractor is very original, and it's immediately obvious that it's got the wrong wheels on it, Fords and Fordsons in particular. I just wish that people weren't so greedy, as there are many people like myself who would love to own a tractor to restore (Given the time and money) and use; who see our chances drifting away as prices rise beyond the reach of the average working man. Such is life. \

Chuffin' tankers again..... >. Just got one of our six wheelers in for a retest and it passed. Drove home feeling quite pleased thinking; at last we've got all four domestic tankers back on the road............and then...............I get a chuffin' phone call from Nick, who tells me that the flexible section of the pump pipework has sprung a leak. It didn't respond to tightening so I spoke to several of our parts suppliers about a replacement...........and the general reply was, "You'll have a hell of a job getting one of those, they are as rare as rocking horse poo".............'kin great innit.........blasted tankers. > :(