powerrabbit

Those lambs were cheap Mark, thought they would be a lot more than he was asking for them and scarce to find. And no, it wasn't your good self that had his hand in the box before me, you must have picked out yours a bit earlier on before the other chap and me got to them.

It's a little difficult to be exact on the bunnies Mark as they all look very similar between the different makers but they correspond more to the Britains type from the pictures in the books to any other make, at least they've still got their lug'oles. Yes, the curate is in very good nick, I've looked him over with a good magnifying glass and he appears to have his original paint, don't really know about curate, with that hat and type of dress he would be better described as a Methodist minister I would say, think I'm going to call him Wesley. And the lambs at a quid each were cheap, would have bought 5 more from the seller but there was a chap infront of me that had his hand in the box so I had to wait.

The only thing it's missing Sean is a bit of green paint on the handles. I looked them all up in Joplins big yellow book when I came home just to identify them all before I made an ass of myself for posting and just guessing the makers, in the book it shows the man and hand cart exactly as mine is so I can confirm that it's intact, on the stall the seller had the man pulling it but in the book it shows him pushing it but it fits either way so I guess it's either a push me or pull me, whichever way you want. There was a lot of lead figures and animals there today, most iv'e ever seen.

A good fair considering. Nice to meet up and see some of the Forum members. Nathan, nothing was too cheap, it was nice to be able to aquire some items for very reasonable prices, my purchases of which I have posted up elswhere on the Forum. Some items were cheap indeed but the same items on other tables were priced ten times as much, you just had to be carefull and look around. Only 1/2 the hall was occupied as the organisers only hired 1/2, I was told by an official that the 1/2 hall hire was 5k and for the whole hall it was 9k.

These are the items I purchased today at the Westpoint toy fair. I have put these all together as it would take about five different posts to put them in their seperate manufacturers. The Curate and the Land Girl are Britains, the Land Girl is a bit unusual I think as she is wearing a 3/4 length coat. Both have swinging arms. The lambs are also Britains but the 'skipping' lamb on a base on the left is by Cherilea. The little chicks are Taylor & Barraett as is the milkmaid with the two buckets, unusual to find her with two. The running hare is Pixeland-Kew and so is this rather unusual man and roller, You don't see him often. The man and long handled cart is thought to be by Timpo and it's a bit puzzling to see what the cart may be used for but is believed to be a hand hay cart

Today at the Westpoint toy fair I purchased a general mix of lead farm figures and animals. I have posted up pictures of these in the 'other farm figures and accessories' section under the topic title of 'a mixed bunch'. Forgot to say, also bought the Britains Toy Cataloges 1970 to 1979 book by David Pullen as well, chap was there selling them for a mere £8 each, when I went back to his stall to get one for Mandy he told me that he had sold 100 copies at the fair, it was only 12 oClock then!.

Depends how long you've been collecting paper Bill. An old farming lady on a farm near me collected all her newspapers, when she died and the house cleared, her living room and 2 bedrooms were so full of them that you had to turn sideways to walk through the rooms, It took 3 skips to clear. I was told that the earliest papers in the 'collection' dated to 1933.

I'm not certain of dates but the 'buff' logbook was one of the first official registration documents that were originally issued by the District or County Council and were stamped in the circles by the issuing office or the Post office when you renewed your road tax. The DVLA as we know them now took over this in the early 1960's and replaced the buff logbooks with a green one. The blue V5 was introduced around 1971 and in 1984 all vehicle records were transfered onto the DVLA computerised system, any vehicles that did not have a current tax disc at this point were not put on the computer. The V5C was introduced around 1998 and now replaced by the new red version, for the reason stated in previous posts.

The reason for the new red version of the registration V5C document Bill is because they've had a lorry load of the previously blue coloured ones stolen so as and when each of your registered vehicles come up for their tax disc again, they are issuing the new red version to prevent any of the older blue ones being used. They are asking you to destroy the old ones but like youirself, no-one probably will as they will be thinking the same as you, history of the vehicle and keeping the iden***y of the vehicle, especially if you have a vehicle that you have not registered in your name which I'm sure there are a large number of. We all know what it's like to obtain a document and retain a registration plate if you have no proof of vehicle iden***y.

One of the new tractor studies, 'Summer Crop' depicts the David Brown Selectamatic 990. I have been doing a little research on this one and have been told that it is not due to be released until November.

Next to my land we have three large reservoirs and there is a resident group of Cormorants on them together with the obligatory Mallards, there's even a couple of 'ferral' Muscovy's on one of the reservoirs. Herons are quite plentiful there as well but always seem to dissapear over the nesting season and return again for the winter, perhaps the trees are the wrong sort for them to nest in. There used to be a very large flock of Canada Geese resident as well, I estimate there used to be a flock of at least 500 but these also seem to have diminished in their number, normally now see around 50 at any one time but again as with the Herons, they seem to all but a few pairs to dissapear in spring and return again in around September, but then, geese are rather migrant.

I agree with you on the human point Chris, perhaps some of them should be controled as well?!!!! Having said that, I also agree on the point about bird tables and the feeding of wild birds, it is said that in any normal year, winter mainly, that up to 80% of all species of birds hatched in that year will not survive but with more and more people puting out food for birds in their gardens now that up to 60% will survive due to being fed. My brother puts out food in his garden for the birds, feeders hung in the Laburnum tree just outside his kitchen window, he puts peanuts in these feeders, he's tried bird seed but they just won't touch the seed. The birds that come into the garden to feed are 90% Blue***s and others such as Nuthatches, Coal ****,house sparrows, finches, (mostly Green Finches) and also the resident Spotted Woodpeckers, Blackbirds and the Robins and also some of the Finches tend to hop around under the feeders on the ground and pick up what the others drop. It's most interesting to watch them feeding as there is a definite 'pecking order' in who gives way to who, the little birds usually give way to the bigger ones first but they all get their fair share. Putting out mealworms is good for all as well, all the birds I've mentioned bar the Woodpeckers have a healthy appe***e for these and they also attract Tree Creepers. We don't seem to have much problem, in the garden anyway, with hawk or magpie predation but the cat, that's another thing, but thankfully he doesn't terrorise the birds much at all, he prefers going off rabbiting.

The cabbed tractor Chris is a Fiat 450 DT, quite a rare tractor in these parts as most of them rusted out but this one is in pretty good original nick. The field was a bit slippy especially on the grass cuttings left by the topper and the ground was very soft after all the rain we have had but if we'd ploughed a couple of week earlier it would have been too hard so the rain did good. You might notice the chap carrying a few orange fencing stakes and a few random ones dotted about the field, these were used to mark the rocks as we found them so the owner of the field could find them again an remove them with his digger. I'm guessing that the gradient of the field is about 1 in 3 increasing to about 1 in 4 further across and it's wet at the bottom with a small watercourse running down the hedge line. My 2 tractors and ploughs are the 880 with red rollbar and the shiny 780 with the plough with the triangle on the back. This field had not been ploughed for over 50 years so we didn't really know what to expect, especially underlying rock wise.

Our Club that I run had our ploughing day this last Saturday on our Chaimans farm in one of his fields on Dartmoor. The field is 4 acres and 1/2, we started at around 11.00am, stopped for a pasty and a bun for 1/2 an hour at around 1.00 and finished the field including the headlands at around 3.15pm. There were a few rocks in the field but not many, 2 ploughs caught a couple and broke a share but nothing more serious. Took nearly 2 hours for the video to upload, it was filmed in 16.9 aspect but has been converted by the site so the tractors look a bit narrow. Here's the link.

There has been a very noticeable decline in certain species of birds and other wildlife in my location although farming practices have not changed that much in decades. I see less now of Skylarks, Barn Owls and particularly Green Plovers or 'Peewits' as we know them, they used to be very numerous but have seen none at all now for more than 20 years. I'm more inclined to think that most of these birds have in this area suffered a natural decline or have just bu***rd off to elsewhere. The Tawny Owl, Magpies, other corvids, Seagulls and Badgers have had and do have a dramatic affect on ground nesting birds, especially the wild Pheasant population. Badgers have also been in the main responsible for the dramatic decline in the Bumblebee population, I very often come across Bumblebee nests that have been dug out of the hedges with a lot of dead and dying bees lying around the excavation, having said that though, it's a double edged sword as the Badgers also dig out all the wasps nests in the hedges as well and we don't mind them destroying them. Last year at this time, for the first time ever, we have House Martins nesting under the eaves of the thatch on the house, last year they built 2 nests, this year they have re-occupied those and built 4 more so they are on the increase. There was a little bit of discussion on 'Springwatch' on the tv a couple of weeks ago where Chris Packham was slating the domestic ****** for the decline in song and garden bird populations, especially in urban gardens, that didn't go down very well with the general public!

Unfortunateley here in my locality the majority of the old granite Dartmoor stone barns have been turned into domestic dwellings and in so doing has driven out 99% or more of the barn owl poulation and instead of being aware of and observing that there are pairs of barn owls in residence, say nothing and do nothing, like incorporating an owl box into the conversion, block up every hole and destroy their habitat and nesting sites so unfortunateley now sighting even a single barn owl is a very rare occurance.

To get there it's all downhill unless you're coming up from Cornwall.

To give it its proper name, it's Westpoint Arena. It's a very large covered shed and extensive grounds where exhibitions and large events are held such as The Devon County Show, The Ice Show (Robin Cousins) The West Country Kit Car Show, Ideal Home, on occasions The Game Fair and a plethora of other large events and shows including antique fairs and toy & collectors fairs, toy fairs are or have been over the past several years been held there 4 or 5 times a year. The site is situated just off junction 30 of the M5 signposted to Sidmouth - Bicton College and gardens, you can't miss it.

Grays are giving a 10% discount as well Bill for orders over £50 placed in June to celebrate their 90th birthday so if I can wangle it I may purchase both 'Summer Crop' and 'Repairs Required', I will ring Grays and ask them to give me the 10% on both, treating as two seperate orders which would total 20% which is how it should be.

Aren't the Britains figures 52mm Bill? If the tractor is roughly 1:32 then this would explain why the figure looks a little too tall. I was more interested in the David Brown 880 one 'Summer Crop' and am contemplating ordering this study, in the little catalogue of the new releases I received yesterday from Grays it give a measurement of 9.5cm in height which I assume is the overall including the base and would suggest the tractor being roughly to 1:32 scale. Reasonable price too.

Another will be an MF35 with linkbox with a chap repairing a couple of wooden sheep feed troughs entitled 'Repairs Required'. These tractor studies look a little smaller than the norm and it also looks that the figures in them are a little out of proportion to the tractors, unless they were modelled on very tall men.

Well Bill, this one will not be for me to make a profit, it will be joining the few others that I have. I don't think that it will be worth any less than what it cost me, even when times are hard, I like to regard it as more of an investment.

Have just purchased this study from eBay, hope I've not deprived anyone on the Forum if you were watching it! The seller just gave it a search title of 'BFA' and just a very breif description, he says that it's with all original packaging and is number 792 of the limited 2000 peices made, he doesn't say if the certificate is present but I'm hoping it is seeing the tractor is in its box. I think it was a reasonable buy at under £210. Bill, I've sent you a PM.

Definiteley the Queen that one Sue, I've got the same figure in her original box, I'll dig her out and post up a pic when I can find her, not my usual bag but boxed and cheap at the time thought it a better investment than a Royal mug! I believe this model has been produced from the same mould for many decades.

Sounds like another gimmick to get you to take out a new card or get people to move their account over from another bank. Banks are full of this sort of s***t. It's more important to know what you can do with the card and how the bank operates their DD card system than what picture is on it in my opinion. But then, it's very easy for one to be a little critical.