Mechanical mysteries.

I am always a sucker for an auction.

It has been a sure fire magnet to put up a sign saying "to the auction" anywhere near one of my regular routes.

I have, in the past bought a lot of stuff at various auctions and much "because it was cheap" gear has arrived in various houses of mine, much of it stayed a long time too.

But anyway that was the old days and these days we have.....

eBay.

Needing a replacement for the IVECO, I was refused permission to bid on a rather splendid armoured Mercedes sprinter on an MOD site and was reduced instead to looking at something more practical.

Spotting an 806 Pugwat on the evil bay I bided my time and at the very last moment dived in and stole it for a pretty good price.

Now, of course there had to be a catch and sure enough there was.

It was cheap because there is a bit of a fault on the engine management.

A real bizarre one, hit 3000 revs and the engine simply switches off. The vehicle slows till the engine is at tickover and then it starts up again.

Progress is a series of jolts and spurts as I drive along with my eyes fixed to the rev counter.

It helps not at all that really the gearing means optimum change point is 3500 revs which drops you nicely in the torque band. Change at 2500 and you are in wheezing asthma land.

Was this a bargain or someone's lemon.....

We shall find out next week.


R

On any Wednesday.

It's funny isn't it.

Best laid ambitions....

We were going to explode out of bed on Monday and go off to be action people, well so far it's Wednesday and we haven't.

Management to be fair has gone off to her forestry and she will be off auctioning later.

I am left here to figure out how to amuse myself for the day.

Option one is to sort the shower, this should be an hours entertainment I am very unimpressed with modern things. I put a new hose and head on that shower a mere 10 years ago and today it's broken. you cannot get the quality of materials these days...

I think also I might go and investigate more wood. See if the woodman is home and lay up a couple of tons of scrap timber.

The new Bedford is sort of a success, we are cutting directly off the back of the truck and have built a nice stack where timber can be piled and dried.

This all smacks of organisation

I think some of the listlessneess was down to more flurries of activity from the inastate agent, he seems touchingly keen that we complete a deal and sell.

That is all very well but all that happens is that she who does not do waiting gets really fed up and we all pay the price for that. She does not like uncertainty, true all round really.

The property market is still, despite what people are saying, all over the place.

Everything is still at asking prices based on two years ago. I am told by an insider that those who actually make a sale are usually taking a 25% drop in negociation. The problem has now become surveyors who have cost a few sales locally by slicing even greater chunks off what everything is considered to be worth.

If I had bought a few years back I would be beyond sick.

Think I will agree with management (always the wisest course by the way), pull the house off the market and start planning some works. Leave the property market alone for a couple of years, by then we will have lost all the foslings and most of our own children. We could downsize big style.

We'll start off by cutting 20 tons of wood. If we could get that far ahead we would be sorted for next winter - an ideal state of affairs!!

Otherwise, the situation here is lurching towards the critical, we have just about run out of wine and are reduced to drinking UK type coffee.

Ugghh.

R

What will I do then,

What will I do then, I'll tell you what:

I am going to spend a lot more time in Brittany thats what!!

R

Decades fly.

It is a strange thing. 10 years ago today my youngest, Gwion was born, about now in fact. Ten years have just evaporated, he will never again be able to list his age as a single figure and he is within sight of secondary school.

His oldest sister, called to the phone in primary school to be told she had another sibling (she didn't think to ask if it was a boy or girl) has completed her GCSE's and is almost off to university.

Something she celebrated by forgetting a vital piece of coursework and leaving a message on her fathers blog, as opposed to sending an email, telling me to email it to.....

Well not email it to anyone, just to email it.

So I might as well send her homework to Gordon Brown, it will make more sense than some of the stuff he has been getting of late and maybe he can mark her course work for her.

It is scary to think that ten years have gone, another ten, whoosh.

By tomorrow they will all have left home and be working, and what will I do then....

R

spare me from strimmers.....

So we got out of bed today ready for work.

Well, OK we went to the Sunday market as a way to avoid it but anyway after lunch we went out on work bent.

Having pulled the strimmer in yesterday and cleaned out the fuel system it was time to see if it would start.

It went well untill the starter came apart.

4 hours rebuilding a recoil starter, took two of us to put the spring back in and then it still didn't work.

Ohh boy was I impressed?

You tell me......

R

Holiday fatigue.....

With the week drawing to a close we have a bad case of holiday fatigue.

This morning it was out of bed early to take young man to meet mum, then back via another house we would not mind viewing.

This one might well tick the boxes but it's towards to the top end of what we can afford that's assuming they are not holding out for what the house went on sale for about 18 months ago which would make it beyond silly money..

All a bit academic really since there is no real money on the table for our house and the vendor of that particular house has vanished off the radar.

Anyway, back home to our wreck strewn drive, no one son had found the blown hose and replacement was well under way. With bits sourced from another spare V8

Sadly on the rover V8 there are a few bits of really fiddly plumbing and we had found them.

Now any normal vehicle. like say a Green Goddess, most hoses could be changed in about an hour tops.

Not this job, had to take a load of hoses off to get at the one that had gone and then it was charlie the contortionist to get the damn things back on.

Meant that number one son could not help mum clearing the patch we prepared last year to put in a willow fence with his little range rover and trailer. Nope he had to take a 7.5 ton flatbed to pick up the chopped down gorse bushes instead, still he could to in one trip what would have taken about 5 with the range rover.

Then it was off again to collect the young man from a little way up the M4.

Home now and teatime - Me? I am holidayed out, I could do bed at 8, thats 15 minutes.

R

Now, the holidays drizzle by.

Had a fair ammount of SW drama today, at 9 am too so it was serious stuff.

Went off for a Booker raid and get the bits for Lilly.

We came home and it was multi task day.

Last night we decided we are a bit lazy about life and we need to engage more.

So it was rebuild the starter motor on the Lilly that was Taliesins until it broke down and then it was mine.

With it working of course it wasn't, it was his again.

So we had to move his land rover which had stuck brakes and left a huge tear in the drive as we dragged it till Lilly let go a heater hose.

So we now have a drive zig zagged with broken vehicles.

Does my darling love this?

I might sleep on the setee tonight....

But of course we processed a ton of firewood today, cut and stacked.

Which is why we are both knackered.

Think I might do bed.

R