Coming of age: We Gets a Tractor

So long have I been standing by the roadside watching the neighbour pudder around on his tractor-with-everything, wondering when my day would come. On the weekend that day arrived quite unexpectedly. Brother rang up some time ago talking up an old Massey Ferguson that had been sitting for some time on a elderly ladies place out of town. Telling me how it would be 'just the thing'. Well, he and a qualified brother-in-law went to check it out with intentions to negotiate a price. After a few hours clambering over the old Massey, the verdict was 'its dead'. Water had seized up the engine and the old girl would be in need of some major TLC plus $$$'s. But some good came of it. While working to get the Massey going they spotted another old tractor parked off in the scrub. After abandoning hope on the first tractor, they took a battery to the second one, and whatayaknow, after 7 years of standing, half a turn and she fired into life like it had been waiting all those years. So... brother rings one morning and its off to see the tractor.

After fitting a couple of new front tyres to replace the perished versions and putting fresh air in the rears. We were keen to fill her up with some diesel and hit the road.... To quote a qualified brother-in-law; 'never leave boys to do a mans work'... on returning from town they had opened the centre cap on the bonnet, fueled it up with 20 litres of diesel and then wondered why fuel was emptying out of the side of the engine.... centre cap was the engine oil cap, rear cap was for fuel.! Got a bit of a laugh out of that.

Soooo, after draining the oil, adding fresh oil we eventually got on the road to deliver the new purchase to my parents place.

Everyone loves an old tractor! Dogs barked, kids waved, old blokes nodded G'day as I drove past. It ran like a clock (with a couple of fuel blockages), all the way the Mum and Dads where it is now waiting for a pick-up so I can get it back home and into a shed for the first time in a long time.

It is a late 50's, early 60's Nuffield 42 with PTO, 3 point linkage and front hydraulics for the arms. It has the roughest seat I have sat on for a long time and the middle cap on the bonnet is definitely not for fuel. (except for flushing out the motor). It cost us $1000 neat (plus a drum of fuel and oil).

....and about that panelvan....

So long ago it seems, we purchaced a HQ panelvan with the intentions of tidying it up as a holiday cruiser. Now, in January 2008,l I figured that I would give you an update....

The thing was given a very good high-presured, hot-watered scrub down from top to bottom. I then proceeded to pull it apart removed the interior, drivetrain, engine, front-end and all panels. When it was stripped bare, it had another hot scrub down and I stood back to assess the damage....

Really it wasnt too bad. No rust in the floor pan or main body (save a golf-ball sized patch). All exterior paint was fairly sound however the jambs and seams all needed re-doing. The two doors had gone to heaven due to coast-cancer and needed to be replaced. Body was straight, drive-train was getting a little tired and the electricals were a nightmare.....

So, nothin to do but get stuck into it.

So far all work has been done by HD and myself. Slowly slowly. Through the long dark shed nights of winter.

And now it seems that the end product aint too far away. Maybe by March.... we'll see (to be continued)

More Updates... more?

Following on from the last post. Other main stuff that went down before 2007 came to close was H.Ds trip on out to Ivanhoe for a week. (She was rewarded with rain filling the ground tanks on the day she came home!). Christmas suddenly appeared on the horizon and we spent it this time around in sunny Grenfell with Dno's family. Heres a set from the photo albumn.

After Xmas we cruised up to Newnes, to have a squiz at the old shale mines and then part of HDs family swung on by for Xmas version II 2007.

And my best prezzie.... would have to be the 1970's beige safari-suit of Dads while cleaning the cupboards out. It matches the Monro..

Time flies; most perplexing creatures

No, sorry this is nothing anbout time-travelling insects, it has more to do with the fact that since the last post of the dog standing in the snow waiting to have her photo taken, nearly half a whole year has passed. In that time it seems like we havent seen or done all that much, but thinking back on it all there have been trips to the Holden Day 2007, up the Murray through the Red Gum forests, the Deni Ute muster, a few more renos, tidying up the place, planting of trees, watching the grasses grow and Christmas has come and gone. A lame sumary I know, but based on the fact that a picture speaks with precicely the right diction and pronounciation, heres a few to look at.

Hi there sailor! I wore my strange hat and we parked the monaro amidst a paddock full of holdens for the 2007 meet. There was around 800 cars there on show and probably another 400 in the car-park. The old LS was outshone by some absolutely shmicky examples of old everyday holdens everywhere you looked.

This year I took a little longer wandering around the panno's getting some tips. Although there wasnt that many at the meet, the ones that were there covered justabout all styles of pannelvans. Check out the brown number in the row shouting out 'Im from the early eighties, and proud of it!'

Van-it Janet! Yep, Gotta love an old holden with matching plywood van. Next stop, the Big Banana !

The Deniliquin Ute muster 2007 was abso-blo-freezing on the first day due to a gale force wind blowing up from the south. Our tradition spot on the eastern edge of the ute parking area soon became over congested and subsequently, the dust, smoke, young city yobs and excess morning drinking started to turn the camp into something a little ugly. Never-the-mind, HD and I picked up the tent, esky and chairs and relocated everything on the far west boundary. No smoke, dust, crowded camp sites ao city yobs. In fact the west boundary had it's share of HQ driver-appreciaters. And so a good time was had by all. Photos show the dust pit in the wind on Friday night, circle-work comp on Saturday, my pick of the utes at the muster (and we saw them all) and the stickered Falcon

From Deni it was then on to Swan Hill and then headed east along the Murray Rv, checking out the sights and camping on the river in the state forests along the way.

On the way doiwn the river we found more than enough quiet river bends to nose the ute into and boil the billy. Great to hear the bird life settle in the evening and then start up on the picininy. We even took a dip or two. Next time we will be wetting a line. The red-gum forest away from the river did look crook. Alot of the older trees were suffering the effects of drought and over-controled water in the river. 'Better enjoy it while it lasts' the locals were saying.

At Echuca we looked over the museum to suss out some of the timber history of the place and find out more of the Paddle-steamer times. I would love to kyack the river with a copy of the old steamer maps and compare. Echuca also houses a very fine Holden Museum, so we also paid our shilling and took a few hours out of the day. I could ramble on about what we saw in there, but I promised not to make this a atomotive ramble.