Tractor 3 -Mike 0

Well day 4 and the tractor is slowly disappearing into the ground, Australia bound! I have now given up on the idea of chaining a log to the wheels. I am going to do nothing more to it until Thursday which is market day here in Huelgoat. Once a Month there is a lorry and trailer full of hardware and tools  sets up and this is the week they arrive. I have taken a look through their catalogue and have found a very reasonably priced ( 30 euros ) hand winch that will pull over 2 tons.

I am going to attach it with a chain to the front of the tractor and the other end I can attach around a large rock buried into the ground.

The weather here for the last couple of days and the next few to come if the forecast is to be believed is superb with sunshine all day. We are both making the most of it and getting out into the garden, Avril has been busy cutting part of the lawn for the first time and I have been out with the chain saw and axe stacking up logs for next winter.

Of course we have also made time for a bit of relaxation in the sun on our decking area!

A day of up and downs

Still no success with getting my tractor out of the mud, in fact it is further down than it was before. The problem is now that the bottom of the tractor is sat on the ground so at least one of the wheels has no grip whatsoever!
After spending an exhausting few hours in the morning digging and trying to get ramps under the wheels to help it I gave it up and am leaving it now until Monday. I have one plan that involves chaining a wooden post across the two front wheels which should stop the wheels from spinning and force them to ride up over the post. If that doesn't work I'm going to have to find a tool hire shop and try and hire a "Turfer winch" which I can attach to some trees nearby and hand winch it out.

So all in all not a great start to the day!

The day picked up substantially in the evening however when we went with some friends to a St Valentines Night dinner and dance. This was held at the Hotel du Lac which is situated in a lovely position overlooking

 the lake. It was very well attended, although we we one of the few English people there, The dining room was set out lovely with red hearts etc on all the tables.
The food was superb with 4 courses and as much wine as you wanted included in the set price. The French people seem to eat in a different way to the English and I have to say I like it. The meal is spread over a lot longer time so there was time to dance in between courses . By the time we got home it was nearly 2am.

You win some-you lose some!

I've had a problem over the last few days in that my tractor which I bought 15 months ago suddenly decided it wouldn't start!
I'm certainly no mechanic, but I knew that the problem was in the electrics as not even that dashboard lights came on and when I turned the key  could here a clicking noise somewhere in the engine area.

My first thought were that the battery was low, so I put a charger on it for a few hours but to no avail. I then thought that perhaps the connections needed cleaning so I took them off and re-connected still without any luck.
I then tried to track down the clicking sound and eventually found it coming from what turned out to be a relay switch. I did ponder about taking it to a local tractor spares firm to see if I could get a replacement but in the end decided to email the firm in the UK that I bought it from and order the correct part from there. However I had an email back from them this morning saying that it was almost certainly a bad connection somewhere in the system and gave me a list of things to check.
Half an hour later....Success!

That was the good news!

Another half an hour later I decided to take it across my neighbough's field to my lower field across the stream to bring back a pile of logs that I had cut.

Unfortunately It got stuck in the mud and at the moment it's still there!

As I said you win some and lose some.....watch this space.

I'm feeling quite good about myself this week. I have a small meadow and woodland area at the bottom of our property that is accessed by a bridge I have built over the stream that divides it from the rest of our ground.
There are several trees that have fallen across the stream that need to be cleared and will also provide logs for our woodburner. I have been down there with a chainsaw sawing up logs however it is a lot of very hard work to carry them back to the house.

However there is access across our farmer neighbough's field where the stream is piped for about 15ft that I can drive my tractor over.
I went round to see him this week and managed to ask in French if it would be ok for me to drive my tractor across the field so I was more than pleased when he not only understood what I said but said yes I also had the bonus of being asked into his house for a glass of 50 yr old home made "hooch" that his father had made, extremely potent I might add!