Life on Speedwell goes on. With shearing nearly finished Christopher has moved on to some urgent fencing repairs to try and keep the sheep in their right camps. Shaun and I have been in the shearing shed on and off most days shearing. Last week Christopher headed down to the Twin Ponds/Sand Grass boundary to work on the sea crates that have washed out. The sea crate boundaries are a pain in the butt as they are open to the full force of the south Atlantic ocean and wash out frequently and it is not a small job to re-built. Anyway Shaun had an idea that it would be better to have a free hanging fence that the force of the sea could push open. Its quite hard to explain what I mean. Christopher thought it was a good idea and took the rover and compressor down to drill down into the beach to try and put a more secure foundation in down at the low tide mark. Unfortunately on the way down he decided to drive through a dried out pond which wasn't quite as dry as it looked and bogged the rover. Yesterday we both went down in the Mitsubishi to pull the rover out. It didn't look that bogged and I thought it would come out quite easy. We put a rope on and I was given instructions to drive out to the end and take up the strain in 1st gear. This I did and with the Mitsubishi spinning and the land rover spinning and not a track on any of the tyres to share between them we went no where. New instructions were issued, back off put the Mitsubishi in 2nd drive faster to the end of the rope and try and jerk me out. Nothing, the rope snapped. Christopher dug out a bit from under the wheels and we half heatedly put a few bits of wood under them because it really looked like it should come out easily. Reluctantly I offered to drive the land rover. I don't like driving a vehicle that is being towed in case the rope breaks and springs back and breaks the windscreen. Assurances are given that the rope is not nylon and will not spring if it breaks. I know this is our best chance of getting out as Christopher will be much more aggressive in second and the jerk will be a jerk. New instructions are issued, put the land rover in 1st and when I whistle keep your revs on and let the wheels start to spin. To start with you can't hear the whistle. First try, slow gentle approach nothing, second approach fast run out for a jerk. Rope breaks but like he says it doesn't spring. Luckily we have a very long rope which is actually for lowering the turbine. Christopher reattaches the now shorter rope and changes to a different angle for the tow. He has now abandoned trying in 1st and goes straight for second. This time the land rover spinning and jerking moves about 2 feet. 1 wheel comes out on top and its looking good for the next try. Now somewhere here I decided that maybe I was in 3rd and I decided that maybe 1st is left a bit more. Ah yes there is another gear over to the left. Off Christopher goes again, nothing, we don't even move a smidgen. A bit more digging and a few more half hearted boards and we try again. Nothing again. If anything the back wheels are getting more and more bogged and not only that but the compressor that wasn't bogged and which we hadn't unhitched was also getting bogged. Although light we decided to take it off to make the pull a bit lighter. I get back in the land rover and a little voice is saying are you sure you wasn't in reverse. The little voice says a little louder I think you was in reverse last time. "Hang on Christopher I'm not quite ready". I put the land rover into the gear hard to the left put on some revs and gently let the clutch out, um the back wheels are spinning backwards. I then put it back into the original gear that I had decided was probably 3rd, no it was 1st. I laugh to myself put it back in 1st and shout I'm ready. Yeah a couple of good jerks a bit more skidding and I am out. In fits of laughter I get out and say no wonder you couldn't get me out we have been playing tug of war, I've been in reverse. Christopher just shakes his head and I chuckle about it for the rest of the day and there was still more chuckling to come but I have to do some work so will have to come back to it.
You may wonder why I didn't look at the gear stick to check. Well that would be because I spent about 20 minutes trying to get the mitsubishi into reverse when we first got it to eventually work out that the gear knob on the stick didn't belong to a Mitsubishi. On the land rover reverse is hard to left and forward on the mitsubushi is is hard to the right and back.
You may wonder why I didn't look at the gear stick to check. Well that would be because I spent about 20 minutes trying to get the mitsubishi into reverse when we first got it to eventually work out that the gear knob on the stick didn't belong to a Mitsubishi. On the land rover reverse is hard to left and forward on the mitsubushi is is hard to the right and back.
You made me laugh. I can only imagine what your son was thinking: something a respectful son should never say outloud to his mother!
ReplyDeleteI have had similar experiences in both snow and mud at one time or another. I had a very powerful four wheel drive tractor (150 hp) which I got stuck several times before I learned that all the "four wheel drive" means is that you can get stuck deeper and faster before you realize you are really stuck.. One time I got so deep in the mud I was sitting on the undercarriage of the tractor. I got a friend with a skidder to winch me out. He could barely do this. If you are too stuck for a powerful skidder winch to pull you out you are in a bad way. Finally, he got me out. Before he got more than out if eye sight I had the tractor stuck again in another spot. I was so embarrassed I could not bring myself to call my friend to come back. I got another person to bring his skidder to pull me out.
I must admit that this story did make chuckle. Glad you managed to free everything up though. i t reminded me of a very embarrassing episode a few years back. We had just bought a new transit van, and decided to take it on holiday to cornwall with us. As it turns out, they have terrible traction problems (I don't know if it's unique to transits). We parked up for a cup of tea with ONE of the back wheels in a muddy puddle about an inch deep, and couldn't get out. Had to get a lorry driver to tow us out can you believe? Take care!
ReplyDeleteGood morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Falkland Islands? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Falkland Islands in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez