What have you been doing today?

[Mottie]

Went over our sons tonight and they treated us to gluten free fish and chips from a place near them that has just started offering gluten free options. All cooked and prepared in a separate part of tge shop and cooked in a separate deep fryer to the regular offerings. It tasted no different to fish and chips containing gluten (I think they just use a non gluten flour in the batter) but Mrs Mottie was over the moon to be able to have it.

 

[Mottie]

Out for a dog walk with our friend this morning and she gave us the news mrs Mottie and I have been waiting for. She's off today to take one of her cocker spaniels to Kent for it to be mated! There’s a Susie IV in the making, or, as Mrs Mottie says, a Mabel . She can call it what she likes, my dogs will always be a Susie in my mind.

Funnily enough, we were only discussing it last week and decided that if she bred one of hers again, we'd have one but I was warned by Mrs Mottie not to tell her that so that she would feel under pressure to breed them.

If it all goes well, we would expect to see them around the end of June or even early July. When they are able to move about, we will go round there and, like she advises, just sit there and let one of them choose us, just like we did with Susie. I can’t wait, our house feels empty without kids or pets.

 

[Highway Man]

Out and about in this glorious weather

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The tractors cutting deck was off, and waiting for a dry warm day, to Waxoyl it. that was done yesterday, todays takes were to reassemble it, and test it out. The tractor, is trying to drive, without pressing the accelerator, probably due to the new drive belt, not allowing enough slack - so that still needs some tweaking, once I have worked out where the adjustment is. Next task, was to find a more permanent way to extend the legs on a patio/lounger thingummy, we have on the summerhouse deck - It was just too low, for our needs...

We found some suitable tube to extend it, and the double loungers frame needed stripping and repainting anyway, so we took a ride out, to see if we could find some suitable paint, expecting local hardware shop to be open. It wasn't - we ended up in an Indian owned shop which sells absolutely everything. Picked up a 300ml tin of paint, marked navy blue (we wanted black), non-drip, and suitable for outdoor metalwork. On getting that home, opening it, ready to start painting - the paint turned out to be a Royal Blue, unopened and half empty, stamped 'use before July 2025', and wasn't non-drip at all. It gets returned for a refund, in the morning.

 

[pete01]

Out and about in this glorious weather

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So ugly you have to hide your face?

 

[Highway Man]

So ugly you have to hide your face?

I have found that if I ride with my visor up and people can see my face then I am more likely going to get them crashing into me as they just stare at my face. Also causes issues with random women screaming and chasing after me, safer with it down.

 

[pete01]

I have found that if I ride with my visor up and people can see my face then I am more likely going to get them crashing into me as they just stare at my face. Also causes issues with random women screaming and chasing after me, safer with it down.

Same here.

 

[Highway Man]

Same here.

Yeah I would advise you to wear one even though you dont have a bike, just don't take it off in public as it would destroy the effect. On the plus side it would house that long one tooth you have in the chin gaurd, winner, winner.

 

[pete01]

Yeah I would advise you to wear one even though you dont have a bike, just don't take it off in public as it would destroy the effect. On the plus side it would house that long one tooth you have in the chin gaurd, winner, winner.

I'll take that as a compliment

 

[Highway Man]

I'll take that as a compliment

hmmm

 

[Highway Man]

My reccomendation for you is this one, then if you did take it off by mistake in front of people it wouldnt be such a shock to the sytstem.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Also causes issues with random women screaming and chasing after me, safer with it down.

I used to do that, but found the visor streamed up, at low speed.

 

[Highway Man]

I used to do that, but found the visor streamed up, at low speed.

Modern helmets like mine have so much ventilation and a pinlock visor that acts like double glazing prevents the old problem of visors steaming up.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

As I've already mentioned, I had to do quite a few repairs, and fixes recently, on the tractor/mower. A word I kept coming across, in relation to these machines, was 'hydrostatic drive'. It meant nothing to me, and I just assumed, wrongly, that it was just a fancy name for the variable speed belt drive, similar to the old DAF car with the horrible CVT belt drives. With a bit of spare time last night, I decided to research 'hydrostatic drives', and the result was absolutely fascinating....

It is actually a rather clever design of hydraulic drive, built into the back axle. It uses the usual crown wheel, to allow the two rear wheels to rotate at differing speeds, when it goes round corners, but includes the ability to hydraulically switch from forward, to reverse drive, and some versions include hydraulically variable speed too. All done using little pistons.

A rotating shaft, with not much movement, sets whether the drive is in F, N, or R. I originally thought that somehow, moved cogs, in and out of engagement, in the diff., but no, it alters the hydraulic passages.