Some considerable time ago I acquired the remains of a tractor style lawn mower as the end result of a convoluted three-way trade kind of thing with craigrk and grizz .
Like a lot of these things, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted it for, but I had vague thoughts of a buggy style thing for my lad, or something that could be used to drag stuff around the garden.
Needless to say, its arrival was greeted with great excitement* by my good lady. Sadly, my lad appeared more interested with his X-Box and, given the never-ending list of “just” jobs it pretty much sat untouched for an embarrassingly long time. Years in fact.
However, last autumn my lad decided that he wanted to do his Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and asked if he and his mate could resurrect the tractor as the “skills” part of the task. Ever glad of another distraction, I have kind of steered them hrough the process. They freed up the seized steering, fixed the loose wheels, stripped off the remaining redundant mower gear, repaired the wiring and I helped them get it running. After a bit of havoc driving it around the garden (only one fence destroyed), they stripped the rear bodywork off and started cleaning it up for paint.
After watching them struggle for an afternoon, smearing the peely powdercoat around with various tools, I took pity on them and arranged for the panels to be sandblasted (this was what spurred me to get a pair of lorry wheels done at the same time).
I picked up a secondhand bonnet via a well known auction site for not too much. These seem to be quite easily damaged and therefore difficult and expensive to find. I discovered that the same machine was sold as a Hayter, in their traditional green, which is why I think I landed on it cheaper than the red ones fetch and it dictated the final colour choice. 😃 The necessary investment in time, and skills learned, passed the threshold for the DoE some weeks back though, so the intervening time has been spent trying to prize the little swine away from the computer and to get the blooming thing painted, because although I don’t really have any use for it beyond “want it”, I do occasionally like to see things finished. 🤣
Then, a few days ago, events began to unfold that meant I started cracking the whip a bit, and today we spent the day reassembling it.
So, it’s not “finished”, but it’s back together. We had it cranking, but lack of battery and fresh fuel meant that we couldn’t get it running today, but it’s as done as it needs to be for now, because it’s going to be off to a new (old) home very shortly.
But why the sudden rush? Well, I have had a couple of conversations recently, with another inhabitant of this parish, the general theme of which is that a lot of us have more projects than time, more diversions from work/life/family and a tendency to get bogged down in the sunk-cost fallacy. While there is much to admire about sticking with a project through thick and thin, and not just giving up every job half started, there is definitely a balance to strike between the two. It’s a hobby after all.
On top of that a mate of mine dropped dead Saturday morning, so I have been feeling a touch of the old mortality and there’s a sense of time slipping away. So, in the spirit of selling stuff to be able to move on to something else, I have made the somewhat momentous decision to sell/get rid of some things that I was going to “get around to”, but probably won’t, in order to move forward, and the tractor is, conveniently, something that can be moved on as part of a three way convoluted Chinese puzzle kind of deal.
So, basically, one of my half done projects is going, along with someone else’s half done project, to someone else again, who may or may not finish them, in order to make room here for someone else’s half done project that I might finish, and in turn allow them to take on a completely new project that will probably keep them busy for a while.
Make sense? 🤣
* She really wasn’t pleased. She’s likely to be even more unimpressed with what’s coming next. 🤣
Like a lot of these things, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted it for, but I had vague thoughts of a buggy style thing for my lad, or something that could be used to drag stuff around the garden.
Needless to say, its arrival was greeted with great excitement* by my good lady. Sadly, my lad appeared more interested with his X-Box and, given the never-ending list of “just” jobs it pretty much sat untouched for an embarrassingly long time. Years in fact.
However, last autumn my lad decided that he wanted to do his Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and asked if he and his mate could resurrect the tractor as the “skills” part of the task. Ever glad of another distraction, I have kind of steered them hrough the process. They freed up the seized steering, fixed the loose wheels, stripped off the remaining redundant mower gear, repaired the wiring and I helped them get it running. After a bit of havoc driving it around the garden (only one fence destroyed), they stripped the rear bodywork off and started cleaning it up for paint.
After watching them struggle for an afternoon, smearing the peely powdercoat around with various tools, I took pity on them and arranged for the panels to be sandblasted (this was what spurred me to get a pair of lorry wheels done at the same time).
I picked up a secondhand bonnet via a well known auction site for not too much. These seem to be quite easily damaged and therefore difficult and expensive to find. I discovered that the same machine was sold as a Hayter, in their traditional green, which is why I think I landed on it cheaper than the red ones fetch and it dictated the final colour choice. 😃 The necessary investment in time, and skills learned, passed the threshold for the DoE some weeks back though, so the intervening time has been spent trying to prize the little swine away from the computer and to get the blooming thing painted, because although I don’t really have any use for it beyond “want it”, I do occasionally like to see things finished. 🤣
Then, a few days ago, events began to unfold that meant I started cracking the whip a bit, and today we spent the day reassembling it.
So, it’s not “finished”, but it’s back together. We had it cranking, but lack of battery and fresh fuel meant that we couldn’t get it running today, but it’s as done as it needs to be for now, because it’s going to be off to a new (old) home very shortly.
But why the sudden rush? Well, I have had a couple of conversations recently, with another inhabitant of this parish, the general theme of which is that a lot of us have more projects than time, more diversions from work/life/family and a tendency to get bogged down in the sunk-cost fallacy. While there is much to admire about sticking with a project through thick and thin, and not just giving up every job half started, there is definitely a balance to strike between the two. It’s a hobby after all.
On top of that a mate of mine dropped dead Saturday morning, so I have been feeling a touch of the old mortality and there’s a sense of time slipping away. So, in the spirit of selling stuff to be able to move on to something else, I have made the somewhat momentous decision to sell/get rid of some things that I was going to “get around to”, but probably won’t, in order to move forward, and the tractor is, conveniently, something that can be moved on as part of a three way convoluted Chinese puzzle kind of deal.
So, basically, one of my half done projects is going, along with someone else’s half done project, to someone else again, who may or may not finish them, in order to make room here for someone else’s half done project that I might finish, and in turn allow them to take on a completely new project that will probably keep them busy for a while.
Make sense? 🤣
* She really wasn’t pleased. She’s likely to be even more unimpressed with what’s coming next. 🤣
)
