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This nice brochure arrived this morning all theway from Canada...

Found this plaque at work today. John Ferrabee of the Phoenix iron works was in partnership with Edwin Beard Budding, and he was the one who did all the casting for the first lawnmower. The pair also created the adjustable spanner! This plaque is in Stroud cemetery, Edwin is buried in Dursley.

Nice find, looks like a fairly early one too. David

Nice addition! Don’t see those brochures very often.

Hi Norm, I know which plastic toy snakes your talking about, the ones with lots and lots of bendy joints.. Used to have one a a kid.. And yes I see why the exhaust reminds you of one.. You were lucky with the adder, that could of hurt a bit! Hi John, good to see you back... I'm also struggling to find forum time at the mo.. Why does life has to be so busy??? The finished product isn't too far away now as you will see. Glad you liked the camera motion thingy, it's gets some more use in the next video For a few days there wasn't anything I could do on MadTrax until the paint I had ordered turned up, so..... I had a bit of a tidy and clean up in the lathe corner of the workshop. The white doored paint cupboard came out from the corner behind the lathe and now lives in a place I can actually reach it. The "lathe shelf" now looks a lot neater and emptier.. As most of the smaller tools now live in this labeled cabinet.. And to finish off the lathe got a much overdue clean up.. Finally last weekend my long awaited paint turned up, so Monday was paint the frame and engine day Which made Tuesday "get the engine, transfer box and rear end in" day.. A bit thank you to Rob for all your help with this.. Ta muchly mate.. More parts bolted back on the frame, most of the front end.. A "few" freshly painted parts hanging about the place drying.. And that is where the rebuild has got to as of yesterday.. To finish off this update have a couple of videos.. Enjoy

We were caught out by the snow last year and had to rush around getting the snow blade out of storage. Joseph wanted us to be prepared this year just in case we get snow. He had made a video of the preparation

Think I am near the end of this project now, apart from sorting teething problems out. During runs at last years shows, the clutch to gearbox drive chain kept locking up. The original chain tensioner wasn't up to the job. This has now been changed but not yet tested. Fingers crossed. There is still too much free play in some of the steering joints. Still working on how to overcome this. Mark ( meadowfield ) made up the decals. Thanks Mark. Couldn't get good photo's in my garage. Too many reflections etc with or without flash which also shows up dust specs. Need to retake in daylight, as and when. Dummy light and ignition switches were fitted but think the key could be slightly larger. A few more taken at the shows. And the almost finished trailer. Finally, the tractor needed someone to drive it while I just sat and enjoyed the scenery while being dragged behind. Hours of searching for a suitable size person resulted in nothing. As I wasn't allowed to borrow my 15 month old great grandson, ( he would have been cable tied on to stop him falling off ), the next best thing was to make something up. A head was obtained from China. Cheap as usual but a bit pink looking. His face was weathered, well he is a farm boy, using some of my old modelling paints which were well past the sell by date Some people say he is a little too brown, but he doe's get out in the sun a lot. An ice cream tub, wood, foam and tape were used to bring him to life. My great grandson donated some of his clothes. Calvin, that's his name, was knocked up in a hurry just before the shows, and had to make do with rough and ready gloves and hat until something better comes along. Here he is having fun and being followed by a Doc Brown ( from Back to the Future ) look a like. Don't all laugh at once. As said above, I think this just about wraps this project up, apart from a few modifications and better photo's of the decals. What next ? Watch this space. PS. Calvin had to wear sunglasses when looking at his passenger.