Aiberdonian

I'm still following this thread and must say how much I admire your skill and patience in making such beautiful things like these taps. Keep up the good work.

Wishing all at MOM a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It's blowing a gale out there I hope Santa stays on course!!

Jack, I bought mine from the Pre 1940 Triumph Motor Club, you have to be a member before you can buy spares but they do have quite a lot of re-manufactured parts available. They are quite expensive but are good quality. Richard.

Very sad news indeed RIP Norm.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone. Still above the daisies, recovery from storm Arwen is ongoing.

Some really nice and interesting machines. So what do you do with an old Lister D that's lying in the shed - build it in to a motorbike of course, that is brilliant!

Bit late to the party this year but a Happy New Year to everyone.

Merry Christmas to all on MOM

Survived last night with no drama, just a bit hard on the rum and tobacco. Have arranged tele-handler and retired professional wood cutter from up the road to come and remove tree from workshop next week but will wait until Monday to see which day will be the best weatherwise.

Sitting here with the tin hat on listening to the wind howling through what's left of our trees It's coming from the south this time but no guarantee the trees will fall northwards.

Aye, I can't even offer you accommodation as my trailer tent got squashed as well!! The quantity is one thing but they are so closely packed that access is limited and we're stuck for anywhere to pile up the brushwood now as all our tracks through the trees and dumping areas are gone. Quite a few leaning trees and there's nowhere to run when the roots fall back, we'll leave this one to the younger guys with big machines who'll leave it a right mess probably.

Was talking to a woman in her 80's who remembers the 1953 gales and she thought Friday night was even worse, certainly the scariest I've encountered with trees cracking and thumping as they hit the ground and the house. Here's the one on the workshop Haven't heard back from the insurance yet but they'll have kittens when they realise it's an asbestos roof. Can't get in to the forest for a decent photo but you can see all roots in the air. Certainly more than one old pensioner and his 18" chainsaw can cope with but my sister who owns the forest is considering sharing the cost of a monster chipper to cope with the brushwood.

If yo fancy a run up to Aberdeenshire you can help me with this lot! I've got another through the roof of the workshop but thankfully not above the Gloria. Another one came down on the greenhouse and took out the electricity cables to the house which I reported on Saturday. Whole area lost power at 5.40 PM on Friday and they switched it back on tonight at 5.30 PM leaving me with a live cable lying in the garden. Managed to find a crew working down the road and explained the situation so four trucks and five guys appeared about 6.00 PM and cables and power restored at 7.00 PM. Total devastation in the forest at the back with hardly a tree left standing, definitely a job for the professionals.

Awe, come on - puppy photos shouldn't be allowed! She is lovely. My old boy turned 16 last month and I'm not sure what i'll do when he finally goes.

I'll have the Bentley - always fancied one. I too had a Vitesse 6 1600 and always thought it was a much sweeter and better revving engine than the later 2000 or 2500.

Was that converted from a 4 seat tourer? Reminds me of the car I learned to drive in when I was about ten years old, my father swapped a trailer for a 1935 Austin Seven Ruby saloon that he thought would help my older sister and brother to learn the basics in but my sister wasn't interested and my brother learnt on a tractor while helping out on a farm. He cut off the back of the car from the doors back and closed it off behind the front seats to make a cab and made a pick up platform supported from the rear bumper brackets. He used to cut firewood on a huge bench saw driven by a belt from a Bamford SD1 stationary engine and I transported the logs round to a log store at the back door. I certainly learned clutch control on that old car, it was all or nothing. Can't find any old photos of it at the moment.

That looks good, I know it's been cold lately but do you know something about the long range forecast that you're not telling us?

Had the 90 for seven years now and this morning was the first time there's been enough snow to try it out. Set off up the road to collect my butcher order from village 4 miles away in the Grand Vitara to find a car stuck in drifting snow, turned around to go down the road and around the corner is an abandoned car stuck in more drifting snow. Went back and fired up the 90 complete with snow shovel and a chain thinking I might be able to help the car up the road but by the time I got there he had managed to get out and turned round, the 90 plowed through the drifts - about 1 1/2 to 2 feet deep and I collected my order. Coming back down the road I find a guy in a Citreon bellied in the same drifting snow, 'I thought I would follow the tracks he says' - bit of a difference between a Citreon and a 90 as far as ground clearance is concerned. I turned and reversed back to try and pull him through but his wheels weren't touching the ground and I was damned if I was going to shovel away all the snow to give his car clearance. So I am now stuck with him up the road from the house and the abandoned car down the road and no way home until I remembered the farm up the back has a track around to another road that I might get to. After a six mile detour finally got on to this track, diff lock engaged, second gear and it just sailed up the fairly steep slope through more drifting snow until I was back on our road between the two stuck cars. Even with the best 4 x 4 it does you no good if some muppet is stuck in snow and blocking the road.

I fitted a 200 TDI to mine and it's even worse for warming up but good news is that the cab heater is working. I don't know if it was because the digital display on the controller only goes down to minus 9 and it wasn't able to compare the ambient temperature with the set temperature or if something else upset it. More investigation is required because it needs to work at lesser temperatures.

Cold isn't the word for it - minus 15 C this morning and the cab heater in the 90 refused to fire up, it was a cold run for the paper today. I treated my old Husky to a new bar and chain last year and the difference was amazing, you don't really notice how the performance slowly deteriorates.

I've got a log splitter, gave up on the axe a while ago. What I need is a mill so I can make some useful pieces of timber instead of firewood,

Sorry Stormin, but I just had to wind you up a bit - we need some friendly banter in these gloomy times!

I do have a wood burner in workshop and an armchair but I have to fight with the dog to get on it I have this lot to split and burn before I can get the rest logged

Pity you're not a bit nearer, you could take this lot out of my way.

Thank you all for your kind comments, bit bored at the moment will need to find another project.