Living dangerously

Cold day but sun did appear in the afternoon, so with spring around the corner & meadows in desperate need of harrowing & rolling, thought it was time to get one of the tractor tyres to repair tomorrow.

Starting the 1965 John Deere 310 is tiresome in winter as it has no pre-glow but once fired up & out in to daylight saw the tyre had repaired itself, at least for the time being. Having gone to all the trouble, thought I might as well do something useful. Yesterday had started on remodelling a rock garden & there were a few very large rocks to move. As soon as one does anything in the garden, the chickens are there to help & they have no fear. I did though, as the front loader is far from safe, particularly the release mechanism which since being oiled in October, no longer relies on human help to open. Would have been better if one of our "Plymouth Rock" chickens had been in the foreground - there is one in the background.

Managed the rock in the photo but the next one which was about twice as big was too much and one of the hydraulic pipes broke. My attempts at repair failed, so tractor remains outside tonight, not the best thing for a cabriolet (no cabin) but luckily there is no rain forecast at all this coming week.

So tomorrow off to the farm suppliers for spare parts & a big pot of hand cleaner.
Why didn't I stay lying on the sofa?

By the way, no chicken stew tonight, they all survived!