The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

This week has really been a fun week for me. It started Monday with an electrical problem on a Standen Vision about 20 miles from me in the fens.

The main power cable had got damaged so it had been replaced with a much smaller one. This reduction in size has caused a major voltage drop throughout the system. So there I was, on a cold, dark, wet Monday afternoon up to my ears in wet black land, fiddling with small electrical connections.

The job done, we tested the harvester. We were lifting carrots (which of course, had to pass the Brian cooking test later)(and very nice they were too in a hot vegetable curry) and in that light, fluffy but wet land, a 180hp Massey with 4wd and a powered axle on the harvester giving 6wd to the outfit, was struggling to keep going. There were a couple of times when we thought we were stuck.

Then yesterday Ann and I went lifting potatoes. We still have some in the ground because it has been so wet and we could not get them out with the harvester. We have had a few dry days so it was time to try again.

Well, if I had had the 6wd I suppose we might have made it but Nuffy was struggling and leaving deep ruts, so we pulled out. I then put the two row potato hoover on and tried again, only this time I had Ann drive Harriet pulling Nuffy.

She has never really driven a tractor "in anger" before and really did well and enjoyed it.

Harriet is a greatly improved tractor! Since Dotty came home, she has lost all her little foibles. She was always a poor runner and nothing I did would cure her. New plugs, coil, condenser, cylinder head, valves etc. she would still misfire and run on three cylinders. But now she is all business and runs and pulls like a new tractor!

I put the water loaded wheels on her that came off Dotty and she will go just about anywhere.

So please do not tell me that our tractors are not "intelligent beings with feelings"!

I know they are and have proof with the change in Harriet since a rival arrived in the yard.!

Interesting as always, Brian!

I'm a bit confused, though.

Henrietta = petrol Major.
Dotty = petrol Dexta.
Harriet = ?

Oscar,

Shush !! I think Harriet is the 'grey one'.

Harriet is my TE20 Ferguson with a MIL loader. I have had her for thirty years and although she has done sterling service by loading rubble when we refurbished the house, many tons of muck for the fields and been very useful when it came to taking the lift off Nuffy and the engine out of Henrietta, she has always given problems starting and running.

She was a little forgotten. I built her from a heap of parts that were in a shed on the allotments at Swaffham. When I took her to my friends farm to assemble he asked me if I was starting a scrap business. Her previous owner had tried to fit a clutch and could not get her back together so he started stripping her out for parts. I bought the heap of bits and put her back together and got her running.

I recently bought a bonnet from Shrewsbury as mine was battered and in a bit of a mess. Since fitting it and tidying her up a bit she has run exceptionally well. When we used her to load the spreader this year, she kept cutting down to one cylinder and stalling at the slightest load. With a new bonnet and being parked alongside Dotty, she seems to have gained a new lease of life. She pulls like mad and the governor is very sharp when she is under load.

I would normally have used Henrietta to pull Nuffy on Thursday, but, as she is sheeted up for the winter I decided to try Harriet first and was pleasantly surprised. So I had two Ferguson designed tractors pulling my potato hoover.

Good morning Brian

Glad to hear you are having fun, one way to keep warm. Secondly you have whet my appetite by mentioning that delicious hot veg curry. I just love curries and was wondering if you would be prepared to share your veg curry recipe with us .

Kind regards
Mervyn

Mervyn,

I don't have a recipe! Its just throw everthing into a pot with dried fruit, a stock cube, curry paste and extra chilli. Simmer, leave for a day, recook and eat. It has to stand a day for all the flavors to meld together. This one smelt like plum pudding when being cooked.

Do you have a sauce with your roast beef? We have a wild plant here called "horseradish" that we dig, clean and grind the root up. It is a job I only do about twice a year as, whilst you are doing it, anyone in the near vicinity has streaming eyes and unblocked sinuses. Using my mothers secret recipe, I make a creamed sauce that goes with any meats and will also blow your mind!

All my family have to have a small jar when I have made some. (By choice not by being forced to have it).

I also make a mean apple sauce to go with pork.

Hi Brian

Thanks for the discription of your veg curry I'm sure it does taste good especially with dried fruit and left a while to meld, curry is always best after left a while. Will have to try it out when it gets cooler.

Strangly we have never had roast beef for Christmas, it has always been roast lamb and vegies on Christmas eve and then cold gammon and salads on Christmas day. I have heard of horseradish sauce though, we also used to feed horseradish to the cows but if I remember correctly from 40 years ago it used to taint the milk.

Brian is your apple sauce a tradional recipy or is it also out of you head

Brian and all the rest you have yourselves a wonderful Christmas and will chat again sometime from a steamingly hot Pietermaritzburg.

Regards
Mervyn

Brian

On second thoughts I think my Dad fed chopped up turnips to the cows and not horse radish.

Mervyn

Brian,
I believe it had to be Ann at the controls, Harriet must like the touch of a lady.

Very nice story, Brian!!

Especially for me (having my SuperMajor for the hobby and not doing much work with it), it 's great to read that you are really working with the machines of the good old days!!

Maybe you should hire a photographer next time, to let us enjoy some pictures?