Sorting out the drainage in the lower field and other gubbins. An apprentice digger driver writes.

[Stock]

for fudge sake you lot will have me visiting with the flame thrower with all these pix of moggies and talk of drotts.............................................................................
And no Mog man I have no issue with you just these feline barstewards................................................

 

[Bri963]

yeh they designed it and made lots for Drott, initially and then made under license at a later date by Drott themselves - you've got a genuine one there Dylan ... can't be a hell of a lot of them about

Sorry Gra, you’ve got that arse about face. Drott designed the 4 in 1 back in the late 40’s, early 50’s, who then licensed UK manufacture to R-O. R-O made them for International, also some for Cat in the UK, but the R-O ones weren’t as good as the Cat manufactured ones at the time. I’d guess the ones on UK made Case 450’s were R-O as well, but that is just a guess.

the 4 in 1 was developed from Drott’s bull clam dozer attachment.

 

[V8Druid]

Sorry Gra, you’ve got that arse about face. Drott designed the 4 in 1 back in the late 40’s, early 50’s, who then licensed UK manufacture to R-O. R-O made them for International, also some for Cat in the UK, but the R-O ones weren’t as good as the Cat manufactured ones at the time. I’d guess the ones on UK made Case 450’s were R-O as well, but that is just a guess.

the 4 in 1 was developed from Drott’s bull clam dozer attachment.

cheers Bri - knew you'd know, but always thought it was RO who'd done the design work .. makes sense the other way round though - thought Drott had commissioned them to do the design work

 

[Bri963]

They weren’t really a thing over here, but bullclams on dozers were common on landfill sites in the states. Drott made them for Cat, IH and Allis, at the same time they made GP buckets and loader attachments for several manufacturers. It was a. Short step of genius to fit the 4 in 1 to their own linkage. They licensed the design to Cat and R-O, presumably to access the commonwealth markets.

The R-O buckets were okay on the IH BTD6 & 9, then the 100 and 125 loaders, which were lighter than anything Cat produced in the 50’s and 60’s, but they had a bit of a rep for flexing on the 951 which was made in the UK and was quite a lot heavier. The Cat built buckets were the same dimensions but heavier construction. I’m not a massive fan of the current Cat buckets on the 963’s, they don’t seem rigid enough for the weight of the machine.

 

[Bri963]

That’s killed the conversation.

 

[V8Druid]

That’s killed the conversation.

thought we'd had all there was on 4 in 1s Bri / RO v Drott

 

[Bri963]

thought we'd had all there was on 4 in 1s Bri / RO v Drott

I could bore you in greater detail.

 

[Stock]

hmmm be warned.................................................................................................................................................................................

 

[LKSF]

In between sending Stock thousands of cute cat pics I've been learning how to mole trap, tools of the trade here:

From the left is a spade, tunnel trap, poker and marker.
Mole trappers have for decades been bigging up their trade and trying to shroud it with mystery, you need a special spade, a magic probe designed by them and made by a top engineer etc, etc. They're basically trying to cover up what is essentially an easy job. I wouldn't claim it's without knowledge and that I have much, but there isn't a lot to it.

The scene:

The detail:

Find fresh mounds so you know it's active, probe with professionally designed poker to find runs, dig a tight hole with the special magic spade. Set trap without breaking or bruising your fingers, insert, cover with loose soil and come back the next day.

Find moles have bunged your traps up with soil, return home to find Harrycat has caught one and brought it in to show you.....

 

[Stroppymonkey]

In between sending Stock thousands of cute cat pics I've been learning how to mole trap, tools of the trade here:

View attachment 67747

From the left is a spade, tunnel trap, poker and marker.
Mole trappers have for decades been bigging up their trade and trying to shroud it with mystery, you need a special spade, a magic probe designed by them and made by a top engineer etc, etc. They're basically trying to cover up what is essentially an easy job. I wouldn't claim it's without knowledge and that I have much, but there isn't a lot to it.

The scene:
View attachment 67748

The detail:

View attachment 67749

Find fresh mounds so you know it's active, probe with professionally designed poker to find runs, dig a tight hole with the special magic spade. Set trap without breaking or bruising your fingers, insert, cover with loose soil and come back the next day.

Find moles have bunged your traps up with soil, return home to find Harrycat has caught one and brought it in to show you.....

We used to have a Border/Lakeland terrier cross that would spend most of his days out in the paddocks mole hunting. Dedicated little fecker and good at it.

 

[V8Druid]

meet Smedley ... rabbit and mole catcher extrordinaire ... sadly no longer with us

team 'vermin control' having some R& R

Sparty .......... Sqeak ........ Smedley

 

[Stock]

As soon as the ferry debacle sorts it self out I be making house calls ..........................................................with my trusty equipment..........................................................................................................................

 

[LKSF]

Coming into Winter 2024/25 a low pressure hydraulic hose on the digger got a hole chafed in it. It was an odd legged 90' bend, but I sourced a new silicone one and fitted it. Ordered some hydraulic oil which never came, then Christmas arrived, then as I sourced another supplier of oil the snow hit:

Winter 2023/24 was the stormiest, wettest we'd encountered up here, Winter 2024/25 was shaping up to be the coldest. About a foot of snow fell, drifted up to 4' in places and wasn't going to leave for a while due to plummeting temps. We're used to being snowed in, but not usually for this long.

The thick snow meant the rabbits (and any other animals) were short of food and they could now reach parts of the fruit trees they hadn't been able to until now, little bit of a nibble here:

I'll be surprised if this one survives at all:

I've got two fairly important health appointments coming up tomorrow and Friday and a thaw date of Sun/Mon. I didn't want to use the digger as it's low on hydraulic fluid, but had to do something to get us out. So after:
I'd procrastinated.
Stumbled through the deep snow walking the dog
Frozen me nuts off trying to get the digger defrosted and failed.
Come back indoors to defrost myself and read the manual to get an idea of where the frozen bits might be
Been advised to set fire to it
Gone back and fixed it
Greased it
Topped up with diesel
It was getting late. s**t I hate these short days!

It's not our track, it's 1/4 a mile long and our neighbour is a w so I cleared as much as I could and drove over the rest to flatten it down. It mostly worked, but the snow was so cold and powdery some of the deepest bits were wouldn't pack down. You need a bit of daytime melt, then freeze overnight to get it to be compact enough to drive on.

The sun was setting as I got Terry out and he made it up, but I knew the road car wouldn't. It's 4x4, but on road tyres, automatic, has stupid traction control, no LSDs and is just pathetic in more than 2mm of snow.
Will probably head back with the digger at first light to clear the deep soft bits and try to make my appointment with the dentist, I've needed this work doing for a year now!

 

[V8Druid]

done pretty well there in a short space of time Boyo ... DO NOT envy your temperatures .. thought it was cold here

 

[LKSF]

done pretty well there in a short space of time Boyo ... DO NOT envy your temperatures .. thought it was cold here

That was what the Met predicted for last night, in the event we saw nothing like that, I don't know why they're dreaming up these ridiculous figures or how.
I can't measure 'feels like' temps, but can the actual and it was about -5 last night, half what they said it would be.
Makes for good headlines though!

 

[Lancs Lad]

That was what the Met predicted for last night, in the event we saw nothing like that, I don't know why they're dreaming up these ridiculous figures or how.
I can't measure 'feels like' temps, but can the actual and it was about -5 last night, half what they said it would be.
Makes for good headlines though!

Same . Only about -5 on car. It's a fully frenzy on the news. Meanwhile everyone cracks on ...apart from manc airport who shut at the faintest hint of snow.

 

[Bri963]

-5 here when I got up, the forecast was -2.

 

[6feetdown]

That was what the Met predicted for last night, in the event we saw nothing like that, I don't know why they're dreaming up these ridiculous figures or how.
I can't measure 'feels like' temps, but can the actual and it was about -5 last night, half what they said it would be.
Makes for good headlines though!

Said we were due snow yesterday afternoon so rearranged my day to make sure machine was on site for this morning as wouldn't have got up the hill with a trailer on.
We had nothing !

 

[V8Druid]

Said we were due snow yesterday afternoon so rearranged my day to make sure machine was on site for this morning as wouldn't have got up the hill with a trailer on.
We had nothing !

yep - sod all here either ... was 'sposed to snow all afternoon -- it did a couple of hundred feet higher up though

 

[LKSF]

Managed to get out to the dentist using dubious means so it's one job off the list.
Courier delivering the oil for the digger says he can't get here today due to getting stuck elsewhere

This was on the road out:

And then this on the way back:

Artic had got a wheel off the road and got stuck, most truckers know not to go that way even in decent weather.

I've had some geese I got given hanging for 10 days in the Polytunnel as it's been cold, I'm not an expert by any means, but it feels about right to me. Haven't posted a pic of them all hanging in there as it's not the jolliest of sights! I don't think i've eaten Goose since I was a kid and we had one for Christmas, I seem to remember my mum didn't make a great job of it and it was really greasy. Certainly never prepped one, so did some research online, sharpened up a knife and got busy.
As you know they're big, known as the B-52s of the bird world by some so unsurprisingly a lot of breast meat there:

At a good inch thick there is a meal for two in just one.
I put the carcass on the snow in a field with the trailcam on it, it'll be interesting to see if anything comes for a meal in the night. Problem is the lens could get frosted up, but we'll see.