Finally ... I'm back!

   / Finally ... I'm back! #1  

PatrickS2222

Gold Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2016
Messages
494
Location
Brisbane, Australia
Tractor
MF35, MF135, MF203 with loader.
Hey All, and most sincere apologies - I finally have a computer new enough to see a TBN page on! Embarrassed, but glad I can finally begin to catch up.

I really hope everyone is well. I'm also hoping nobody has been harmed by bushfires, tornadoes, floods, or anything else. That said - we've had serious bushfires almost three years ago, and two sizeable floods a couple months ago. None of us were hurt, nor was anything of ours damaged, but quite a lot of fencing was burnt on the farm where I grew up (which our family still owns) and mere inconvenience from flooded roads and 4 days of running the house and two garden flats on generator power due to mains failure was the total sum of it.

Happy also to report everyone is doing well. Jennifer is fit and healthy, her quarterly scans have all so far been clear and her specialist refers to her as "His Star Patient" and he's every bit as thrilled as we are with her progress.

Son and daughter-in-law had a house built and moved in, daughter and boyfriend bought a one-year old house and have just moved in ... so things are rather peaceful here nowadays, just the two of us and Jennifer left!

I'm back in the workshop, "on the tools" again and someone much more energetic, tolerant, enthusiastic, patient and dumb is now "running" the workshop - currently my second replacement. Some of our clientele still come into the workshop and find me!

Other than that, we're all doing reasonably well.

Oh, and one minor confession: I just last week bought another tractor - I needed something better than a 38" ride-on mower to keep 2 acres neat, something that will take less time to do it. So a friend saw on Facebook of all places a .... Shibaura S320, 20hp 3cyl diesel with ... a 60" removable under-belly mowing deck! I couldn't find a MF, or even a mid-mount deck, or even a finish mower available for any less than "an arm and a leg" so I didn't risk passing on this one. Bought for a great price because I have to put a new clutch in it before it is usable again. That's planned to be done in the next month or so - before spring begins - it's currently mid-winter here.

Both MFs are still going well, I'm sure yours are too! 135 is her same old self, our loader also a trooper. I might have described it as being a MF40 - it is in fact a MF203 industrial.

Keep safe everyone!
 
   / Finally ... I'm back! #2  
Hey Patrick! Glad to see you're still well, I've wondered how your daughter was doing, I know she was pushing through some trying times. That's fantastic news, and welcome back!
 
   / Finally ... I'm back!
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Hey Patrick! Glad to see you're still well, I've wondered how your daughter was doing, I know she was pushing through some trying times. That's fantastic news, and welcome back!
Thank you mate, I hope you and your clan are all well too. My Mum passed away almost three years ago at the grand age of 95, and apart from that I'm happy I can say we're all doing Ok. Haven't been allowed to do much in the last couple years, thanks to this dictatorship they call our State Government. But hey, apart from a couple floods and some testing times with bushfires which I must say the sum total of our troubles were a few fences burnt on our home farm, and we had about four days of running on generator power - insignificant in comparison to what many others had to content with.
Jenny is a dental assistant, coaching the younger skaters and has decided to return to competitive skating.
The paddocks were absolutely saturated - you wouldn't dare drive a tractor across a paddock because there would be deep tracks, the soil was so soft. It was so waterlogged it's still soft in a few spots to this day, although another couple weeks should sort that out.
Looking forward to seeing how everyone else is doing.
 
   / Finally ... I'm back! #4  
Thank you mate, I hope you and your clan are all well too. My Mum passed away almost three years ago at the grand age of 95, and apart from that I'm happy I can say we're all doing Ok. Haven't been allowed to do much in the last couple years, thanks to this dictatorship they call our State Government. But hey, apart from a couple floods and some testing times with bushfires which I must say the sum total of our troubles were a few fences burnt on our home farm, and we had about four days of running on generator power - insignificant in comparison to what many others had to content with.
Jenny is a dental assistant, coaching the younger skaters and has decided to return to competitive skating.
The paddocks were absolutely saturated - you wouldn't dare drive a tractor across a paddock because there would be deep tracks, the soil was so soft. It was so waterlogged it's still soft in a few spots to this day, although another couple weeks should sort that out.
Looking forward to seeing how everyone else is doing.

You bet! We are, I'm now a dad. My kid just turned 1 over the past weekend so it's been a crazy past few years for us as well but in a different way. Sorry to hear about your Mum, that's never easy. The US isn't much better as far as the dictatorship feeling goes these days, and not to make it political, but if you think for yourself you're blacklisted and called a conspiracy theorist. There's a lot going on that none of us know about and none of it's good.

Glad you avoided the fires for the most part, as far as the saturated ground- we're the opposite in the northeast USA. We've hardly had any rain at all this year, people's wells are drying up, grass is brown, we've had a few storms but it's torrential rain for a few minutes then nothing. It just runs off. I have only mowed three times all summer for this reason, just to keep the weeds down.

Hopefully better days ahead for us all.
 
   / Finally ... I'm back!
  • Thread Starter
#5  
You bet! We are, I'm now a dad. My kid just turned 1 over the past weekend so it's been a crazy past few years for us as well but in a different way. Sorry to hear about your Mum, that's never easy. The US isn't much better as far as the dictatorship feeling goes these days, and not to make it political, but if you think for yourself you're blacklisted and called a conspiracy theorist. There's a lot going on that none of us know about and none of it's good.

Glad you avoided the fires for the most part, as far as the saturated ground- we're the opposite in the northeast USA. We've hardly had any rain at all this year, people's wells are drying up, grass is brown, we've had a few storms but it's torrential rain for a few minutes then nothing. It just runs off. I have only mowed three times all summer for this reason, just to keep the weeds down.

Hopefully better days ahead for us all.
Congratulations! Wonderful news - a little one about the house is great, livens us up a lot too! Hopefully the drought breaks gently, and soon, before the summer has ended. We usually have a few drier months as the days warm up, sometimes with the occasional afternoon storm too. Water shortages are never good, but outright drought as well is a testing time. Fingers crossed!
 
   / Finally ... I'm back! #6  
Congratulations! Wonderful news - a little one about the house is great, livens us up a lot too! Hopefully the drought breaks gently, and soon, before the summer has ended. We usually have a few drier months as the days warm up, sometimes with the occasional afternoon storm too. Water shortages are never good, but outright drought as well is a testing time. Fingers crossed!

Thanks, Patrick! He's so much fun, such a goofy little kid even at just a year old. He's constantly making us laugh!

We have some rain in the forecast, fingers crossed that it's just several days of gentle showers. The heat finally broke last week, starting to feel like early fall already. That's not to say that we won't still get hot days, but I feel like the worst is behind us.
 
   / Finally ... I'm back!
  • Thread Starter
#7  
Good news all round by the sound of it! Great times when they are small - so interesting and just so much fun. Fingers crossed for you all for some soaking rain.
 
   / Finally ... I'm back! #8  
Hey Patrick, welcome back! It's good to see you here again :cool: I'm glad to hear you all are doing fairly well, all things considering.

We're still here in the central USA, watching events unfold all around us and occasionally getting in some therapy in the form of tractor time. The MF35 Utility is still chugging along, doing work when it's called for. My wife and I are perhaps a little past Shaeff in that we're no longer counting our children but instead our grandchildren, as our kids get married and start families of their own. It's a joy to see.

Anyway, welcome back to the party!
 
   / Finally ... I'm back!
  • Thread Starter
#9  
Thank you, it's great to hear you all are doing Ok.
I share your thoughts on grandchildren - we're starting down the same track! It's a good thing though.
Hope all stay safe.
 
 
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