Monday 28 November 2011

No fire, just smoke



As I am now in charge of my own work I can take a couple of hours here and there to get things progressing at Rock HQ. So last week after an interesting session in Court I called in at the local farmers supermarket to find a hefty 10% off everything (unlike most sales this was off things I wanted like dog food, pig feed, bags of carrots and other exciting goodies) and were giving away bacon butties. Being partial to free bacon butties I stayed a while and pretty soon had purchased 750 kg of pig feed, 150 kg of dog food, 100kg of carrots, 20 kg cat food, head collar, four bales of horse bedding, antiseptic scrub, dog toys, 5 six by four heavy duty stable floor mats and several variety of animal wormer. The mats were a real bargain, almost half price. Happy with my bargains and second butty with free cuppa I was then faced with the slight problem of getting it all back to Rock HQ. It would not fit in Vic. They offered free delivery but without a crane my end to unload off their lorry this was not an option. I left them looking after my purchase and today took Trixie to fetch the monster load.

Getting there was no problem, Hazel hauled Trixie with gay abandon along the country lanes to the store.

Getting back was a bit fretful.

Especially to Trixie and Hazel.

As I pulled out onto the main road I hastily calculated the laden weight, Trixie was able to carry 1000kgs, Hazel could pull 2500 kgs, but the power to weight ratio seemed a bit inadequate as we struggled to reach 20mph. Unable to get out of second gear on the flat I was considering options, phone Stable Sprite get him to bring trailer and buckets and get some weight off Trixie, no too easy, instead I prayed to the small god of haulage and promised never to fully load my trailer again if we got home safely. As we slowed to walking pace on the merest of inclines I resorted to threatening Hazel with the car auction if she didn't behave and start doing what she was kept for.

Over the course of the 5 mile journey I didn't get out of third gear, Hazel dutifully pulled Trixie but clearly was not happy. At the junction before the home stretch to the Bonsai Mountain the massive rear view mirrors showed the first signs of the evening fog emerging. It had a feint blue hue.

The plod up the slope of the mountain was pitiful. I had to stop to open the gateway to our world, I say stop, I could have stepped out of the moving vehicle so slow was our rate of progress. Gate opened I just hoped Hazel could do her stuff for the last 3/10 of a mile.

Blue smoke billowed from Trixie's wheels and a very familiar smell could be detected.

Hazel coped amazingly well with the last section of the journey. Its surprising how much better she was at towing Trixie once the trailers handbrake was released!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Bwahahahahaha!!!!!!

If it makes you feel any better I once backed the bosses ute down to get filled with sand. Once filled I tried to drive the sand up a hill. Ute kept going backwards. Hmm, try again. Same thing. I was getting worried. Carefully I ensured it was in gear, handbrake on, reved it high, released the clutch and nearly put it through the bosses fence behind us. Yikes! feeling slightly panicky now. I put it in neutral and decided to take a couple of minutes. Some deep breathing quieted my heart down. I finally decided to give it one last try before giving up and getting help because I really didn't know what was wrong. I put it in gear....suddenly I realized I was putting it in reverse Doh!! :(
I hastily put it in first and drove up the hill, parked, jumped out and went back to work hoping nobody had noticed. I they did they were very polite about it.
Brain fail.
Amanda