Errrr ....

... well, yes!

The broyer arrived here comfortably on the back of the trailer. And the trailer looked extremely comfortable on its new tyres too.

So once we unloaded it, Terry set off back to pick up the tractor.

And after a while, Terry turned up - riding the tractor, with the van and trailer nowhere in sight. In fact, the trailer has folded up, as you can see.

There was clearly not enough ground clearance on the trailer and what it looks like is that as Terry has turned to go up a hill, the front end of the van has raised (as you would expect), the back end has gone down, and the jockey wheel on the trailer has grounded out. And instead of the trailer riding up on the jockey wheel, the weight of the tractor on the trailer has kept the trailer flat and the A frame has given way instead. After all, there was probably well over a tonne of pressure on it at that precise moment.

Mind you, if there were to be a problem with the trailer, that was where we expected it to be. It wasn't as strong as it might have been and we did have to weld part of it. And I have to say that our welding was fine and it probably held it together. It was our intention to replace the A frame in early course - it'll just have to be in earlier course.

And of course there is nothing wrong with our theory about all of this. It's the practical side that has let us down. And Terry did get here and he did mow that field as planned so it wasn't all in vain.

Next question of course is "how does Terry get his tractor back home again?". And steps have already been taken in that respect.

Inside my barn is another caravan. It's the one I lived in between 1998 and 2003 and the interior was trashed by rats when I was ill. But never mind the interior - the chassis is in much better condition than the other trailer, having been stored inside a barn for the last 12 years.

So once Terry went off to mow this field, I set about taking the caravan body off this chassis. You can see that I'm well-advanced here and I reckon I'll have it finished and the trailer outside by tomorrow afternoon.

Next step of course will be to put the flooring and the tyres off the other trailer onto this one (so we won't be wasting what we've already spent) and we can use that to get the tractor back to Terry's.

It's all good stuff and all of this isn't half solving a lot of my space and storage issues. It's an ill-wind indeed that doesn't blow anyone any good.

But talking of ill winds and blowing, we were blown another depressing November day with another 25.5mm of rain. This weather is totally absurd. I've never known anything like it.

And in other exciting news, there's a CREFAD (the organisation that gives encouragement and assistance to businesses in the Auvergne) meeting about eco-building and renewable energy taking place shortly, and I've been approached this evening to see if I would like to sit on the Panel. Is the Pope a Catholic?