Moved the sheep to Pauls' field today, a task that took most of the day. All the electric fencing in field 2 had to be dismantled (it can stay down now as the hedges have grown up and are pretty much stock proof) then re-erected in Pauls field, some scything needed to be done under the new fence location, then moving salt lick, electric fence charger, water, etc - not to mention the sheep of course. More fencing was required to marshall them down the 500m or so of track leading from the barn to the field.
A lot of to'ing and fro'ing and carrying with sack trucks and wheel barrows. It's one of the many tasks I hope will be made easier with a small tractor. I've been looking for one for about 18 months and finally settled on a secondhand Antonio Carraro Tigre 2700. 10 years old but only 1000 hrs or so on the clock. It's coming from Italy where secondhand mountain tractors like this seem to be about half the price they are here in France and the UK. So even with transport costs it was still much cheaper than a local purchase.
A lot of to'ing and fro'ing and carrying with sack trucks and wheel barrows. It's one of the many tasks I hope will be made easier with a small tractor. I've been looking for one for about 18 months and finally settled on a secondhand Antonio Carraro Tigre 2700. 10 years old but only 1000 hrs or so on the clock. It's coming from Italy where secondhand mountain tractors like this seem to be about half the price they are here in France and the UK. So even with transport costs it was still much cheaper than a local purchase.
Dealing with the Italian company selling the tractor was complex (as I don't speak Italian) but thanks to 'babelfish' on-line translator and a local Italian lady who helped with the bank transfer - all has gone smoothly (if not quickly).
The tractor is now in Perpignan awaiting final delivery to me by a french company. This is where the problems start. In my experience the french have not heard of 'customer service'. Evidently the tractor has been in Perpignan for a few days but the company only rang me yesterday to say they were delivering it that afternoon (no warning) and by the way it's coming on an articulated transporter (which won't get through the village) and we expect you to be ready with a crane or unloading platform to lift the tractor off the back of the lorry as our vehicle has no unloading ramps! When I told them I could not take delivery as I would be in Foix taking an exam and in any case I didn't have a crane, they were most annoyed. After some ranting they gave me the dreaded "We'll call you back". In France this means probably next week, unlike in the UK where it means probably in 30 minutes. No call today, their phone number is irretrievable, and they didn't give me the company name - so I must wait.
1 commentaire :
Awesome tractor, and I enjoyed the story, especially imagining how many cigarettes your call was complained over is a nice touch as well.
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