Tom drives a tractor

In the JCB

Our first day home and we were thrown a life-line by one of the mum's from school.  I had made contact with her just before leaving for Australia.  She has a boy in the same class as Tom and was keen to make contact with us (well Tom) as she wants to get to know all the boys in Fred's class.  Not hard as there are only 6.  We knew where they live as they have a huge gun on an embankment by their house (currently trained on Sedburgh I think).  It's a real feature of the local landscape - we've been curious about their place ever since moving here and Matt was very excited to learn that Tom would be in the same class as Fred.

3 boys in the tractor

Anyhow, they invited Tom and Sam (next door) for the day.  We both went too - it was perfect, just what we needed as it meant we stayed awake and we weren't obsessing about wanting to go to bed.  Fred's Dad was around for the day which made our visit really interesting.  He is basically a big boy and thought the boys may want a ride or two on a tractor / JCB etc.  (He deals in ex-military vehicles - mainly diggers / tractors / land rovers and many more)  They have quite a bit of land so keep quite a few of the vehicles at home.

Trying out the lawnmower

It didn't take too long until a JCB was fired up and 3 small boys and one big boy were in the cab playing with leavers.  There were big smiles all round.  What a treat (I think Matt was a little jealous).  Apparently Sam was a complete natural on the levers - Rob said he would offer him a job at a drop of a hat.  Tom didn't get such a good school report, but he certainly enjoyed himself.

Later on Rob got out an old tractor and took it to a field where the boys took it in turns to drive round the field, including Tom.  Once again, huge grins, and CONCENTRATION.  It was 3pm before we left, a fantastic day out.  Didn't really get to know Fred or Caroline as there was so much going on, but we certainly had fun.

Riding down the hill