Signs you are dealing with a 'Rooter'

A local fella here at the same job with the vice grips on the battery but it’s only to save him time. He has one battery shared between a loader and tractor and swaps the battery every time to whichever machine he needs!

Used to be at the same craic, n jump leads on revving yokes for a few minutes etc. Lost the plot one day n went off n got a couple of batteries n a dynamo - if I valued my time at a fiver an hour I was repaid after a few months!

Absolutely, in the grand scheme of things, batteries, alternators and even starters for most of those older machines are not that expensive and well worth the time and effort to save fluting around daily swapping batteries or messing with jump leads.

Neighbour guy here reversed the fertiliser spreader out into the lake and turned it on. Instead of cleaning it he mangled it

Same guy reversed the cattle trailer out into the same lake with the back open, mangled the back door.

Sorry to drag up a zombie thread, but my own antics over Christmas made me think of it:

Training ewe lambs (to eat ration) across Christmas....

Trailer on the jeep Christmas day drawing around square bales to cattle...

Rolling ring feeders a hundred yards through coarse ground to get them to said trailer to move them Stephen's day...

I'm definitely a rooter then...

Undid/cut/broke it, has it wrapped around some of the posts for a good earth and then back up over the top strand.

No talking to him he passes it everyday and its the first thing people see coming into the place so it shows how much of a f#ck is given about the place. I wouldnt be one for minding what anyone else thinks of the place or anything like that but id try have some pride in the place and have things kept right just for the sake of less hardship if nothing else.

Hard to tell really the fella before him held onto everything till the last breath and spent **** all on the place over the years. Two right lads to talk about getting hardship etc over the years but they just put the hardship on themselves and wouldnt mind what they had. There was a nice little ford tractor here twenty years ago which got absolutely dogged and abused over the years whereas if it had to be minded and given some bit of an easy life theres no reason it wouldnt still be the main workhorse here today. Instead pushing 80 years of age he heads out and buys a poor enough brand of tractor brand new only to absolutely dog that too, you couldnt make it up. No door on the tractor as once was enough to replace it instead of just learning to close the door on it, not one light on the dash is working and the handbrake id say was gone after 6 months on it, the front rims had to be replaced after 1500hrs due to the dogging it got and that would have been 1500hrs over ten years its an absolute henhouse and the cab is usedfor storage too. Five years ago the floor of the cattle trailer needed replacing he asked a local fabricator at the time would he do it he couldnt do it at that time and instead of arranging a date to do it he threw a few sheets of marine ply down on the floor instead. I can see the place becoming one of those places where theres a handful of cattle running around and hay cut and thrown in the ditch because you couldnt sell it to anyone for fear youd have a bad winter yourself. Theres already one or two fields going that way nearly as is just cut once a year in september and thats it never mind the fact hes renting land when he cant even manage what he owns.

The oul lad died this year at 74, it's gas looking back at the stupid stuff we used argue about.

Literally everything- we'd be arguing over what welding rods he got in the coop! I'm glad I was getting on with him when he passed away - I learnt to grit my teeth n the couple of grandkids helped relations. They don't be around forever, make the most of it I learnt this year.

Ah when the ball started rolling with him taking on the place i was in England at the time and was told thered be a spot for me there when i got back but sure he didnt end up taking over for another three years or so officially and i left home again before that. Luckily enough i havent been plamassed with promises of this that and the other i made it fairly clear when i came back from Australia i wasnt going slobbering and kept the hand in a small bit but had to call quits after a few months as it was getting beyond a joke at that point. Other factors involved as well but id say as soon as i get my trade papers ill be gone. Its a pain in a way as id love to build a little workshop at home but i know for a fact within a week it would be full of old clutter and id be more or less without the use of the shed then and plus if im moving away i dont want to leave a shed behind thats only going to be wrecked. Its the same with doing up a vintage tractor or anything like that i just wouldnt have peace working at it.

It’s a trap a lot fall into. You nearly have to be improving the place every couple of years at least, you don’t feel ten years roll around and it’s a big ask then. Problem is it’s hard find the extra cash at times.