The noose is narrowing on this elusive Kverneland Hydrein Special plough. In his desperate search Michael seems to be now married to the computer; he spends every waking minute on it looking at gazillions of websites all over the world. I think his eyes have turned square! To be fair, he has spent a huge amount of time on the phone and computer following every lead for this plough.

The Kverneland family, original founders of the Kverneland Group, have even been contacted. His persistence is paying off though as he has found a three furrow Kverneland plough in the UK, but it’s not the two furrow match plough that he needs so it would need some modification and a bit of work to be turned into a match plough. Further searches and ploughing people in Norway have proved useful and two ploughs have turned up there. A nice gentleman in Norway, Benny Bleckert, is having a look to see if they are Kverneland Hydrein Special two furrow match ploughs and ascertaining their exact condition. Michael has been in contact with Kverneland Ireland and they have offered to transport the plough back from Norway for free should he find one there. To add to their generosity they offered an alternative of financial assistance should a plough be purchased in a different country, which is such a boon!

While the D40L body looks like an empty shell, the restoration is coming along nicely. There are a few parts that Michael is trying to locate such as an Exhaust Manifold, if anyone might have one lying around for an F3L712 Deutz engine! The engine for the D40L tractor needs to be re-conditioned. This process isn’t as simple as grabbing a large bottle of Timotei and giving it an auld wash but rather the engine has to be scrutinised with a severe eye. Every nut and bolt, bearing, piston and seal has to be carefully examined and re-conditioned back to perfect working order so when the engine is assembled again, the key is turned and away she starts up.

The moment of truth, that fat lady has to purr like a Cheshire cat! Tom Murphy is carrying out the engine re-conditioning and is looking forward to seeing Charlie’s tractor up and running again. We are as busy as ever on the farm, with all the sheep dosed, fences being repaired and preparation for the silage season in full swing. The shop is changing seasons too, easing into summer with oodles of fresh, in season, local fruit and veg filling up the baskets. It’s all go here as we zoom closer and closer to the September deadline but the outlook is positive.