Mechanical Monday

Monday 15th
School work in the morning. Cleaning including washing. Then we headed off to the shops. We went into Palmerston shopping centre and as we got out of the car there was a car parked next to us that made us look like funny short fat people and the kids stood there for ages laughing at their reflextions. I had to pull them away as we needed to get a new alternator. It had been rattling a lot and we had got to the point of having to hit it to get it working. Tim did have a fair bit of smoke coming out of the bonnet at one stage so we thought it might be best to get a new one. We got one easy enough. We had a few other things to pick up on the way home so I was driving when we pulled up to the caravan shop. I let Tim head in as we stayed in the car. I turned the car off waiting for Tim. As Tim came back his mouth was open and he said "I thought you were going to leave the car on" I said "Oh". So we tried to start it and it wouldn't turn over enough. So Tim pulled the pinch bar and hammer out from under the seat. I thought if anyone was watching we might look like gang leader with our weapons under the seat or very nervous people that have to protect themselves!  I popped the bonnet and he gave the alternator a huge wack. We tried again, nothing! We repeated this for about 5 times before we eventually gave it a big enough wack to get it going! So no more stopping, it was straight home for some mechanics!

So Tim started off by having Ethan and Mannings help with the alternator while I got things ready for tea. Then as the time for cooking on the BBQ came up Ethan took over with that and Josiah was the mechanics helper. As it went on I was helping Tim so that he could get it finished before the sun went down, Josiah helped Ethan with the BBQ and then Baylee and Kimberly cooked pancakes on the BBQ for desert. So the alternator was in and we had the best tea, a huge team effort.