Update on life

[Dewie]

Well seeing as I just spent the last 2 hours to write a nice long post (with photos) only to have it get lost due to my session timing out and my pressing submit... here is a shorter update (I'll try to keep it interesting) for those of you that know me and an introduction for those of you that don't:

My name is Andrew Barber and I'm from central Nova Scotia, Canada. I have 4 Lada Nivas, one strictly off-road, one I had on the road and 2 parts cars.

During college I ran my 1700:




All the bearings in the drive train went out of it at about the same time... because I was living in an apartment and going to school, was about to graduate and needed something to commute 200km/day I opted to get a proper car.

Shortly after starting work I entered my old off-road buggy in an ugly car contest which took place at a Monster Truck show. I won




I eventually turned to VW diesels. I've had a few (Chronological order). There has been some good times and some bad times...



** Bought a house in 2008


** Had a fire fixing the car




** MKII VW - Deadbolt




** MKII VW - Donnie Mobile (Currently still my daily driver)







**MKIV VW Golf




During our time in the house we've gutted the place, re-wired and plumbed everything, moved walls, etc etc. Kaila (My other half) is involved with horses. We have 10 on them on the property most of the time. She does training, lessons and breading. While she started a company with a friend of hers I am actively involved with the construction of things and maintenance of equipment etc. Between my father and I we have quite the "fleet" growing:
1947 Ford 8N (mine):



1961 IH B275 (mine):


1975 Toro Grounds Master (4 cyl Renault car engine - 72" mower deck):


1967 Case Backhoe (Dad's):



(We just freshly rebuilt the engine)

196? Case Trackloader (some repair required):


MF32 Sicklebar mower:



"New Idea" ground drive manure spreader:


When we first moved in there was nothing but an empty field to the right of the house. Here it is with some temporary fencing for the horses:


This is what we're looking like now:


We put up a small indoor-arena with a couple of stalls off the back:


I'm still doing fencing:


And creating various other things around for the barn:



This past August Kaila and I got married (after only 9 years )


I do have the old 1600 buggy at my house and have used it for running back and forth to the fields when doing some ditching:



And here is how the 1700 currently sits in my yard (Brought it home Saturday):




I will be posting looking for help shortly.

If anyone has any questions about anything you see above feel free to ask away!

[Neil Chowney]

I love that stubby school bus ....... Is that a 4x4?

[happiness stan]

That school bus is the king of school buses.

[GvidoR]

Seems like Jetta's have problems holding up the license plates.

[Dewie]

The school bus is not 4x4 - it is quite literally a shortened bus. I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of it is as it is far from road legal.

Here in North America there was a "trend" a few years ago of running European plates on your VW. Most people had fake plates. I had been shipped a legitimate French plate some years ago and my car at the time was basically poke at everything that was "popular" in the area (lowered, euro plate, there was a few other things) - the sideways plate thing just kind of stuck haha