Page 34 - IT'S A RUM LIFE BOOK FOUR Volume 1 "Northcote 1984 to 1998"

COMING TO TERMS
All our larger cars had all gone during the final months at Ivy House, including my lovely
white Mk2 Jaguar 3.8 litre ‘S’ type together with the company leased Peugeot estate car.

The only family transport now was a well used but totally reliable Citroen ‘Dyane’. This
simple two cylinder machine with canvas roof did stalwart service for Ruth in the daytime
while she was working for the nursing agency. For me in the evenings its flexible take out
rear seats turned it into a formidable rabbit transporter!
I was persuaded to see our local Doctor eventually. As I lay on his couch with wires
attached to my heart regions, the machine reading what was happening inside duly
recorded the hiccuppy beat of my heart that I had now become used to every time I lay
down.
Not visiting the doc for some time after the episode had some benefit as all this had to be
reported to the DVLA in Swansea and the stress tests they put up for me to enable me to
keep my HGV driving licence did not materialise until a year after the actual event.
By this time I had recovered a good part of my strength and coped with the tests
effortlessly.
My G.P. had prescribed little yellow tablets to be taken three times daily. I hated the idea,
regular tablet taking was something I had always fought against, something I always
associated with old fogey types but now found necessary to simply exist.

THE RABBITS
Back with the Rabbits, as the numbers increased four old demountable container boxes
that had originally arrived on site with all our worldly goods were pressed into service as
“weaner sheds” for the young stock.
During the winter, prices for the rabbits were high enough to make sufficient profit for us to
live on, but in the summer, the prices governed by low demand, meant extreme care was
needed to keep the breeding levels lower and not to lose huge amounts of money.

Rabbit breeding was precarious and after two years, I had managed to have no health
problems with the stock due to my carefully planned fresh air system, but not made any
real profit.
I was more than delighted that our neighbours approached us with a request to buy all our
stock and portable buildings to be installed on their own premises just a few hundred yards
away.
At that time our neighbours ran a refreshment caravan on the main A16 road just outside
Spilsby. The rabbit business would supplement their income and could be managed in the
early mornings and evenings before and after their time spent feeding the large numbers
of lorry drivers who found their bacon sandwiches difficult to pass by!

SETTLING DOWN
This move coincided perfectly with my now working for the newspaper in Skegness
morning, noon and night. I bought a very second-hand Mk1 Ford Escort estate car in red
to use as my daily transport.
Meantime our horses loved the extra space at Northcote and we gradually brought the
stable accommodation into line, providing a decent roof over their heads too.