Having lived in Puku for a couple of weeks now, I've been itching to gut the interior and begin the transformation from trusty horse lorry to Amazing Adventure truck of Awesomeness. I have a little leather notebook dedicated to Puku that I write/sketch/draw in every day. I have everything from scale floor plans to hanging vege garden ideas scribbled inside. All very daydreamy and exciting.
Finally, today was the day we took hammers and crowbars to the interior: After a punishing 24 hour shift at work I woke early this morning, poked my dad with my toe as he slept in the cabin below and encouraged him to get on the road - we were driving Puku down to her next home in Oxfordshire where she will be worked on by my dad and I (and a vast array of other interested friends) over the next few weeks.
Coffee in hand, trundling along the M56, miles were passing painfully slowly. Huge great articulated lorries were overtaking us by the dozen and we couldn't work out why - didn't they have the same speed limit as us? Another hour passed and without a radio we were wondering if we could keep eachother company for the endless hours we looked to be in the road. Then slowly a sinking feeling filled me, our speedometer was in km/hr.. we (when I say we, I mean Dad) had been piously driving along the motorway at 60kph, that's 37 mph. For two hours. That's a grand total of 84 miles. Ouch.
Shaking our heads and with every bone in our bodies tickled with laughter we sped off into the horizon and arrived home by lunchtime. Aside from taking a large tree branch off whilst reversing (my fault this time), we arrived home without hazard and set about dismantling the interior dividers that separates the horse and the living compartments. Easier said than done. This box had been made to last. Crowbars, circular saws and plenty other pieces of kit have been employed throughout this afternoon to fell the partition and dismantle the seating.
Tired and extremely satisfied, tonight I sleep in my old bedroom in the house as the dust settles in Puku and we get ready for round two tomorrow..
Here are a few pics from today:
Puku looking pretty pleased with herself hanging out with the HGV's:
The 'before' shot:
The first screw coming out!
Half way there.. a lot more work than it looks!
Getting there..
Nasty tack-on panelling and hideous horsey paraphernalia all had to go!
Et voilà! Day one complete. Next stop? Taking off the rest of the panelling, including the roof, pulling up the floor in the horse half and binning that horrible little sink/hob combo!! Not that I didn't love having it last week to cook my bangers and mash with.. ❤️
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