From last August onwards things went well. We had a good month for weather and the biz was healthier for it.We did a few new gaffs for the DZ and I visited a couple of fairs that I'd previously only heard of. September turned wet again and the Crab Fair was a disaster, being out of pocket after fuel costs. It was soon October and at the mall we turned our attention to the lighting. The dark nights were coming in and we decided on LED strips for the DZ. Trying to get the best result for minimum outlay we bought direct from the manufacturer in China. The strip looked amazing at night but I was a bit worried about daylight use, so to compensate I got two sheets of mirror stainless steel and had it cut and folded into  \_/ shape strips. This reflected all the light forward and doubled the visual size of the LED strip. It took a couple of weeks to install and we had the tower up and down a couple of times but the result was worth it. We had an issue from water ingress into the strip connections but we secured the ends with clear shrink wrap and this did the trick. Hopefully this will make the tower lighting maintenance free. While we were at it we put new LED bulbs around the top rings and box. The amperage for the whole lighting is now only 2A. It looks really well but a bit too dazzling on the eyes at night with over 13,000 SMD's.

At the start of 2013 we decided on manufacturing a juvenile. It only took us two weeks to produce the ride, but another month to finish it as we had to wait on galvanisation of the metal work and painting of the decorated panels. The ride is very light weight and easily assembled, how long we keep it is anybodies guess.

The start of 2014 and finally I want new transport for the Miami, the old Foden is getting a little elderly and although it would last me a while longer I fancy a change. So a couple of weeks searching on ebay, a trip to Ireland and I finally buy a lorry from a chap in Yorkshire!! Well the irish lorry was an 04 DAF xf95 but there was a load of faults on the dash and the chassis was red rusty. I'm not shy of work but R turned and said to me-"why are we buying a lorry with faults?" so back to the ferry we went, sometimes you just need someone to point out the obvious! A week later we headed south and came home with a nice 06 plate MAN rear lift tag axle with an auto transmission. Now I'm no expert but surely newer must be better than older, but some say, "automatic! they're crap", some say "great lorries, you'll love it!" I'll know better after this years out but "R" originally said-"an automatic is a poofs lorry, get one with a gear stick!" I let him drive it home and after only 10 minutes he called me to say "we've got a problem!", before I could fear the worst he continued with-"we will need to get rid of the other two ERF's because this is brilliant to drive!!." So we took it back and give it a paint job. While we were at it the skydiver cars finally got their metal flake coat and lacquer, along with new galvanised outriggers and other sprucing up. With this new found painting talent we decided to paint one of the ERF's too. I did it to match the DZ but the colours aren't completely what I had in my minds eye. 

The photo is an arial shot of the fair at Turriff Agricultural show.