1975 MG Midget

Brian had challenged the kids a few years ago - telling them when they went to buy their first car, he would match their money. So if they saved 5k, he'd give them 5k for a 10k car. Being the schemers that they are, Kenna and Brooks decided if they combo'd their earnings they could get a better car, and share it. But they didn't have a whole lot of money, so Brian began looking online to show them, as an example, what two or three thousand dollars could buy.

It was then that he discovered his long lost love...or new found love...of old British automobiles. Because they are TINY. And CHEAP. It turns out two or three thousand dollars can get you an antique car that still runs!

So he's been trying to convince them that they need this car. They are not convinced. "Wait, what?! It doesn't have air conditioning?!" "How safe can it be when there are no airbags". We have raised modern, practical children who see zero value in sweating while you drive, and have a very high view of safety concerns like seatbelts and air bags 😂

Also, knowing they are not about to become car mechanics, or know how to drive a standard magically overnight - "Is this thing going to break down every day?" But Brian persisted in checking Facebook Marketplace and showing them all the cool ads for the cool tiny cars out there. 

All this did was fuel HIS interest in the tiny cars, trying to convince them to buy one. Somewhere along the way it just became Brian's mission. Find a cheap little British car to play around with. 

Well. He found one. Cheap, runs great, but will start to run too hot if you go 65-70mph...It's sweet spot is 55. Perfect. It was originally Red, but painted Mitsubishi Lancer Yellow by the former owner. He had it and tinkered around with it from 2002 until getting it road worthy in 2019. It's been to a few auto shows. 

Runs fine but can use work (drivers seat vinyl worn in places, needs a spring in the front wheel area bc that's looking a little low etc...but small stuff). 

I haven't driven it yet - no power steering, no power brakes. We ordered custom tags for it..."MIDGET1"...and the way he's talking, there might very well be a MIDGET2 in our future as well 😂

 We have not decided on a name yet, as we each like something different. Vale wants Taxi. I like Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps. Brian likes Jeeves. Kenna like Bingo Little, and Brooks like Barney (Luc used to call Brian Barney). I'm not sure which one Grey likes - but...it might be a minute until we decide on that one.

Kennedy's License!

Guess who's in phase one of her driving experience? We'll post again for sure in a few months when she's logged all her hours, and passed all her tests. I CAN'T BELIEVE we are here. Wooow. Time is running away and leaving me behind it feels like:-)

 

Micro Burst Storm?

 A few weeks ago we had the craziest storm. It popped up out of no where and really started raining! I peeked out at one point, and noticed the hammock had blown off the deck, so I headed out to catch it before it wound up in the lake. While I was out there, I noticed the lid was blown off the hot tub! This surprised me and I moved quickly to get it covered again and locked down. It was POURING torrentially, so I was moving fast and not really generally observing. Once the storm blew over, we went out to assess the damage, and WOW. Pics uploaded backwards, so now scroll to the bottom and then back up for the rest of the narration:-)

We did panini's another Sunday lunch. 2 times we have done fried rice and some sesame chicken but I missed pics of that I guess. Oh, and we did steak for steak sandwiches this past Friday. It's SUPER fun to use and cook on. Highly recommend. We've been so in love with using this, we still aren't even sure if the old bbq will work again...or if it will, if we'll ever use it again;-)

We did breakfast for lunch last sunday!

We made some breakfast - Lupo sauce from the Handsome Biscuit made our hashbrowns out of this world!

Our first meal after seasoning it was smashburgers with pineapple and crispy fried onion...like a Red Robin Whiskey River burger, diy style. They were SO good!

We decided to try and refurbish our thrown-about grill, and instead of buying another normal bbq, get a blackstone cooking griddle. 

One of the kids, or maybe Brian paddleboarding on our little lake. Don't know why that one uploaded, but it's pretty:-)

It also picked up our BBQ and threw it! Yikes!

The storm blew all our furniture EVERYWHERE it was so crazy!