Reuben: Life in the Dales

In this first episode, we join the team at the start of Reuben's second year of trading. This June the friends have won a contract to restore life to an old fishing pond at a grand country estate in County Durham by excavating 6000 tonnes of silt.

At half an acre it's the largest dig the teenage team have ever attempted, and the scale is daunting. Hitting their two-week deadline is dependent on 17-year-old Sarah making hundreds of trips into the woods on a track dumper to shift the silt. But when heavy summer rain turns the site into a slurry pit Reuben fights to stop his 14-tonne digger being swallowed, and they turn to a vintage bulldozer to keep the job on track.

As Reuben's young business is expanding fast, as well as managing the pond dig, the team take on an ancient haulage yard where they can store and maintain their fleet. But with a derelict barn to clear and a pot-holed track to level, have the friends bitten off more than they can chew?

When it comes to machines Reuben's confident in his abilities, but this summer he wants to challenge himself. So, the trio leave the Dales behind on a road trip to the PlantWorx Expo in Peterborough where Reuben's taking part in a digger competition against some of the best operators in the country who are hoping to win a luxury holiday.

And when the friends get back home, to thank them for their support at the competition, Reuben organises an antique joyride through the Dales on a pair of vintage hand-crank start tractors he's got his hands on.

This week it is mid-summer and Reuben has plans to expand his business by training up his work force. So, 17-year-old Sarah gets put in the driving seat so she can operate more of their heavy plant machinery.

It's all hands-on deck to renovate the company's new yard in Muker as the best friends try to uncover an old mechanic's pit buried under tonnes of decades-old hay.

When hill shepherd and friend Bob Blades asks the team to make a hard standing feeding area in his boggy field, Reuben's temperamental track dumper threatens to put the kibosh on the drainage job. Sarah's first lesson on the dumper comes unstuck when Reuben challenges her to manoeuvre the fully loaded machine around the bog in reverse. Then the dumper's electrics need a running repair, the seatbelt safety feature causes chaos and the fuel filter halts play altogether.

Reuben's ambitious summer business plans involve running a second digging job in neighbouring Cumbria. A farmer's commissioned them to level piles of spoil left over from a building project to make the field ready for haying time. Tommy's working the job solo, but when the biggest machine in their fleet, the 14-tonne digger, needs a sprocket replaced Reuben's forced to drive miles over county lines to retrieve the broken machines.

The friends help Sarah explore her childhood dream to become a firefighter when they all don the uniform and take part in a new recruit's fitness assessment at their local station.

When Reuben buys a second-hand Land Rover from friend and mechanic Simon Alderson, he and Tommy take Sarah off-roading to prepare her for her driving test. Their day out to the 4x4 course in Thirsk is a welcome break from a summer of hard work.

And together the teenagers make plans for a much-needed foreign holiday to France in Reuben's new wheels.

This week, it's early autumn and as wet weather wreaks havoc in the Dales, Reuben and Sarah help their community in a crisis. Friend and stone mason Pete Roe asks the pair to lend a hand repairing a 200-year-old drain, known as a culvert, which has collapsed under the force of rain fall. Without the repair the access road will flood. Pete teaches them how to hand-split rocks using the traditional "plug and feather" method.

While Tommy is on holiday in Slovakia, Reuben and Sarah prepare for the friends' upcoming road trip to France. During a shopping trip for tent supplies and a French phrase book, unhappy camper Reuben confesses he's not looking forward to sleeping out in the cold.

In Tommy's absence Reuben enlists the help of friend and fellow machine lover Myles Capper to fetch three very vintage machines which Reuben's hoping he can fix and flip for a profit. A trip to neighbouring County Durham nearly ends in disaster when Reuben's low loader throws a puncture, and when Sarah and Reuben start to investigate the rotten tractors, they discover there is more work than they bargained for.

Reuben and Sarah are relieved when Tommy returns home as a farmer needs a favour: when a fallen tree wipes out a section of drystone wall causing sheep to escape, Reuben's heavy machinery is needed to shift the rotten trunk before the wall can be repaired. Reuben invests in a monster chain saw for the job and invites younger brother 17-year-old Miles to operate the tractor and winch. Nerves are taut as the winch strains under the weight of the timber, and as everyone gets involves splitting the tree for firewood, the friends reflect on the holiday now just around the corner.

This week the friends set sail for France on Reuben's first ever holiday abroad. Tommy gets hold of a GoPro to capture the milestone adventure as the three mates start their long drive from the Dales to Dover in Reuben's second-hand Land Rover. Reaching the south coast, the white cliffs are just the first of many new sights for the teenagers in the days to come.

Leaving the ferry behind in Calais, the friends' road trip will take them through Northern France where they're heading to Normandy and the Loire Valley.

During their first morning Reuben tries to break the language barrier and secure lunch for his friends, with the help of a French phrase book and a lot of support from Sarah.

Reuben, Tommy and Sarah all love rural life back home in the hills, so head to a vineyard to see how the French countryside compares. At Chateau des Chaintres in Saumur, vineyard owner Gael de Tigny invites them to help with the grape harvest on his family's 44-acre estate. And as it's been a dream of Reuben's to drive a skinny French vintage tractor, Gael allows Reuben to tow a fully loaded trailer with 1000 bottles worth of grapes on board.

Sarah and Tommy convince Reuben to camp for a night, but their site is next to a field where a combine harvester works through the night. The trio have a sleepless night and despite the warming hot chocolate shared round the camping stove, Reuben's reservations about camping may have been founded.

The following morning Tommy gets to fulfil a dream to drive on the famous Le Mans racetrack, albeit in a go-kart, and manages to claim poll position.

After visiting a tank museum and learning the first war machines were similar in design to Reuben's tractors at home, he's humbled to discover a war hero in the family when the friends visit a WW1 memorial site near the Somme.