Time Marches On

I'm again overdue for a post, so I will pretend like this weekend hasn't started yet to get caught up with the last week's events.  N and L demonstrated yet again how quickly they are growing up last weekend.  N is going through a phase where he is obsessed with Thomas the Train.  Every time he sees an episode of Thomas that features a train he doesn't have, he wants to go get it.  It is incredible how he can watch an episode once and then re-enact it with his toys, but obviously we can't just get him all the Thomas characters.  To keep the incessant nagging for each toy at bay, C introduced N to the concept of saving and spending his own money.  While we still are fairly restrictive on getting new trains, if you offer N a dollar, or even a quarter to do something, he generally jumps right on it.

I took advantage of N's newfound ambition last weekend.  The neighbor down the street uses an edger along his driveway, sidewalk, etc., and has offered to let me borrow it several times.  I have never used an edger, but our grass had started to spill over the edges, and even C mentioned (several times) how nice the neighbor's manicured edges looked. So, I took the neighbor up on his offer and edged the front yard.  Of course that leaves a bunch of trimmings to clean up, which is where N came in.  I swept it up into a few piles, and then for a dollar had him scoop it up into the yard cart.  He did a great job, and of course L did his best to help too.  Not only did N do a good job of scooping up the grass, he did a pretty good job of looking out for his little brother, who despite his good intentions, was frequently in the way.  Any job completed without any nagging to stay on task, and without any tears, I consider a tremendous success. 

Of course L has to show off some newfound independence as well.  He has now graduated from just riding along with Daddy or N, to actually driving himself around.  He has figured out how to make the Power Wheels go.  Steering, on the other hand, he has yet to master, but for now we can turn the steering wheel one way and he is content to drive himself around in circles as the older kids drive around.

Naturally, there is no lack of projects in the workshop.  A couple weeks ago I took apart my disc to refurbish it.  I brushed all the rust off with a wire wheel on my angle grinder, and then primed and painted it.  The metal is pitted enough that it doesn't look "as good as new", but if you don't look close, it looks pretty good.  I still need to install the Brinly decal, and want to add a clevis style hitch, but am happy with how it turned out.

Never content with just one project, I have a couple others I have been working on as well.  I was finally able to meet up with the guy from several weeks ago that was selling a snow plow that would mount on Johnny.  It's not pristine, but will get the job done I think.  I have been taking it apart this week for cleaning and straightening a few pieces.  I plan to reassemble it for a test fit on the tractor before I get too carried away with refurbishing it.

And finally this week, I have been gathering up some pictures of the family's tractor pulling history for a scrapbook and video slideshow.  Today I was going through the pictures with N, explaining each picture.  I got to one where I had to explain that his grandpa was my dad, my grandpa was his great-grandpa, and I, his dad, was not yet his dad because he wasn't born yet.  Of course the picture is bittersweet because "great-grandpa" is no longer with us, and the tractor is no longer part of the family either.  And then, I happened to realize that eight years later on the same weekend that picture was taken, N blessed us with his presence.  That bittersweet pill suddenly seemed alot easier to swallow.

Cornfield Crusin'

Hopefully tomorrow the weatherman is right and we start to get a break from the heat we have had the past week.  Since late last week the daily highs have been climbing from the upper 80's to mid 90's.  The high temps put a a little damper on our weekend activities.  We let N stay up and watch the fireworks Friday night.  It seemed like they started later than normal, but he really enjoyed them.  I ran in the 5K Saturday with L, and although it was already warm at 7:30 AM, the run felt good.  When you are pushing a stroller, it's not so much about what your race time was, but how many people you passed, and I was able to pass quite a few. 

The rest of the weekend was all about trying to keep cool.  We decided it was too hot and skipped the Cherry Fest Saturday night.  That upset N, but a friend tipped us off that there is a carnival in a nearby town in a couple weeks that lets the parents ride with young kids for free, and since Cherry Fest requires tickets for the parents as well, we were thinking of holding off until that one anyway.  It will be interesting to see how brave he is this year for going on rides. 

Despite the heat, I couldn't resist the urge to do some kind of project over the weekend.  Sunday afternoon I decided to take my disc apart so I could repaint it.  I got it disassembled and got the rust off of most of the pieces with a wire wheel.  I called that good for Sunday, but got those pieces primed and painted this week.  The garage this week should make a good oven for baking the paint. 

Tonight I got the urge to get the Cat out and take it for a ride.  I wanted to get a picture of it in the corn field, and at the rate the corn is growing, it will be too tall pretty soon, especially if it rains the next two days and I have to wait for things to dry out again.  L and I took the tractor for the longest ride yet, all the way up and down the field side of the creek.  That was enough to get L and I plenty hot and dusty, so we called that good and put the tractor back away.  It ran pretty well, and started twice on the first crank, so it was a nice little ride. 

Playing Catch-up

It's hard to believe it has been two weeks since I have posted.  As you would expect based on our track record, alot has happened in 2 weeks.  With another weekend just around the corner (yay!), I figured I better get this blog up to date or I might never get caught up. 

To back up two weekends ago, they were calling for rain all weekend, so I made a mad dash Friday night to get all my outdoor activities done.  I got the Cat out and drove it around to  try out my carb fix.  It held up, and continues to hold up, well.  In addition to testing out the carb, I wanted to run it around a bit to warm up the transmission oil.  You are supposed to warm it up some before you change it, and I never ran the tractor long enough last fall to warm it up.  Of course L helped with the laps up and down the waterway to test out the tractor.  I also got Johnny and the disc out to smooth out some dirt that had washed into the waterway from the field during the heavy rains the previous week.  The disc did a nice job chopping up the bean stubble, and loosening the dirt to plant some grass seed.  While I had both tractors out, I took the opportunity to get a picture of them together. 

 After putting the boys to bed and putting the tractors away, I drained the oil out of the Cat, only to find that some of the drain plugs were missing.  Fortunately the plugs were just simple pipe plugs, and easy to replace.  Time will only tell the long term effects of running without them.  Despite calling for rain all weekend, it turned out better than they predicted.  We did get some storms come through Saturday afternoon, and again Saturday night, but still got some flowers planted and mulch put out.  We also got in some good time playing and visiting with the neighbors. 

Despite this past weekend being a 3-day holiday weekend, I did not try to cram 50% more projects in.  Saturday morning we decided to go out and check out some garage sales.  C found some clothes for the boys, and I found a lawn roller.  I figured the Cat will occasionally tear up the lawn, and I will want to smooth it back out so a roller would come in handy.  Still, I almost passed on it, but the guy selling it was a Cat retiree whose name I recognized as being involved in testing of some pretty significant Cat machines.  Buying the roller gave me the chance to talk to him a bit, and let him know how much I would appreciate old Cat pictures or memorabilia he might want to get rid of some day. 

On Sunday, a good part of the day was spent installing C's new kitchen TV.  Her old one was on it's last legs, so the need for a replacement was imminent.  The whole process took quite a bit longer than I expected, but I think the end product turned out pretty nice. After spending all day working in the kitchen, we decided to have a picnic in the garage, which of course the boys loved. 

Monday my only real plans were to mow, and take the Cat out to try some new spark plug wires I installed.  Somewhere along the way, I decided it would be a good time to clean out the garage.  It did need it, and other than the wind trying to counteract my sweeping, it was a good day for it.  The boys kept busy washing a Barbie Jeep I recently picked up, as well as the front porch and porch furniture, and anything else we could think of having them hose off.  They were drenched by the time it was all done, but the warm weather was good for that.  After several hours cleaning and putting everything back, I still had to mow.  I don't know if it was just the weather, but mowing seemed to take alot longer than usual.  After finishing that, I was happy to sit back and watch the boys and the neighbor kids play in their sprinkler, and enjoy a relaxing night. 

This coming weekend is Cherry Fest, which is always alot of fun.  Saturday I am running in the 5K, and plan on taking L with me in the jogging stroller like I did with N 2 years ago.  I've been doing more running in the mornings before everyone is up, so I have only gotten to take L out once in the jogging stroller.  I'm also not in as good of shape as I was 2 years ago, so the race could be interesting.  I'm not sure what else the weekend will bring, but I'm sure it won't be boring.