Half Century of Golfcarts

We survived the first week of Kindergarten.  Survived probably isn't the right word.  C may see things differently since by the time I get home, N has been out of school for a few hours already, but so far it seems to have been smooth sailing.  I don't want to jinx it, but N seems to really enjoy it so far, and doesn't seem to be too exhausted when he gets home.  Next week he starts full days, so that may change, but for now things are going really well. 

One of the carrots I dangled for N was if he was good all week, he could go with me to a tractor show.  I don't know how much of that was actually excitement for the tractor show, or just going somewhere with me.  He is going through a phase right now where he really likes to do things with me, and truth be told, I like being able to take him with me to stuff like this now too.  N held up his end of the bargain, so we planned our departure for Rantoul on Saturday morning. I had previously invited C to come with L, and to my surprise, C decided to take me up on it.  Despite the last minute change in plans to make it a whole-family outing, we were on the road before 7:30.

I remembered from the last show there being a lot of golfcarts, gators, and other UTV’s, but I think there were even more this year.  There was even a UTV traffic jam getting into the gate.  Our "UTV’s" were the wagon and jogging stroller.  I thought bringing one for each boy would extend my time at the show, and it probably did some, but they fought over who got to ride in the wagon.  I think I got to see most of the show, although I didn’t get to look at any one tractor for very long.  Still, I did enjoy it as a family outing, and a nice way to spend a beautiful Saturday morning.

It is funny to me that the wagon is so popular all of a sudden because it never had gotten played with that much before.  Shortly after the new neighbors moved in, we discovered that their kids love to play with their wagon.  All the kids did a nice job taking turns with their wagon, so I decided to get ours out.  The wagon, which I customized for N’s 1st Christmas, seemed to be THE hot toy for the weekend.  The boys pulled it around the yard, pulled it with the pedal tractor, and even pretended to “fix” it with their tools.  N even went a little beyond pretending, and used one of my screwdrivers to take one of the side boards off.  What can I do, he comes by it naturally.

The other big development this weekend was the builder finally had the yard put in at the spec house next door this weekend.  It is a huge improvement in the looks of the house, and the skid steer kept L entertained for several hours.  As the landscaper was cleaning up the lot line so he could lay the sod, I asked if I could have some of the chunks of existing sod he was cutting out.  He did me one better by offering me some of the extra sod rolls he had.  I wheeled Johnny and the wagon over to his trailer, and he stacked what he had left on the pallet onto my wagon.  Not only did he give me more than I was expecting, it turns out it is not just any sod.  It is Lexington sod from the Wagner Sod Farm.  So now we’ve got a little piece of home in our yard.  The sod did cost me a “tour” of the Ten for the landscaper and his crew, which of course they had to twist my arm to do.  As it turned out, it was OK I didn’t take the Ten over to the tractor show, I got to have a tractor show right there in my garage. 

Ten rides Again

Our little boy is heading to Kindergarten.  There is no escaping it now.  While I don't think it will hit me as hard as it will hit C, I have to admit it's starting to tug at the heart strings a little bit.  I felt like I wanted to do one more thing with him before school started, so I took Friday afternoon off.  Since he loved the train museum in Kankakee so much, I thought the Wheels O' Time musuem would be a good time.  He did like the real train, and the toy trains, but I think the antique cars and other antiques were pretty much lost on him.  Still, we made a good memory, and some ice cream on the way home didn't hurt either. 

The first project for the weekend was building up the dirt around the bridge.  I wanted to take advantage of the loose dirt from the freshly dug basement next door.  I also found some good chunks of sod to help firm up the edge.  It only took one full load in Johnny's wagon to provide the necessary fill.  That full load was almost more than Johnny could handle; I almost got stuck trying to pull it across the uncompacted white rock that will eventually be that house's driveway.  L and N helped spread out the dirt and plant the grass seed.  Saturday I got a couple additional loads of dirt to fill in some low spots elsewhere along the creek.  Since I already had the Ten out, I decided to not risk getting Johnny stuck and just use it to pull the wagon.  Was it overkill, sure, but it was fun to put the Ten to work a little bit. 

I was able to get the Ten out, and put it to work, thanks to Dad helping me get the crank fixed.  The Ten was a little reluctant to start after sitting for a few weeks, but after about a dozen tries, it started.  We found a path around the new house and had fun taking N and L for several laps.  Unfortunately, all the fun was not without a little collateral damage.  The more minor issue is the strips of conveyor belt that I laid down to get the Ten across the driveway extended out into the grass, and apparently the sun heated those belts up enough to cook the grass underneath.  I tried watering it to revive the grass, but I think it just made the healthy grass green up more and make the strips more pronounced. 

The bigger issue happened later.  I intended to just go out and put the Ten away for the night, but L said he wanted to go for a ride, and it didn't take much arm twisting to oblige him.  We had a little time before dinner was ready, so we went for a trip to inspect the new part of the subdivision.  I decided to try a new route across the creek to get there rather than go all the way around.  Tall grass and weeds won't STOP a Caterpillar, but they apparently can make it so you can't START the Caterpillar again.  As we went down into the creek, the grass/weeds were able to push hard enough on the crank handle to make it engage the front of the engine.  When we came up the other side, the majority of my newly repaired crank was no longer attached to the tractor.  Of course I cursed myself for the mistake, and L innocently compounded that with his "tractor broken" observation.  The only bright side was that I had chosen to install the repaired handle rather than the new reproduction handle I had also gotten in the meantime.  Looks like I will be using that new handle sooner than I thought. 

Along with installing the new crank handle, Sunday allowed some time to get a few more things done  Although the Ten heat manifold valve is frozen from rust, I still wanted to hook up the control lever for it.  I got the control handle when I bought the tractor, but had to make the control rod and coupler.  I also finished "restoring" some weights I got from Dad that were my grandpas.  These weights have been commandeered by C as added security for the back door of our garage.  100lbs. in front of the door does make it pretty tough to open. 

The cherry on top for the weekend was a nice evening visiting with the neighbors.  N and L needed to burn off some energy after supper, so we went outside to kick the soccer ball into the net.  The new neighbor kids were out, and N begged invited them to come down and play with him.  They came down, soon followed by their parents.  The neighbors across the street also came down.  Of course the kids all ended up playing in the dirt, but no one seemed to mind, and the kids, and adults, had a nice time. 

There Goes the Neighborhood

Its hard to believe it's the middle of the month and I am just now getting around to my first August post.  I guess I need to just resign myself to the every-other week pace, at least for the summer. 

The first big project after our vacation was organizing part of the workshop.  The back corner of the garage had become a catch-all for scrap lumber, large tools, tractor parts, and other odds and ends.  After struggling to get to something through the clutter one too many times, I set out to finally organize it.  This resulted in the construction of a couple shelving additions.  I still have some work to do finishing the shelves, and finishing my organizing, but it has already made a difference. 

The bigger news lately has not been in the workshop or around the yard, but all around us.  Big changes have been taking place to our little slice of paradise.  N had to bid farewell to his friend I and his family, but the new family has already moved in, with their 5 year old daughter and 4 year old son.  One of the spec houses down the street is also now occupied, and there is another 5 year old in that family.  It's almost like it's a prerequisite to have a 5 year old to live on our street. 

And while it is exciting to have some new kids in the neighborhood for N and L to play with, we are less excited by the most recent development.  It was bound to happen sooner or later, but one of the vacant lots to the East of us has sold.  To my surprise, it is not the corner lot, but the smaller lot next to the creek.  The neighbors across the street tipped us off last week that the lot was sold and excavation was about to begin. 

Of course that lot was my primary means of accessing the other side of the creek with Johnny for mowing, and the Ten for playing.  The prospect of soon losing that access prompted me to consider other options.  I had considered building a bridge for a while, which I probably could build strong enough for Johnny, but that isn't really an option for the Ten.  The Ten really doesn't need a bridge, and I have driven it several times across the creek.  The only problem in doing so is the creek bank is so soft that the Ten tends to sink and collapse the bank.  So, I decided to reinforce and raise the bank with some concrete blocks, and will just use a couple 2x10's to get Johnny across.  The block work is done, but I still need to finish filling it in to raise the bank, and try to get some grass started there as well. 

Finding loose dirt to fill the creek bank won't be a problem, as excavation did start this week on the new house next door.  C said so far they have been doing more measuring than digging, which is not surprising considering the house looks to be about as big as they can fit on the lot.  One corner touches the edge of the set-back from the creek, and the other can't be more than a foot or two more than the minimum of 5 feet from the lot line.  Fortunately we border the back yard, which has to be at least 20 feet per the building code.  From the looks of it, it probably won't be much more than that. 

And speaking of dirt, it has become almost impossible lately to keep the boys out of the "dirt box" when we go outside.  With the lack of rain lately, it is equally impossible to keep a significant amount of that dirt from coming inside with the boys when they come in.  Oh well, boys will be boys.