Ol' Red

As I mentioned in my last post, the hot weather encourages me to stay inside and surf ebay and craigslist. This leads to finding new projects instead of being outside working on projects I already have. This is extra encouragement I obviously don't need. The warm weather also seems to be motivating people to clean out their garages, because there has been a higher than normal number of tractors, carts, wagons, implements, etc. on Craigslist. That combination of more items available and more time spent looking at them is a dangerous one. As I recently mentioned, in the past few weeks I have already added a snow plow for the 70 and another wagon to the collection. This week was an even bigger addition, another tractor.

Back when I first started looking for a garden tractor, I actually first considered a 1960's Wheel Horse because a couple had caught my eye at a tractor show. I looked for a little while, and after realizing Deere's were much more common, I switched gears and started pursuing those. Obviously, I found one Deere, and then another. Still, there was something about those old round-hooded Wheel Horses that appealed to me. They again caught my eye at the recent Penfield show.

As luck would have it, a 1964 Wheel Horse 854 showed up on Craigslist last week. Despite some prior interest in that style of tractor, I still probably would have scanned the ad and moved on if it weren't for the way the seller advertised it. He said he wanted it out of his shed, and since we didn't know what it was worth, he would entertain any offer. That got me curious - what was it worth? So, the investigation began. I dug up what information I could about the model, compared the photos to others to see what was damaged and what was missing, and tried to come up with a value - hypothetically of course. Petty soon I had enough time invested in the investigation that I just had to carry through with making an offer on it. Long story short, after some negotiating, the tractor was mine.

I justified this one to myself as a true "garden tractor". It has an implement hitch on the back, which will allow me to raise and lower my disc and a plow. Of course that means we will have to expand the garden next year. All of that assumes, of course, I can get it running. It came with the typical "ran when parked" sales pitch, although "running" and "running well" are often far different things.  So far, I've just done a good cleaning, inspection and changed the fluids, but it's not moving under its own power, yet.

Despite adding the Wheel Horse to the heard, I couldn't resist another tractor that found me.  Just a couple days after buying the Wheel Horse, as I was on the way to work I spied a lawn tractor out at the curb a couple blocks from my house.  Sure enough, there was a "Free - Take Me" sign in front of it.  I drug it home.  It starts and runs OK, but the drive belt has come off twice so I assume it is shot.  It also leaks some oil, so the engine probably needs some TLC.  Still, other than having to put the drive belt back on, it worked fine for mowing, and left me looking for other things that needed to be mowed that I didn't want to use a "nice" mower for.  I will probably just part it out and scrap most of it, but for now it will save some wear and tear on Johnny. 

 

The Wheel Horse has taken some attention away from the new wagon, but not totally.  I did manage to get the side boards assembled and painted.  I still need to put the brackets on to hold the side boards in place, but so far, so good.  I still hope to have it done in time for the Labor Day tractor show in Pontiac. 

Still Hot

It's still hot. Thankfully we've had a few days here an there where it has cooled off into the lower 90's for highs, but for the most part we've been dancing around the 100 degree mark almost every day since my last post.

It is never really "slow" around here, but the summer is always especially busy. Of course we have a couple birthdays in July. Chalk it up to Murphy's Law that in the middle of a drought we get rained out (or more accurately lightening'd out) of a pool part for cousin E's birthday party. Still, we had a good time down there, and the kids found other ways to have fun after they had to get out of the pool.

Along with finding ways to have fun, L apparently also found a flu bug. He was fine during the day, but got very sick during the night. This spoiled some plans C and I had to have Grammy watch the boys while we want to a flea market together. We ended up tag teaming it, as we often have to do for things. I went in the morning and took N with me. He was a real trooper and did not complain once.

C went later in the day after I came home. We were not successful in getting to spend some time just the two of us, but we did find some home decor items. A couple days later C got the bug and then finally N got it too. Thankfully, all were well again (and I never got it) by the next weekend for N's birthday party. N's was a pool party too, and being at the indoor pool, we didn't have to worry about the weather. N's birthday gifts resulted in some Lego projects for N and Daddy. We did a couple the first day and then spread the rest out over the next few days. N can follow the instructions pretty well if he has too, but he is more than willing to let somebody else do it for him if they are willing.

I was able to work around the birthday parties and fit in a couple tractor activities. The first was a trip to the tractor show at Penfield, IL. It was a nice show, but since I could only go for the day I just took the 70 and left the Ten at home. It was a good turn out in both terms of tractors and spectators, especially since it was so hot. I had fun showing the 70 and cruising around the show with it a little.

The second tractor event was the Heart of Illinois Fair Tractor Pull. This was N's first tractor pull, so it was a treat to take him and Grandpa. I thought it was neat for us to be there 50 years after the 1962 HOI pull that we have a photo of Uncle Bob competing in.

N's interest in the tractor pull was somewhat limited, especially after he saw the bouncy-house near where we grabbed some supper. He did enjoy that, as well as the lego 4H project displays. He also enjoyed some icecream as we were on our way out.

The high temps also are more conducive to sitting inside surfing craigslist than working in the garage. Not surprisingly, I've found a few things I couldn't live without. The first was a snowplow for the 70. I don't know if I will ever plow snow with the 70, but its nice to know I now have the option of using it next winter instead of my "pretty" blade for the 110.

The other purchase was another wagon. Yeah, I know, ANOTHER wagon. This one was unique in that it came with a Conestoga wagon type top. The boys got a real kick out of it, kind of a tent on wheels. One reason it was so cheap though, was that the paint was coming off. By coming off, I don't mean here and there; it was coming off in sheets. It appears that when it was made, the body was rusting before it was even painted, so the paint didn't stick. Since the paint was shedding pretty rapidly, I stripped it off and repainted it in the color of N's choice; black. Unlike the other wagons that I invested alot more time in, and try to restrict the boys to non-damaging activities with, this one will be theirs to use as they wish.

Work on the "new" Caterpillar wagon has also progressed, albeit fairly slowly. I got the sides cut and router'd at the neighbor's house. Then came lots of sanding, and the first coat of paint. I still need to assemble the sides and then give them the final coat of paint. After that, it will be functional, but I want to add features to it like the toolbox and cup holders I have in their smaller Caterpillar wagon.

Lastly, we did finally get a break in the heat, at least for a few days.  Some Summer thunderstorms blew through and brought with them some pretty strong winds.  No damage from that thankfully, but we did get about 1/2" of rain.  The rain was a little late to help with our weak sweet corn crop, but as they left the area, they left us a nice double rainbow.

Hotter than a Firecracker

With the heat wave we had the past few weeks, the primary focus has just been trying to keep cool.  The first few days in the upper 90's really slowed us down, and we spent most of our time indoors.  N has been showing more interest in Legos lately, so that was a good excuse to get those out and spend some quality time in the basement building some of my old sets.  N doesn't quite have the patience to dig through the box to find the special pieces called out in the instructions, but if you find the pieces for him he can do the rest pretty well.  L isn't quite there on the building skills yet, but he is really good at keeping N and I busy putting stuff back together.  C has some nice pics of the Lego activities on her blog.  If you check it out, you can also see the whole family getting into the act on the kiddie carwash, which proved to be another great way to beat the heat. 
The string of triple-digit days didn't stop us from working/playing outside entirely, and I dare say by the end we were almost getting used to it.  I took some extra days off around the 4th of July holiday and couldn't resist working on a few projects.  The main project in the workshop right now is redoing the garden wagon I found a couple months ago.  I took the wheels and frame all apart, stripped them down and repainted them.  The boys got to help with reassembly. 

With the running gear all back together, I started on the body.  My plan is to basically make a larger version of our Radio Flyer "Caterpillar" wagon, but in the style of the Amish wooden stake wagons.  With the neighbor's help, I got the boards all cut and then sanded them down.  After it finally cooled off a bit last Sunday, I set up my good ole paint booth and applied a nice clear finish.  Next step will be the stake sides. 

Despite a never ending backlog of projects, I couldn't resist adding just one more.  C and I stopped into a local antique store looking for some home decor items.  Leave it to me to find a garden tractor project while there.  They had a nice little garden cart, which I'm sure would have ended up as a planter, sitting in someone's yard with flowers in it.  I couldn't help but notice more than a passing similarity between it and a fairly obscure John Deere #8 garden cart made 1970-72.  Of course I don't need another cart, but I couldn't help but bring it home thinking I would eventually turn it into a #8 cart replica.  I'm not sure the background on the cart, but have found out that the same body was used for this brand, as well as dump carts for Toro and for John Deere.  This version, unfortunately, is lacking a tongue and dumping mechanism, so coming up with those will require some patience, creativity, or a little bit of both.  In the meantime, we already put it to use holding husks as the boys cleaned some of grandpa's sweet corn.  It was delicious!

The Power Wheels are still getting a pretty good workout, although we have found that if you combine these hot temperatures with some heavy loads driving through the grass, they run down the batteries pretty fast, and will even blow a fuse now and then.  N suffered a blow to his ego this week when the neighbor down the street got a new ride.  For the most part, his Cat Jeep has been the top dog in the neighborhood for a couple years.  That was until the neighbor got his new four wheeler last week that goes up to 7mph.  All of the other vehicles go up to 5mph, which doesn't sound like much of a difference, but when watching them, there is a huge difference between 7mph and 5mph.  I had my doubts that the neighbor boy could handle that much speed, but like the rest of them, he seemed to get used to it pretty quickly.  After a couple days, N got to try it out and he loved it.  Of course, he wants one now, but with a price of over $600, I don't see that happening any time soon. 

Although they are no longer the fastest, the boys' trucks had no problem performing a little task I set up for them.  I changed the furnace filter and needed to break the old one down to fit in the trash can.  Rather than do that manually, I let them pretend it was a crush-car for their power wheels.  They had a ball and did a nice job smashing it down. 

Welk'in It

I have been accused of having an "old soul".  Once, after working for several months with someone over the phone on a Cat history project, when we finally met in person they said I was the youngest looking 80-year-old they had ever met.  Even I, however, would not be caught dead watching something as old-fashioned as the Lawrence Welk show.  That is, until this weekend. 

We have a routine where we watch 10-20 minutes of TV with the boys before their bedtime to help them wind down.  Saturday night I turned on the TV and it was still on PBS from watching some kids shows during breakfast.  (yay us for not watching any TV between breakfast and bedtime!)  When I turned on the TV, there was a couple playing accordions and a guy playing a tuba, doing a polka.  The boys were fascinated by it.  N is really into playing songs on this keyboard right now, so I left it on so they could watch.  L loved the "big trumpet" (tuba) that the guy was playing.  It turned out it was a "Country and Western" episode of the show, so the boys actually knew some of the songs from my "oldies" CD that I have in my truck.  (L loves to sing "Sixteen Tons" together before bed time.)  We watched a little more and they did "You are my Sunshine", which C sings to both of them so they knew that one.  They had to go to bed, but I recorded it on the DVR.  Today we watched more of it.  Of course the slow songs aren't their taste, but they like the faster ones.  They got a real kick out of the square dancing numbers, and insisted C and I join in, which we obliged.  We had a family square dance in the living room.  Great-Baba would be so proud.

Dad's Day(s)

I did my best to extend Father's Day this year, although I would contend it was for (mostly) unselfish reasons.  I got a jump start on it a week early by taking my Dad out to see the tractor restoration for the Cat Visitor's Center that I have been helping with research on.  I'm sure the discussions on some of the minutia of tractor history were a little beyond his interest level, but I think he still had a good time seeing all the projects, and I know I had a good time showing him.  The trip was only made possible by the willingness of Grandma to watch the boys, as C also had errands she needed to run.  We all reconvened after our busy afternoons for a nice supper together. 

Father's Day festivities resumed the next weekend.  They started off with the tradition of running in the Steamboat Classic.  I bested my time from last year, but was in no danger of setting a personal best.   Official Father's day celebrations consisted of a trip home on Saturday, and having C's Dad over to our house on Sunday; both good time spent with family.

Project work the past few weeks has been of the outdoor variety.  The ever increasing number of large toys (for both Dad and the boys) has put storage space in the under-deck shed at a premium.  I had decided earlier this year I wanted to expand the shed that originally used about half the available space.  The reason I hadn't done this in the first place was a pair of 2x10 support beams.  These beams hang down beneath the joists so are great for banging your head on, and since they sandwich the support columns, also provide a challenge for building a water-proof roof.  Weekend #1 involved taking down one wall and extending another, and also installing the roof.  Weekend #2 work comprised of trying to close some small gaps, and putting down pave stones for the floor.  The boys provided intermittent "help" throughout the project, but the task they were best suited for was leveling the paver sand for the stones.  The work was hot and dirty, but it is nice to not have stuff not so crammed in there.  It also motivated me to get rid of some stuff, which I have had a decent amount of luck doing on craigslist. 

Speaking of the large toys, the boys' power wheels have been getting more of a workout than normal lately.  L is really getting to be a good driver, and he and N have enjoyed making laps together up and down the cul-de-sac.  The neighbor kids have been out on theirs more lately too, which makes it all the more fun for them.  For the first time ever, we even had a day where we ran down all the batteries and had to wait for them to charge. 

The Ole Ball Game

N earned a free ticket to a Chiefs game for reading books a few weeks ago, but it was so hot we decided to stay home.  Tonight was another opportunity for a free night with the Chiefs through work, and the weather was much more cooperative.  I was just looking forward to a night out with the fam at the ballpark and some free hot dogs, but it turned out to be much more. 

As we walked in, one of the Chiefs staff stopped us and asked if Nick wanted to help paint home plate as part of the pre-game routine.  I didn't know that was part of the routine, but we got to go down on the field and paint home plate just before they threw out the first pitch.  N was super-excited. 

We had to wait a little bit to go down on the field for painting the plate.  While we were waiting Pete Vonachen, founder of the Peoria Chiefs, came up and teased N about wanting to trade him his hat (from the Lexington Tractor Show) for a baseball.  Pete has a tradition of giving little boys baseballs, and there is a statue of him giving a boy a baseball as you walk in to the ball park.  N did not want to trade his hat, but he got the ball anyway.  He also got one for painting the plate, so thankfully we had one for each boy. 

My managers put out a very nice spread for all of us and our families.  I couldn't even tell you what the score of the game was while we were there, but it was a beautiful night, with good food, family and friends.  What could possibly top off the evening?   How about getting to see Mr. Belding from the show "Saved By the Bell".  It's a bit of a stetch for Teacher Appreciation Night to bring in a guy who played the principle on a 90's TV show, but I guess I get it.  The line for his autograph was surprisingly long, and we certainly weren't going to wait, but it's not every day you get to see a sort-of celebrity.  It was a great night all around.

Cherry Fest

Two weeks since my last update; now that's more like my normal schedule. 

We've been busy the last couple weekends with things that have kept me out of the workshop for the most part.  The weekend before last we finally had our big garage sale.  Boy did we have alot of stuff to get rid of.  I felt like we did get rid of alot of the odd and ends, but still had quite a bit of kids clothes left.  I also didn't get a whole lot of interest in the tractor parts I had for sale, but that wasn't a big surprise since I had them priced reasonable for someone that needed them, not so cheap that someone would buy them looking to resell them.

The power wheels, on the other hand, sold fairly quickly.  The two highest priced ones sold before we even actually opened.  The buyer came a day early trying to buy them, then showed up the day of the sale 20 minutes before we opened.  They even helped us get things setup just so we could "open" and let them buy them.  L did have some issues with us selling the skid steer.  He was happy to demonstrate it for potential buyers, but was not keen on other kids sitting in it or driving it.  When someone actually bought it, we had to distract him by taking him to the back yard just so he wouldn't get upset.  To help him get over it, I got down the four wheel drive Bigfoot I put together a couple years ago.  It was a big hit, and I think the skid steer is a distant memory now.  To further celebrate the end of the garage sale, and try to beat the heat, we got out our good ole kiddy car wash.  The boys found it no less fun than last year. 

I did sneak in some workshop time in spite of the garage sale.  The Memorial day weekend was a deadline I had set for myself to get my "new" mower deck for Johnny done.  The deck that came with Johnny looked good from a distance, but it had some pretty gnarly rust and cobbled up repairs, and the bearings were noisy.  I had bought a deck in better condition with bearings already replaced last year, with the intent of repainting it and swapping the "old" one out.  That plan hit a major snag when I got it home and realized it was missing the main drive pulley.   The missing pulley relegated that project to the back burner. 

Fast forward to a couple months ago, when I came across someone in the Peoria area looking for a mower deck for a 110.  After talking to him, we struck a deal where I would sell him my "old" deck when I got the "new" one done, with a Memorial day target date.  The cosmetic part of the restoration was straightforward, just some sanding and some paint.  It took a while to find one, but as it turned out, the missing pulley just saved me the aggravation of trying to remove the old, pressed-in pulley shaft.  I was able to buy a complete assembly, with new pulley, bearings and shaft.  I left the new part in the freezer for a few days, and then when it came time for the install I heated up the hole.  It slid in with little effort, but didn't take long for the shaft to warm up and be stuck in place.  So far I have only done a quick test, but the bearings were nice and quiet.

Wildlife upate: Memorial day weekend was not kind to the bunnies.  I think the hot, dry weather was rough on them, and they mowed all the vacant lots so their mommy didn't have as many places to hide.  The poor things started dropping one by one, yet it seemed there were still several hopping around.  In all, I think there must have been 6 or 7 to start with.  After we got down to just a couple left, I stopped seeing them all together.  Our robins on the other hand, seemed to have done OK.  It's amazing how fast they grow.  One day I checked and their were 3 birds crammed in that nest, the next day it was empty.  We have seen a couple of the adolescent birds around the yard and on the deck, doing what they do best; making a mess. 

This past weekend brought the Washington Cherry Festival.  We didn't take part in it much last year, but took full advantage of it this year.  Friday we went to a friends house and watched the fireworks.  The boys did pretty well with staying up late to watch the show.  In spite of the late bedtime, they also did pretty well with getting up to watch the 5K race and doing the carnival rides.  C was supposed to run the race this year, but her back was bothering her so we switched her entry to me at the last minute.  It wasn't my best 5K time, but it was nice to have the family all there cheering me on.  We went home just long enough to eat breakfast and shower, and then it was back up to the carnival.  The boys did all the usual kiddie rides, but my favorite was riding with them on the Ferris wheel.  We also caught the tail end of the pedal tractor pull.  N took a turn, and then they got out their "big boy" pedal tractor and let me give it a try.  I think I did OK considering I just ran a 5K.

And finally, with all the garage sale revenue burning a hole in her pocket, C determined it was time to go shopping at everybody's favorite seller of furniture assembly projects, IKEA.  They were having a sale on some pieces that fit with our decorating plans.  We had debated on going up as a family, but ended up leaving the boys with Grammy and Grandpa, which was a very good idea.  After nearly 4 hours in the store, we loaded up a carload of boxes and headed home.  The boys were very excited to help put the stuff together.  We channeled that enthusiasm into sorting the hardware into little containers, which they both did a nice job with.  It took nearly 3 hours to do the first piece, which was enough for one night, so they will get plenty more opportunities to help.