multi function update of the day

So already this week we have accomplished a lot at the farm.  With striking it off from my to do list in mind I finished the main parts of the farm stand.  It now has a roof, a nice sturdy shelf inside and a door! 

Now the door was made to be light so I did not use the hemlock that I used on the rest of the building.  I ended up using 2x3's with the sheet metal roofing that was so graciously donated by my boss. 

So for your farm stand shopping convenience you can stay out of the rain as you buy your veggies or eggs. Allyssia will be designing and we will be building and adding a few more shelves but we need to find a good design. 

The next saga with the little farm stand is to relocate it to its summer resting spot and blocking it on some cinder blocks. Stay tuned for more of the little farm stand saga.

The next bit of fun I have had this week is that I finally got my secondary drive belts for the quadractor.  This summer when the weather is nicer I plan on replacing the primary drive belts but for now I am starting with the secondary's as they need it and are very easy to access.  I am also rebuilding a few of the idler pulleys which shouldn't be hard as they are just 3" flat idlers. 

What a beautiful sight.

 I have also rewired the starter, winch, and the auxiliary battery terminals with new ends and longer wires.  The last thing is a new carb kit coming from Small Engine Specialty up in Peru.  I hope to have the old girl running and have videos soon. 

Yes that's the kitchen table, and yes Allyssia puts up with a lot.

 

To better post videos I will be making a YouTube account and will just post links as the last video I posted did not seem to work well.  So until next time...

The little farm stand that could....be crooked

Over this past weekend a new project began here at the farm.  We started the construction of our very own farm stand.  Armed with my favorite DeWalt drill, a brand new skill saw and a pile of lumber from the local sawmill I went to work.  We modeled the farm stand off from a single picture found on Pinterest.  I started off with a 6x6 platform made of 6x6's and 4x4's bolted together with 14" lag bolts.  Once the platform was built, the fun work began. 
      Now to start I am not to much of a carpenter and this was my first real project by myself.  I have found that I enjoy carpentry as a well needed change from the usual weekly plumbing and heating.  I have found that some skills carry over from trade to trade with angles and leveling things. 

The framing went quicker than I anticipated but I did have Allyssia there to help me.  The stand itself as you can see only takes up half of the platform.  this is to accommodate the door that will fold up and so we have a place to put our egg cooler and other buckets of produce.

Next came the boarding, which really solidified the structure and makes it look like the quaint little farm stand it is meant to be.  After that we put some steel roofing on and that's where we found that the roof was crooked by about 1/2 inch. At that point I was at the point of no return so I custom fit the roofing to the roof.  The next order of business was to build a shelf inside. 

Using nothing but a skill saw I custom fit all my boards into place.  Again I say,  I am by no means a carpenter but I am learning quickly. With the amount of work that needs to be done at the barn and house you will see my skills improve but, as of now they are still fairly basic. Stay tuned for the door and other finishing touches on the farm stand!

A visit from equipment past

Part of my blog is to tell about what goes on here at the Funny Window Farm and to do so I will be telling stories of important equipment that has come and gone.  There wont be a post on every single piece of machinery that has wandered through the dooryard.  Probably one of my favorite pieces of equipment had to be the 1923 W.A. Riddell road grader.

 I have many people to thank for this Grader coming to the house and the first is the man in the picture with me, my Grandfather.   Had it not been for him I may not have been able to raise the funds to purchase the old girl and save her from scrap, but more on that later.  Secondly,  my mother for allowing this rusty monster to be dumped off a tilt deck trailer and then let rest in her front yard for two years.  Also very important was Mrs. Chaimberlain.  She so kindly held onto it until we could get there and haul it off and let us tear her yard up getting it onto a trailer.  (yes I did fix her yard.)

Now more of the back story.  The grader was owned by a town in the surrounding area but was eventually purchased by Don Chaimberlain.  Don was a good friend of Grandpa's and so we were there often.  The grader would be started occasionally at Don's engine shows but for the most part just sat.  When Don died his widow wanted all the junk gone and that's where Grandpa and I came in.  We never could get it running enough to drive it but it did run before I sold it. 

 A fellow junk enthusiast and Merchant Marine bought it and has plans to restore it to it's former glory.  I am still in touch with Todd, the man that bought the grader and he plans to start work this summer when he retires.  He has given both Grandpa and I an open invitation to come see all his equipment and when he has it running test the grader.
     I am very hopeful that when the time comes I will be able to go see the grader once it is restored and try it out. 

                                               Here she is on her trip out of the dooryard!

The newest piece of equipment in the fleet

This week here at Funny Window Farm we added our very first horse trailer!.  Early in the winter Mid State Welding did some light frame repair on my old ford and while we did so added a gooseneck hitch point. 

Since then Allyssia has been hauling her fathers 3 horse slant load trailer with the truck.  The trailer that he has is by no means a bad trailer, but for Allyssia and her large warm blood and draft cross horses she could never haul two horses to the show at once.  Allyssia has always been looking but the pickings are slim as they say because her dream trailer is a very versatile trailer and people don't often sell them. 
     Cue me doing my nightly craigslist search and stumbling across her dream trailer at a decent price and within a reasonable distance.  It almost seemed to good to be true, but none the less we drove to Gray to look.  I was expecting a jelly doughnut trailer, nice on the outside but rusty and ready to fall apart elsewhere, but I was happily mistaken.  The trailer, which is a 2000 sundowner value lite two plus one straight load has to be the cleanest trailer that I have seen that wasn't new. 

It is longer than the old trailer but Allyssia has adapted to it quick and has already made two trips to Wilton to ride in an indoor with one of her horses.  With very little practice she does amazing driving the trailer and backing up.  We couldn't be happier with the trailer and we intend to get lots of use out of it over the years.  It will be used as not only a horse trailer but it will also haul four wheelers and possibly a few tractors and the gooseneck and dressing room will serve as our camper.

The best part though?  It looks amazing behind my old truck!!!!

A strange addition

I have finally acquired a strange machine that I have only seen in pictures called the Quadractor.  I have seen it many times in old Mother Earth News magazines from my Grampa and this winter by chance of Uncle Henrys magazine that I didn't even purchase.  While scanning through I found a vague add.

While Allyssia was out of town I made my first trip to Jefferson to look at the Quadractor.  In that trip I decided after seeing it in person that I had to have it.  The gentleman that had it was an extremely nice man who held the tractor for a few weeks for me.  Allyssia and I finally made it back during a snowstorm to retrieve the Quadractor. 

I have been busy getting it running and have had to change the 23 foot steering cable and re rout the exhaust as it was blowing directly back at the driver. I am building a logging hitch for the Quadractor as that is what it was originally built for. More info on the Quadractor can be located at

http://www.rokonworld.com/quadractor/quadractormain.html

 

Updates on the Quadractor will come later as it progresses.

 

A little about us

Just a little about who we are here at the farm.  I am a plumbing, heating, and cooling technician at a local plumbing and heating company.  I went to school for air conditioning and refrigeration and learned my plumbing and oil burner work on the job. Growing up I attended many tractor and engine shows with my grandfather, this is really what ignited my passion for all things rusty and rumbly.
I currently own an assortment of different tractors in all shapes and sizes. 
As I mentioned in the first blog post, I own a local 112 acre lot of land that I plan to build a homestead on. My other interest is my 1993 Ford F-350 with a 7.3 International non turbo. This truck has a huge part in our family as it has many purposes to keep our day to day farm running. It does everything from haul the deck over trailer with the excavator to pulling the horse trailer for my wife.

 My wife, Allyssia is a self employed dressage trainer and instructor, she runs her business Timberlake Dressage out of Peaceful Pines Stables. When she isn't managing her barn or teaching clients she enjoys working in the garden, tending the chickens and any other "outdoorsy" tasks. We are both very excited to open our farm stand this year.

The "Maine" nuts and bolts

Welcome to my blog and the home of the Funny Window Farm.  We are located in Maine with our "farm" spread  out between Livermore Falls and Peru.  I deal in a large variety of what I like to call "merchandise of opportunity" or "Rusty Gold".   Most of the equipment that shows up in our dooryard arrives on our deck-over trailer after having been winched, pulled, pushed, or maneuvered on. 
The funny window farm is not just junk equipment and rust though, the farm consists of a 112 acre plot of land in Peru that I bought to build a house and horse barn for my wife on.  We currently have a 30 foot by 50 foot two story barn, a small chicken house and a fruit tree orchard.

 

 

As I go along through this blog I will be telling of my time on the farm in Peru, the work around our current residence, horse barn and garden, as well as the tales of the rusty gold that slowly migrates through my yard.  There will also be posts and pictures of equipment  that has come and gone, because some things I couldn't keep and had to let move on for someone else to appreciate.
Check back soon!