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!