Tales of a Super A

As was promised yesterday I have much more to tell about the newest addition the herd that I wasn't even planning on buying.  Now I haven't done a ton of research on it as of now so I don't know what year it is but, it is in decent shape.  As mentioned we pushed it onto the trailer with my fathers tractor and rolled it off at home and there it set in the driveway.  After it had settled into it's new home Grampa came to check it out and helped me to get it running.

We did not get it running that day even after checking through the ignition system completely.  We did come to the conclusion that the magneto which creates the spark was going to have to come off.  The next day I started prepping the Magneto to come off and unhooked the kill wire and all of the plug wires.  Just for fun I put the plug wires back and left the kill switch wire off and tried it and what do you know it fired up!

Yes that is a battery with booster cables to start it and I have good reason for starting it like that.  Since this tractor is Magneto fired it doesn't need a battery to run and it just happens to be a six volt system and I don't have a six volt battery. 

And just like that, all nestled in next to old smokey.  It looks good in the picture but right now it is up on blocks with no front tires while Al's Tires gets the new tri-rib front tires installed.  Eventually this tractor will need a name as well but nothing has come to me yet.  As always stay tuned and check back often.  Next time we should have a good running video of the new Super A!!

While Allyssia was away.......

Cricket and I are both super excited that Allyssia is finally home.  Cricket can finally stop being anxious because her mom is home and I can rest a little easier with help cooking and taking care of the horses.  That's not to say that while Allyssia was gone we didn't have fun.  My last blog post on Friday was after a really busy day doing everything we could around the house so that Saturday I could take off.  I had Jacob, Allyssia's brother with me and we went up to Bradley to the Maine Forest and Logging Museum  At the last engine show I went to I was invited up with my Quadractor to the logging show that they have.  I love tractor shows and I love logging museums so I loaded up and away we went!

While loading, I found a way to fit the skid steer on the car trailer along with the Quadractor, because I thought the skid steer was just as odd as the Quadractor and I like to use it for logging or at least doing firewood.  The biggest attraction, and I mean biggest to draw in a crowd and the biggest physically is the Lombard Log hauler.  The Lombard is a log hauling machine that was designed and built right here in Maine and is just an amazing piece of history.

 The folks at the logging museum have worked hard getting this Lombard into the amazing shape that it is in and they continue to keep it running and driving to give rides.  I was luckily enough to ride on the front where the steering man sits and ride around the museum grounds.  The Lombard is not the only thing there at the museum, they have an amazing setup of saw mills from the water powered mill to the circular saw mill and many other tools in between!  I recommend to anyone to try to make it to any of their events to help keep the museum open for years to come. 

On the way up to the Museum was also the first time that I was able to use my new truck magnets for the farm.  I modeled them after my business cards and made them just right to fit onto the side panels of the Quadractor as well.  Unfortunately they came a day late for me to use them on the most recent tractor buying expedition.  On Thursday I bought a Super A Farmall tractor.  It had been under a tarp but the tarp had since shredded. I was super lucky that it was complete and just down the road from my parents house so my father drove his tractor down and pushed it on the trailer.

 
It is one of the smaller sized Farmall tractors with the offset front end so that you can see what you are cultivating or plowing without having to look over a hood.  I got it with all four original wheel weights a set of chains and a box of spare parts.   The rear tires were still inflated decently enough but the front tires are extremely cracked and beaten up so they will probably get replaced.  Other than the tires the tractor looks in good shape and might someday be a good restoration project.  Now I don't want to dive into the Super A to much tonight and ruin tomorrow's blog post so stay tuned and check back as often as you can.  As always leave a comment and let me know what you think!

How Long Will This Hay Room Take

With Allyssia gone and me doing all of the horse chores and everything else I have been getting in late and not having time to blog.  I didn't realize how much there is to do around here and I really understand how much Allyssia does. 

 While carpentry is not my strong suit I seem to do a lot of it,  With a horse farm the woodworking never seems to end I am just lucky that none of it is finish carpentry.  I did do the floor in the kitchen and bathroom and it came out well but I much prefer rough carpentry and mechanic work.  For most of my barn work I use rough cut hemlock and pine boards.  The pine is often sawed by none other than Grampa and the hemlock comes from Dimension Lumber.  I do however use use kiln dried 2x4's because they fit in joist hangers and are easier to work with.  That being said with hemlock 6x6's and some 2x6's I have the floor area completely framed up. 

In the foreground of the picture you can see my floor boards for the hay and shavings bin.  I should have enough there to do most of the floor if not all of it. 

I was a little short with lumber for the floor so my father who is replacing his deck is giving me all of the old decking boards to finish up the rest of it.  This whole side has been done with nails that the previous owner left for me.  I still have boxes of 8 and 16 penny nails left. 

The studs for this wall were also left here by the previous owner.  I need to board that wall up but I ran out of pine boards.  What you see is Mill felt that came from up in my barn in Peru.  I am using the mill felt to keep the shavings from going through the boards. 

The top view of the shavings bin you can see the felt comes up both sides.  I went this route because it was the easiest and plywood is really expensive and the building is not square so it I would have to custom fit each and every piece. 

I will eventually get the boards to finish the wall.  Until then there are so many more projects to show you guys.  Stay tuned and check back often for more posts. 

Broken parts and Allyssia's trip

Per usual I am a little bit late on this post of broken tractors.  Since I have taken so long to post I have a lot to tell.  To answer the question I know everyone is wondering - I have a picture.

My thoughts are "Of course the skid steer breaks down after I post on my new Facebook page how great it is running".  In all reality it has done well with very few problems so breaking the main drive chain is to be expected.  Now since the front tire is smaller than the other two I was barely able to steer, but I limped it back to the garage to repair it.  With a 10' box of #50 roller chain and a few different repair links, we are back to normal!  While down for the count I also replaced a weeping hydraulic hose. 
Now that that is fixed onto the other big news!!!
Allyssia is flying for the first time and going to California!!

She is on a fun business trip with her third job LuLaRoe.  She has been a LuLaRoa consultant for a year now and is headed to their yearly training convention.  For her first time flying she is going with a friend she met through LuLaRoe.  Her friend has flown many times and so Allyssia will have some help navigating the airports.  I will update you all on her progress through the week she is gone and will update the other happenings here at the farm as soon as I can. Until then check back often and leave a comment to let me know how I am doing. 

And Cricket Helped!!

Now I am not sure about anyone else but I go back to work Monday to rest up for the weekend, and this weekend was no exception.  I started out doing one of my new favorite tasks and ran my sickle mower for an hour or so Saturday morning. 

After I decided to quit mowing, I took to the garage to beat the heat.  While I was in the Garage Allyssia got out and did some riding.  I stayed quiet while Allyssia rode and even went and took pictures for her. 

After riding Display Allyssia took Gina out and then lunged Annie.  During the time Allyssia was working horses I got my new four wheeler running and may have run it around making all kinds of noise distracting Gina but otherwise all went well. 

This week was a bit of a laid back Saturday as I did nothing in a big rush but I still got a lot done.  After riding around on the new wheeler, Cricket and I went off to work. 

Cricket and I started the new floor for the hay/shavings room.  We started for the day just setting the blocks in the ground to hold the floor beams up.  I set them all two and one half blocks deep in the ground. 

How did Cricket help you ask?  The first few holes cricket had no interest in until I dug one big enough for her to fit in and she decided that I had to have help digging. 

Cricket kind of forced me to dig the hole a bit deeper since she kept digging deeper and deeper.  We ended up setting these blocks a full three deep.  That was about the end of the weekend for anything fun.  We did some other odds and ends but nothing too exciting.  When my floor beams come in I will start construction on the hay/shavings room but until then stay tuned as I have quite a few other fun projects up my sleeve! 

Slowly Chugging Along

I have not been up any big projects lately with the hot weather. What I have done is start a boatload of small projects that I can come and go to as I please.
Most recently, I ordered my 6x6s and 4x4s to build the floor in the second part of the pole barn.  The beams are being custom sawed so I had to put that project on hold until they are ready, then I will have to pick up my joist hangers and 2x6s for the floor and get to work. 

I also started tearing into the new four wheelers because I was waiting on the parts for Allyssia's four wheeler.  I didn't get much done on them before I got distracted by yet another project.

This is a project that I could not stay away from, Old Smokey and my sickle bar mower!  I got my new and improved Pittman arm ends back from Mid State Welding and they are better than the originals.  I had to drill all new holes but I found that to be a good thing because I was able to put the holes where they needed to be to strengthen the ends and I used bigger bolts on both sides.  It took three tries to get the Pittman arm the right length mainly because I was trying to make it as long as possible without hitting anything to give extra support to the Pittman arm ends. 

Finally after weeks of testing and breaking it - I greased, tightened and checked everything once more and I was able to mow the pasture! Even though I had run it a little before it is still hard to get used to running a sickle mower, especially one this old. 
But, I was able to make it look like I knew what I was doing and I even mowed some of the empty field areas in addition to the pasture pictured above. 

After knocking down all of this hay I am not sure what to do with it all.  I need a rake and a cheap baler so that I can make some mulch hay at least. For now though, I am just glad to have a running mower and that I have Old Smokey to run it.  This isn't the last you have seen of Old Smokey and the sickle mower but for now it is a check off the list!
(Allyssia is SUPER happy it is finally done!!! ;-) )
So until next time stay tuned and check back often. 

Project Closure and Project Beginings

As promised I finished the wall in the hay room.  Finishing it up was just a matter of running a hammer, a bucket of 16 penny nails and some pine boards.

Since the wall is just to keep tractors out - I mean keep the hay in, it didn't need to be a full boarded wall and this way I saved a lot of money on lumber.  The nails were all left by the previous owner just like the 8 penny nails and the boards I used for the floor.  I still have the other side of the pole barn to frame and floor up but I cant order the lumber from Dimension Lumber until Monday as they are o vacation. I started some other projects and last week I picked up a new project.  The first and most important project is one I have been putting off for a while but have finally tore into, Allyssia's four wheeler.

Its a 1999 (much newer than I am used to) Polaris Sportsman 335.  We took it in on partial trade for horse board along with a parts machine that had been cut and welded with a longer frame.  I had to replace the whole front end on this Polaris because it had fallen off a trailer and beaten the gearbox and hub assemblies to hell.  I swapped the front end over and got it running for the summer until it started running rough.  That winter I rebuilt the carburetor and still the same problem.  After asking around and doing quite a bit of research and testing I determined that the intake boot was either cracked or not sealing up and letting air into the engine causing it to not idle and making it run rough. Well this little jem right here is hopefully the culprit and for $25 I will have it fixed!

It was easy to remove and I hope it goes just as well going back in.  Once Allyssia's four wheeler is running and ready for the trail I will move onto the project that I didn't need but bought because I just couldn't pass them up.  I brought home 2 Yamaha Big Bear 350 four wheelers.  One of them is rough, it needs all four tires and who knows what. But the other has four good tires, great compression and even fires over with a little bit of gas squirted into it. 

Just like most things I get it is nothing pretty to look at but once I get it running it will be a fun little machine.  Stay tuned for updates on both four wheelers and all of the other projects in between around here!

Allyssia's Hay Room

I am blogging into this project halfway through because quite frankly I started it quite suddenly and it moved along so flawlessly.  I started out this project with two twelve foot six by sixes to span the distance of the first bay in the pole barn.  Allyssia would like the whole barn back there but Old Smokey has to have a place to winter so the middle is off limits. 

As I said this first picture is a ways into the project but I got distracted and forgot about the pictures I should have been taking.  The six by sixes are especially heavy and were a bit difficult to work with but with proper leverage and blocking they are level and bolted to the upright posts of the pole barn as well as set on stacks of cinder blocks.  I went through a lot of cinder blocks on this project because each of the four stacks has two blocks buried under ground and two or three above ground.  I will have to repeat this process on the other side when I build the floor for the shavings bin and more hay storage.

Under this end of the beam there is now a stack of blocks holding it as well as it being bolted to the upright timber.  After the beam was supported it was on to flooring.  Luckily I told the previous owners to leave anything behind that they didn't want and so I ended up with enough 2x10's to floor most of this hay room. 

Towards the front I had to supply my own lumber but for the most part the flooring is all from the previous owners!  Once the floor was done I moved onto building a wall.  I did not do a conventional sixteen inch on center mainly because I only had four tall 2x4's but also because it is just for the hay to rest against and it isn't holding anything up. 

Allyssia and I also decided that the boards on the wall side are going to be spaced so we can use less lumber.  This will work out fine because the wall is just there to keep the tractors from falling on the hay - or is it the other way around?  Anyway, I plan on finishing the wall up this week so there will be updates to come. Until then stay tuned for the finished hay room project and a peak at the newest toys I acquired.