A Good Engine Trailer

Here on the farm I like to contemplate things for an extended period of time so some projects can take a while to come around full circle.  This trailer that I bought last Thanksgiving is no exception.  To refresh anyone that has forgotten, here it is, my Model A truck frame converted to a trailer. 

I finally decided what I wanted to do with the cart so off to building I went.  The main beams for the trailer are cross arms from telephone poles.  I found some these cross arms at my parents that were ten feet exactly.  Once I carriage bolted the cross arms on the frame I took some two by six pine my brother sawed out for me and began to deck it over.

Just putting a decking on it is nothing too special and I want this cart to be special so it gets even heavier!  First thing we do is put the dog on it - that should add some weight!

In all seriousness the next step is to get an engine mounted on the cart and then the roof. One of the hardest parts of this trailer was deciding what engine to put onto it.  Not knowing how hard the engine would go on and off once the roof was on made the decision even harder but I finally settled on the Reliance Air cooled engine.  Once the engine and roof were on the trailer I realized that the air cooled engine was the best possible choice!

Now sometimes it seems like I do not get pictures of the building stage and part of that is due to being distracted doing whatever it is that I am doing and part of it is due to my camera being blurry and the pictures not coming out well.  Here we have the engine trailer and roof completely installed on the trailer.  The roof is five feet above the trailer so that the engine will be easy to service if I need to. 

The plan for out back is to have some license plates across the bottom.  During the winter I am going to wrap the whole thing in mill felt to keep the snow off the engine and keep everything safe.  It is not ready for a parade yet as I have a few more things to add.  The exhaust for the engine needs to be piped up with a tractor flapper and I am looking for an old buckboard seat to go on the front.  For now though I couldn't be happier with how the trailer came out. 
                                                                    Parade Trailer Video
Hope you all enjoyed this post and the video showing off my new project.  Until next time stay tuned and check back often. 

 

Digging Holes

Early this spring my mother gave us a grape vine to plant out in our orchard.  We planted the grape and basically walked away from it for a couple weeks and when we went back - wow! The grape vine is absolutely flourishing and now I need an arbor for it to grow on.

Chasing down material for these projects sometimes can be the hard and time consuming part.  For this arbor I had to haul some scissor trusses from my parents house and get some telephone poles from Allyssia's parents house.  Getting the poles home is a story for another post but after gathering the materials and borrowing a post hole auger from my neighbor I was ready to go to work.

  I seem to be jumping to the finished product really quickly but there is good reason.  Between work and baby Roland I did a lot of the work on the arbor in less than ideal lighting in the evenings. The trusses I used are 16 foot long and the poles are set 12 feet apart.  In between them are landscaping timbers that Allyssia bought a few years back.  

The arbor is 8 feet wide and the width was actually determined by the landscaping timbers.  I also made it 8 feet tall so that it would be easy to mow under even if the grapes are hanging down.  Once the grape arbor was done and I realized how easy it was I started right in on a slightly smaller arbor for the kiwi plants I am going to put in next year.  The kiwi arbor is only 8 foot by 10 foot and 7 feet high.  The two reasons that it is smaller is that I only had 12 foot trusses left and we thought it would look better a little smaller for the kiwi's. 

In this picture you can see both the arbors as well as my borrowed 12 inch post hole auger.  the tractor mounted auger is a lifesaver and I would not want to do post holes any other way.  If you enjoyed this post leave a comment and as always check back often!

My Favorite Logging Museam

A few weekends ago; Allyssia, Roland, and I went on an adventure!  We headed out out in the morning bound for Bradley, Maine to the Maine Forest and Logging Museum.

 Since this is their logging show I like to bring my Quadractor with me because it is an odd logging machine.  Now a bit about the museum,  they are completely without power and have a huge collection of logging and forestry related machines set up and operating.  The main attraction they have is the Lombard Log hauler.  The Lombard is a tracked steam powered machine used for hauling massive sleds full of logs. 

I somehow managed to get to steer the Lombard on one of the many trips around the museum grounds.  The steering is not easy and is set at an uncomfortable angle making it even harder to steer. 
Another area that I got to help in was getting the wooden Bateau out of the water. 

It was not just the two of us hauling it out of the water, we had it hooked to a truck, we were just guiding it into the shed.  The Bateau would have been used during the log driving days to help the river drivers to guide the logs down the river.  Everything about this museum is amazing, the best part in my opinion is the water powered sawmill. 

Here is a view of the sawmill from the covered bridge that crosses the stream that powers the mill.  This mill is in amazing shape and they even saw wood with it during the show.  The best tasting part of the day has to be the bean hole, beans.  the volunteers make homemade bean hole, beans with reflector oven biscuits which are amazing.

We had ours siting on the lawn picnic style while Roland enjoyed laying in the warm shade.   There is so much more to the museum than what I have showed and it is worth it for everyone to check it out.  They are a hidden gem here in Maine that more people should know about and visit.  Anybody wanting more info can contact them on their Facebook page. Maine Forest and Logging Museum
Stay tuned and check back for more fun times like our weekend at the Logging Museum. 

The Parade and Pull

As a rule here at the Rusty Gold Farm we do not have extremely pretty equipment.  The equipment we do have though is well loved and most of all it is ours.  With that said I took a little bit of time this week and cleaned Old Smokey up and Saturday we went in the Wilton Blueberry parade.  This was probably the first parade that Old smokey has been in and if it isn't then it is the first in a long time.  With a full tank of gas and my sunbrella away we went.  In the parade we were the only unrestored tractor but in my opinion Old Smokey was the best. 

I find that a tractor is as good as the character that it has and some restored tractors have that character but Old Smokey, with the oil leaks, hand painted decals, and cracked steering wheel tell a story.  Old Smokey has done a lot of hard work over the years and now gets to putter away at sickle mowing, parades, and other light work.

 After the parade; Allyssia, Roland and I wandered around the Wilton Blueberry festival, which is a very hopping place when it is going on.  At around 11:30 we grabbed lunch and headed to the park where the Maine Antique Tractor Club was having a tractor pull.  I paid my membership dues and decided to try out tractor pulling.

 Since this was my first ever pull and I have never had Old Smokey weighed we all guessed on the weight and I got put into the 5500# and 6000# classes.  The class you are in dictates how fast the weight on the drag moves up off from the axle drag and onto the sled.  Seeing as I had never done this before the other club members that were there were more than happy to give me advice on what works best. 

 On my first pull in the 5500# class I pulled against five other tractors and only made it ninety one feet.  The other members were real supportive in giving me advice for the next class and made sure to point out that I did not have any weights and pointed out that I had my tires inflated fully for farm work, where for pulling they only keep 8-10psi in the tires to get better grip.

My second pull was actually a little bit shorter.  Coming in at eighty eight feet moving at a top speed of 2.5mph I was just happy to have pulled.  Overall it was an awesome time and to make it even better in the second class I won my first pulling ribbon. 

   

I also have some video that Allyssia took as well as my GoPro on the hood of Old Smokey.
                                                               Old Smokey Pulling
For me it was an exciting day but also for Allyssia it was a fun day.  When we got home from the pulls Allyssia got to ride for the first time in months. 

Since Tee pulled a shoe earlier this week she took Display out and rode.  Saturday they stayed right in the indoor arena but later this week they will go out and ride in the fields and have some fun. 

It is so exciting for her to get out and start riding again.  Allyssia is hoping to go to a Dressage clinic with Lendon Gray in November.  Other than that the rest of our weekend was pretty normal with yard work and relaxing.  Until next time stay tuned and check back often.