Carts and Waggons Galore!

I will be the first to admit that I have a major problem.  Not only do I love collecting old tractors and engines but I have this strange thing for carts and trailers.  I feel like I can never have enough carts and if I do that just means that I need another engine to put on the spare cart, then I need another spare cart.  It just happens to be a viscous cycle. First off tonight is the wagon I bought to build my Ice cream maker on,

  And then there is the Homemade cart that I finally after five years finished building.  I carefully got the Galloway set onto it even though it may not be its home for very long. 

And thirdly, just recently Grampa gave me an awesome cart that he has had for a good many years in the garage.  When he got it there was no wood and he built it up.

The Galloway will probably end up on this cart in the near future to make room for yet another project!!  In other news I have this weekend off and have had the Oliver carburetor soaking for a full week and plan on trying to run it this weekend as well as catch up on other projects.  So until next time stay tuned and check back often. 

The Little Focus That Could

So going back two weeks now we had an extremely icy Thursday morning. The roads were horrible and the town of Jay did not get out sanding until slightly late in the morning.  That just happened to be one of the mornings that Allyssia goes in early and leaves the house at 7:15.  On the way in after watching a bucket truck not make a hill Allyssia decided she was best to turn back and go home but after the sand truck went by.  Being smart and safety conscious she backed into a driveway to be off the road and out of the way for other drivers.  While in the driveway another driver lost control and jumped a snowbank and smacked right into the front of Allyssia's car.  Most importantly everybody was safe and unharmed but unfortunately the crash rendered Allyssia's car undrivable.

After a week and a half sitting at Allie Bond's Auto Body shop the insurance checked it out and deemed it totaled.  We talked about it long and hard, and decided since this Focus has done so well for us, we may get another one - so we decided to buy it back from the insurance company for parts and hauled it home.   For now though we are extremely luck to have the mini van and the new truck so that we have transportation.  Until next time stay tuned.

A Project for Allyssia

If you know me just by my blog you might think that all I do is just tractor related.  Now you would not be wrong to think that because a lot of what I post is tractor related,  but sometimes I pull out my creative side and build things for Allyssia.  Now this project I can't claim that I came up with the idea but I did execute it well.  The general idea of this project is to have a clean white table for Allyssia to take flat lay pictures on for her LuLaRoe business. Simply enough it started with a 36"x36" art canvas and a piano hinge. 

Hidden behind the canvas is a strip of plywood mounted to the studs so that I would have a good solid place to mount the hinge to.  Much to Allyssia's dislike I used every single screw that came with the hinge, but it wont ever come apart.  Now I would also love to say that I planned for it to be just perfectly hung where it just barely clears the baseboard but that was just luck!

After Allyssia decided the angle I cut two 1"x1" legs and drilled holes through the legs and the canvas frame.  To make it easy to fold up I countersunk the inside hole and used some carriage bolts and wing nuts on the outside.  This setup is so much easier for Allyssia to use and quicker too!!  Maybe she will pipe up on Facebook to let you know how well it has worked out for her!
Until next time stay tuned and check back often. 

Retiring Black Beauty

Yesterday I was finally able to share some amazing news that Allyssia and I have been keeping a secret for a while now and wanted to leave that blog post to just revealing that.  Today I have some bitter sweet news.  After bring my old truck in for an inspection sticker a month ago I came to find out that the old girl needed quite a bit of work for an inspection sticker.  I was pretty hurt by this news but was planning on doing the work to keep old Black Beauty on the road for another year because this truck has been through a lot with me. 

You can't go to far down though my blog without seeing this truck in the background or even being the center of attention.  This truck spent many a day up to Peru at my old woodlot hauling equipment up there and hauling wood back home and has been on so many excursions chasing old tired iron.  We discussed the options of fixing what needed to be fixed or buying a newer truck and I started to get prices to have the repairs done until the transmission started to leak, actually hemorrhage transmission fluid.  It took me multiple quarts to plow the driveway last storm.  With no inspection sticker and leaking ATF we started cracking down on finding a new truck.  After testing and checking out multiple different trucks we settled on one in our price range.

It is a 2005 Ford F-350 with 70,000 miles on it.  It is rust free with good tires and it already has the goose-neck rails in the bed.  We ended up going with the dual rear wheels because it was one of the only low mileage trucks in our price range.  We were also looking to upgrade the cab size to fit a car seat in the coming years so this extended cab fit the bill.  It's not my old faithful black flatbed Ford but I think that it will serve us very well.

As far as old Black Beauty goes I plan on fixing the problems over time.  If I have the time I can fix most everything myself such as the floor pans and cab mounts and when the time comes I can dive into the transmission.  Until next time stay in touch, check back often, and don't forget to leave a comment. 

A Must Read! Rolling into 2019

This year is going to be an amazing year for our family. Not only will we be marking our first year here in our permanent home but we are adding to our family.  Coming this July there will be a little Timberlake here on the farm.  We couldn't be any more excited to add to our family.

Having a baby in the house is going to be a huge change to our normal routing but we both think it will be a change for the better.  Allyssia will have to take most of the summer off from riding but next year she will be right back at it.  That is enough exciting news for tonight so tomorrow I will be back with more excitement concerning the background of our photo today.

The Christmas Gift that Keeps on Giving

Allyssia really out did herself this year for Christmas.  She had the mentality that she should give the best gifts that just keep on giving.  Allyssia spends all year picking out gifts and deciding what to get but this year she outdid herself last minute.  Thinking of my favorite hobbies she got me a model steam engine to play with that I can use IN THE HOUSE!!

This is called a Wilesco candle powered steam engine.  It is just a toy but when I am typing blog posts it is fun to have it running and puttering away in the background.  Other than old engines and rust I also love Snoopy!  I have more Peanuts comic books than I can put on a shelf.  Knowing this Allyssia ordered a Snoopy and Woodstock on a Farmall from the Bradford exchange.  She was thinking it would be just one but a few weeks after Christmas a different one arrived. 

We found out that there are four in the collection and I will be getting all four of them!  The next one looks to be a Super A while these two are a C and a B.

 Lastly to outdo herself She got me a pair of concert tickets to a Dropkick Murphy's concert!  That will be a fun start to the summer! Until next time stay tuned and check back often. 

Just the Hitch Left

Work has been keeping me busy lately and to be quite honest I have barely done a thing except for keep the wood stove burning.  My problem lately has been that my shop takes a while to warm up and by the time I get home from work it would be a waste of oil to try to heat my shop up for the few minutes I would be out there.  This past week we did have one nice day that I made it into the shop with multiple layers on and attempted to finish a project.  As I said before this project has been in the process for around five years and I am finally finding time and a reason to finish it.

This is going to be the Galloway trailer when it is finished.  The trailer is two lawn mower front axles welded to some two inch box tubing.  The rear axle is welded straight while the front steers like a hay trailer.

I went the sturdier and more adjustable route with the steering and used Ball joints on the steering rods rather than just a solid rod like the original lawn mower had.  When I started this project I was able to pick the frame up to move and store it but now with the wet hemlock boarding and the extra hardware it is to be wheeled around only!

Saturday I plan to finish the hitch and mount the Galloway onto the cart.  I would love to stay caught up on my blogs a little bit better but with my work schedule I fall behind.  To make up for this I am going to start posting little sneak peak previews on my Facebook page and doing multiple blog posts over the weekend when I am not working.  So until next time stay tuned and as always check back often for more fun.