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With all that is going with the house I just haven't had any seat time for a couple months. But today we are swapping campers out and I wanted to grade and level the gravel driveway where the new one will get parked. So I got two machines out and got to work. Makes me feel almost human again, and the horses did what they always do- made hard work easy without complaint. I do love these little tractors! Of course the dogs were not impressed...

October 1, 1975 The Thrilla in Manila: Muhammad Ali stops Joe Frazier in 14 rounds in Quezon City, the Philippines to retain his WBC/WBA heavyweight title.

October 1, 1962 The Beach Boys' debut album, Surfin' Safari, was released . The album included their first single, "Surfin'," which was originally released in 1961, as well as the follow-up single, "Surfin' Safari" and “409”. The album reached #32 on the U.S. charts and was a foundational release for the "California Sound" genre.

Watched in amazement as a large hawk aggressively tried to reach a squirrel in my trap! When I approached, the hawk reluctantly took a perch in a nearby tree. I thought it might want to fight me for taking its breakfast so I was very wary. I returned the expired carcass to the area a few minutes later and left it for a bit but the hawk had departed. About an hour later, the hawk was back, though, checking out the empty trap! (I started reducing the squirrel population somewhat once they began climbing on the house.)

This reminds me of when my wife bought a brand new tiller from Troy Built back when it was still Troy Built. They offered a free bumper! I'm thinking what good is a bumper on a tiller? Well my wife ran the tiller into the garage wall. The bumper bent and saved the recoil!

Yep, They buy every farm around me for $20,000 / acre.

Well, if all goes to plan, today I'll be picking up the motor, transaxle, belt guard and a few other odds and ends.

Starting 7 or 9 years ago and averaging every couple, we've had a portion of the acreage fairly close to the house cleared of tree stumps and rocks, then flattened out. We began by adding a second driveway which forms a half circle off the larger older one. Then we had the garden area created. The entire area of the now 4 year old barn was built. Then another expansion off to the left of the garden. This year we began felling trees off to the right side of the house building knowing we wanted to get the excavator back and have him do the same treatment as the whole garden space. Rip out and pile up stumps, trees, rocks, etc. Reorganize. Recontour. Bury some. Stack some. Flatten some... Repeat. This is the closest I could get to a before n after. This is taken after 3 loads (14 or 18 cubic yards) were brought in to raise the area. This is almost the final product. This new flat spot will be the home of the camper house (carport ish) metal building. Couple more in progress pics. There's now a small ramp off the back right corner that a tractor would fit down. This'll give us access to the whole right side of the house for future wood processing. Also gives us a full tractor driveable path all the way around the house once the ground dries out. Another big part of this year's work was creating a nice wide long flat spot behind and below the barn. This'll be specifically for tractors, tractor storage, parts, machinery, etc. The intention is to move the 13 x 20 portable garage down from barn level to the new lower space. Also build another portable garage with the frame we got from my mom. 12 x 20 I believe? Both of those will eventually be covered with corogated type metal roofing like the barn and house already have. He had to lay over several trees and do a LOT of material movement for this. Here's a few odd angled pics of the area. I'll try to get a better view later. From the house deck. From the left side. For scale, that shed is 20 feet long but at a distant view. From below and behind. The portable garage by the barn is the 13 x 20. Another side view. We've been considering having a 4WD/ AWD vehicle usable path cut through the forest over past the barn for several years. Really since we got the garden area created and had need for moving materials down there. We'll still be adding size to that and of course adding loam and manure every year so we got the cut done this time. He felled a bunch of small to medium trees to clear the spot. The operator then used a portion of the old ramp, along with a large amount of material from a hole he dug, along with a full truckload of 1.5 inch max crushed stone, to rebuild the ramp for us. I find it extremely interesting that a professional excavator can look at our property and just KNOW where to dig for certain things. Yesterday he pointed to a spot and said, "I bet I can get gravel there." I reminded him about the rocks and ledge and he showed me a mound. A friggin mound. Somehow he knew that was not rocks but a place to harvest gravel. Here's that hole about half done. Several shots of the new ramp down to the forest, in various phases. Following the curve to the left here, it faces the garden area at the bottom. The last portion of the work was rebuilding some drainage and redirection of water flow to improve towards the frog pond and then to the forest. This is facing up towards the road on the far right of the house. The mo-chine.

After spending many thousands of hours operating heavy equipment in my lifetime I must say that guy did a nice job grading with that excavator. Looks like now you’re ready for some serious mid-mount grader blade action!!

My new to me D160 came with a paint job that I think was done in a hay barn. If you ran your hand over the hood it was ruff. You could feel and see all sorts of imbedded dirt in the paint. I took some #2000 paper and did a light wet sand followed up with a orbital polisher and it came out shiny and smooth as glass.

I finally finished rebuilding the transmission for my Dodge M37. This is the early-series synchromesh type used in the M37, which was later replaced by the NP-420 in the M37B1. It turned out to be a rather expensive project, as I replaced every gear, shaft, bearing, seal, shim, retaining ring, gasket, companion flange, spring, expansion plugs for the shift rails, etc., etc., with new or NOS parts. It’s now essentially a brand-new transmission. I don’t want to have to rebuild this again, so I was careful to do everything by the book, and then some. That involved lots of fiddly, but important details, such as checking clearances in half a dozen places (all of which are now within new specs), cleaning every threaded hole with a chasing die, replacing bolts and lock washers, making a new (improved) shift lever alignment pin, using appropriate thread lockers and sealers on the through-bolts into the case, pre-lubing with Lubriplate assembly lube, doing proper safety wiring on the shifting forks, applying proper torque to fasteners, and many other details. Here's the transmission all back together, just before it got its final coat of paint: Here it is after the final paint, which covers the fasteners, as it would have with the original factory paint job for the military: Now it's on to more engine rebuilding work.

The hawk is a very rare sighting for us. We do have turkey buzzards more frequently. I so wish I had somewhere in the vicinity where I could leave the carcasses without attracting raccoons to our immediate area. As it is, our DPW’s instruction is to individually double bag them and keep them in a shaded place before putting them out in the regular rubbish pickup. I’ve made a nice dent in our saved bread bag cache.

If I'm not mistaken all my hub set screws are 3/8" with a 3/8" square head. Never seen a 3/8" set screw with a 1/2" square head, they could make them I guess. I do know they make 3/8" socket sets in metric. I did try the 1/2"socket wrench into a 15 mm 12 point socket it fit. All my 3/8" drive sockets are 6 point, none fit.

Sid was travelling down a country road when he saw a crowd of people gathering outside a farmhouse. He stopped and asked Farmer Ellis why such a large crowd of men was gathered there. The farmer replied, 'Jo's donkey kicked his mother-in-law and she died.' 'Well, 'replied the man, 'She must have had a lot of friends.' 'Nope, 'said Farmer Ellis.' We all just want to buy his donkey.'

Tea is an evil substance. It is much more dangerous than beer. I discovered this last night. I drank 15 beers up until 3 am in the pub while my wife was just at home drinking tea. You should have seen how mad and violent she was when I got home. She threw the chair at me and kept screaming at the top of her lungs. On the other hand, I was quiet and peaceful and silently made my way to bed. But she kept cursing and shouting through the night and well into the next morning. Please friends, if you can’t handle your tea, you should not be drinking it. Please avoid drinking tea.

Organic Tobacco! Must be good for you if it is organic,

Looking good Paul. I am sure your father is looking down on you having a big smile on his face. And he saying thanks for taking care of the old tractor for me.

Got them on about everything that gets the oil changed. No, not cheap but worth every penny to me.

I do the same with my bread and butter pickle juice. I use half onion and half cucumber sliced thin. Fantastic is the word.

I agree that moisture is a problem. For one, there are no gutters and the water on the uphill side can make it's way under the foundation. I have suggested they make a swale to help re-direct the water. I don't think the building is heated except on Sundays and then they are using two of the wall hung ventless heaters--huge producers of moisture. The building is not insulated, except for 4" fiberglass batts in the dropped ceiling. Based upon my experience, not having insulation in these type of wall helps with longevity of the paint. Years ago we were working on a house with clapboard siding. After a rain, we were able to observe that the redwood siding had moisture on the backside. The house had blown-in insulation in the sidewalls and in cavities that failed to get insulation, the paint held better. I think that the insulation held the moisture and the siding could not dry as it normally would. I really don't know a solution for this small community church. Actually, I suspect the damage has already been done. Hopefully my work has added a few years to the building.

Only one question: You telling me BBT couldn't handle that with the fleet??? Couple hours tops...

https://wpitradio.com/comedy/video/eejfbcnu

Here's a passel o' pics from Trina. Good straight on view of the new camper house spot. Several angles of same. This is the ramp off the back side. This is a good straight view of the flat spot behind the barn. Here's where the new vehicle usable path will eventually continue down the hill, to the left of the hemlock tree, and bend right, towards the garden. We will likely need a culvert just past the tree. There are other pics showing the V shaped water course. The rest are various views of the project from different viewpoints.

Brings back memories of two HS summers as a house/barn painter. Hard, honest work and well paid. We had a 40’ ladder that I used often and could handle myself--ah, youth! Boss was a real character but he taught me a lot about how to paint and how to be a good worker that I’ve used ever since.

Yep. My spouse had a hip replacement six weeks ago. It was an outpatient procedure, and they had her walking (with a walker) within a hour or so after she woke up. She's getting around quite normally now and is only still using a cane because the doc wanted her to use it for one more week.

They sure did on this occasion!! I was quite impressed. I'm well aware that movement of an injured joint as soon as possible after the injury is excellent for a speedy and thorough recovery.

As you know our land situation is a little different from yours. We take whatever carcasses we have from whatever Adventures we cause and toss them out to certain places in the forest.

My buddy Joel shot a dandy this morning! He has a 12 point running around still, his property lease is paying off!

Your arm torque-omitor is clearly superior to mine...

Are you planning to enter a demolition derby? If Wheel Horse didn't offer a bumper as an option, you don't need it.

Tobacco? Those Amish know where the money is.

I used to work in a plant that made propellers for aircraft the original ones that you see on all the war planes. And I got to know a lot of other guys in maintenance and they also said the same thing. Timken bearings are top notch very expensive but you know the saying you get what you pay for. I like the progress that you’re making this project. Keep it up.

Not sure if this B-80 would be better suited to snow or mule duties: They may be small, but I got a heart of a lion. Very hard to kill those B 80s as long as you maintain them. I think I’ve had about four in my time.

Absolutely agreed. A good excavator operator can use that giant arm as an extension of their own. As a crane operator and a person who appreciates larger machinery in general, watching this guy work is always extremely impressive.

We carved a place in the hill 25 plus years ago. Amazing how a good operator just looks and then sees potential issues. We had a 4' diameter white oak stump, (tree got stuck by lightning and split), right in the middle. The guy ask, "what are your plans for the extra dirt and root ball" He said that root is going to be huge. The neighbor let me toss it into a ravine on his place. We had a medium size dozer with a bucket and it could not pick it up he had to drag it. I thought we could just spread out the dirt but nope, way to much, covered the root ball and made a spot for the other neighbor to park during winter cause the driveway was steep and he was to cheap to get a 4x4.(liked walking up the hill in ankle deep snow a lot) Our biggest issue with the hill was diverting run off, It can be tricky and not always looks the way you think it is going to work. If you get a couple inches of rain in an afternoon that really adds up. That transit can be your friend.

When we had the farm cleared of undesirable brush and trees. Watching the trackhoe operator was fascinating. He could be moving the machine, swinging the bucket and begin digging at the same time.

Hard to disagree with that but if I tallied up what I spent on truck loads of fill for 40 years I coulda bought a nice flat spot in the country and really put up some out buildings. Did I mention I come from a long line of builders and trying to find a flat spot to build on here is like the man who went crazy in a silo ... couldn't find a corner to crap in. Worst part is the flat ground I did have I put in evergreens and can't bring myself to cut them down. Nobody told me years ago they were gonna grow and become a nice woods.

Looks to me like your tired of living on a hill. Ask me how I know. Someday yer gonna finger out $h1T runs downhill.

Great project. I’d love to add a 551 to my collection. I made a pair of weights similar to those for my 401. Ford Taurus rotors with the vents filled with molten lead, then machined the outer edge smooth on the brake lathe for a finished look. Bolted to the wheel with 2 bolts, then sandwiched between the hub and wheel. They’re around 25 pounds each.

All fine and dandy until a stick ... which you should have picked up before ... jumps up and opens the valve and decides to oil the deck. Luckily you saw it happen in time. So then you remove the handle and promptly forget where you put it at oil change time. Since SWMBO isn't around 953nut gets the blame ...

Video from Trina

None of them are suitable for a wheel horse, they are too wide and as bill already mentioned they would get in the way of opening the hood unless you mounted them a couple feet out front. You need to get off Facebook and get out there in the shop workin' on whatcha already got.

When we built our house I included some extra garage space for a ramp I knew we would need sooner or later. When my wife broke her ankle five years ago it was time. Since then My stroke and wife's back problems have made it a necessity. I painted the ramp with some non-slip paint and it works great. A pair of round hand rails on each side were added as well as base boards inside and out to help guide the wheels.

Today a me and a good friend of mine built a ramp for my 88 year old mother. She still lives on her totally on her own and still drives during the day. In her garage there is concrete steps and I was worried about her falling on the concrete floor. We built it wide enough in case someday it needs to be a wheel chair ramp. She said she is still walking and doesn’t even want to think about a wheelchair!! I certainly hope I can make it to 88 and be as witty and mobile as she is.