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My widowed neighbor brought this sign into my shop about 3 weeks ago. Her special needs son had tried to restore it with a rattle can. She said she had a dream about the sign and my name came up. Would I like to paint it.? No way I can ruin a dream for a wonderful neighbor. So it became a project. I took the sign to a local cabinet / sign maker for advice on paints and clear coatings. In 2 minutes he had it on his screen. He made the sign in 1995. I thought about paying him to make a new one, but I knew my neighbor would prefer the old one. It had taken a 1/2" warp over the 30 years and I decided to not correct it, but added two ribs to keep it together. Used some soldering irons as wood burners to reestablish the outlines. Three coats of brown oil based enamel, three coats of gold water based acrylic, and the fourth and final coat of water based spar poly today.

We've put a deposit on a 2026 Keystone Coleman 13B. Coleman Travel Trailers - Compact Comfort Trailers - Keystone RV https://share.google/unmuxzxyGQupcq8Qc Basically an enclosed utility trailer with a restroom and great storage. This will give us the storage space to keep all our standard camping equipment in a permanent place. Likely upgrades will be an axle flip for increased ground clearance and larger tires.

I've posted a few pics of Trina's latest woodstove restoration project. This'n is a Timberline. It's now located in the new basement apartment for her momma. Here's a before during and after pic set.

I recently had blood work, MRI, and a colonoscopy. Test results all came back good. No cancer. Next blood scan will be the end of December.

Looks like I found a Work Horse 1848 less than 2miles from home. Ive seen a couple Wheel Horses/Work Horses in his garage but never anyone outside so I never stopped. Today he was mowing so I pulled in. He was immediately willing to show me his collection & offered up a beer too! He has failing health issues & said he needs to downsize. Carb needs cleaned so he said he will do that & make sure its running good. He's gonna swap mower decks so it will have a rear discharge. Guess its time to look for a 2stage now..... I asked him what he was thinking $$ wise. He said make an offer. I asked if we would be close at $500ish??? He said yes! Lastly, he even insisted on delivering it because he wants to see my collection.

Hello, long time lurker finally joined. Just wanted to say hi and share pics of my slow growing collection. Started with the Raider 10 to pull a lawn cart. Purchased from the original owner. Thought it would be easier on the lawn than my kubota. I was right but it also started my addiction. From there bought two 854's to make one good one. Then most recently purchased a Suburban 400 with Clinton engine. This site has been very helpful along the way and I appreciate the effort you all put into maintaining it.

Hello All! Added THREE tractors all at once yesterday(09/16/2025). Two model 854, and one model 855. The two 854 look pretty nice, but are not running right this minute --does not look like much more than a little tinkering/refreshing after sitting for a long time. The 855 was labelled a "parts" tractor, but except for it being Really well-used looking, it seems to be all there so I am not going to consider it out of play yet. The two 854's have rear discharge mower decks...one is a square style deck, the other the rounded style deck. I think it is really nice that all three are basically the same machine, separated by one year, yet completely different styles--the end of one era and the beginning of another I guess. There is an ID tag on the 855 (serial number 135166) but on the two 854 tractors, there is No tag under the steering like late models. Are the tags in a different place on older machines? Looking them over, I do not notice anything obvious. The 854 with the lower Kohler engine serial number has the round style mover deck, while the one with the slightly higher engine serial number has the square style deck. All for now! Be well and stay safe. [rayg]

My A-60 Electric Wheel Horse has a chain final drive from the transmission to the differential. The master link on the chain gave out so I had my wife tow me to the shop. Since the brakes are on the transmission I had no brakes which got me to thinking. I have a rather steep driveway up to the house and if the chain had let loose there it would be a coaster ride with no way of stopping other than hitting a tree. Not a desirable alternative. I looked the situation over and decided to add a disc brake to the rear axle. Took a little bit of measuring and shade tree engineering but the outcome was well worth it. The disc is much better than the brakes mounted to the Peerless Transmission.

I have been working on my little shed at home and remembered how Dad would always put Masonite(tempered hardboard) down for a nice work surface. The great thing about it is it cleans up nice and when it gets too messed up you just pull it up and put down a new piece!! The 1/4" 4'x8' sheet was less than $25 I am still organizing this shed at my house since I got it a couple of years ago. My shop is 9 miles away, so I have to have stuff here too!

So Mrs. M and I took some much needed time off from the world and stood on a corner in Winslow, AZ

Not super rare, but equally they only surface once every six months and there’s a queue waiting to grab them! I managed to acquire a suburban 400 from a young lad who bought it then realised he couldn’t do anything with it! Had a very large Briggs engine fitted, a VW Beetle steering box and too many hacks to mention. he nabbed the narrow rears and left me with the rest! gearbox full to the brim with water! Interesting stretch chassis to take a Briggs engine. lots of chassis patching! rolling..... making a new hoodstand steering gears - same size and ratio as the original - but will outlast them! looking more like it onto that gearbox it was a mess, all the bearings were gone! they had chopped the bottom of the casing for some reason nearly together - amazon packaging to the rescue as a gasket done - with a modifed C series shifter onto the brake drum - I turned down and old cast pulley. reamed the inside to 3/4" all done - just the pedal and linkage to sort.... Ewan very kindly fired up the forge and made me a pedal. new brake/clutch pedal in place - I thought a bigger bush can't be a bad thing! donor Clinton engine didn't spark - home made puller did a reasonable job. Points cleaned up and all connections clean - we were in action! didn't have a pull start either - so made a start cup and used a new tecumseh pull start finally made two footrests to match. Hard work in the press, but a modified bolster chisel did the job! Finished - just needs the right steering wheel and hood! Does anyone have something that could be shipped to the UK?

A year or three ago we decided to invest in a generator powerful enough to run everything in the home including the well pump, AC, & electric heat and hot water. We've been hunting for a small enclosure for it but as we're all well aware many of the available products are just cheap 💩 Well yesterday the BBT commenced to making one on her own. As usual it's almost all free/recycled materials. It turned out EXCELLENT. It'll be painted all one color. The huge cord will be hung inside the enclosure.

We miss you @Stormin, today would have been his 78th birthday.

Well if The Pullstart can make a mess in his backyard. Time for a new water source. Way overdue... in the 40 years I lived here all we had is a 11/4" sand point down about 25 ft. Always good water in fact it comes from the waters of the Mecan River which I live next to. Perrier once wanted to put down humongous wells at its headwaters and peddle it. They got voted nay. Since its all sugar sand here points only last 10 years before they plug. I had replaced it before but it and the pump are down in a pit and not to code. Real old Bucyus Erie cable rig powered by a Continental four cylinder diesel mounted on a newer Ford 800 but is smaller to get it in where needed. Manual outriggers! All you equipment operators how would you like to have to set them with every move. Since i can pee faster than this delivers water I have it cross connected to the sprinkler system which is a 2" point down the hill. That one is only down 10 ' LP tank had to get temporarily moved to get the casings in. So far down 60 ft with enough pipe to 120. I think they plan on 180.

Never forget Our Nation is in mourning, for those lost for our freedoms. There will be hatred always, but the way we handle it seems odd to this country boy. ‘Nuff said. RIP Charlie Kirk, a man who would respectfully debate with anyone, no matter their beliefs.

I am going to have some new Schnacke Nuts made for Kohler K 90 and 91 motors! I acquired a Schnacke with my latest RJ purchase and the 1 1/2 inch HEX Nut was already rounded which explained why the Schnacke was off the motor and the rope pull was being used! McMaster Carr sells 7/8 HEX rod in different lengths. I bought 12 inches which should make 7 good ones 1 1/2 long. I am also going to have the 7/16 x 20 threads placed on each end so the Kohler HEX Nut can be reversed and used on the other end after wear

Neighborhood mowing entrepreneurs. They have a couple old riders to mow, push mower, & leaf blowers. They have about 20 accts in neighborhood. They stopped by to see if I could fix the trailer tire. Sometimes I fix their equipment for them. Glad to help them out. Besides the kids in neighborhood nicknamed me "tractor guy" Dont know how I got that name! Their trailer kinda raggedy. I had a trailer I only used 1x & didn't need so I gave it to them. They were so appreciative.

I'm past due for an update. The paint is cured enough and it was decal time. I've been anxious for this. I decided to go with stock decals from Terry. As any of you that have used his decals knows they are idiot proof. Soooooo easy to apply with no bubbles. I still have a couple minor decals to put on. The headlight tub got a quick coat of silver and pop riveted in place. 5000k led bulbs. I don't need taillights so reflectors covered the holes. I got this seat with no tears but it needed a good cleaning. I'd say it cleaned up pretty good. The electric fuel pump is installed under the seat. About all I need to do is the electrical, throttle and choke controls and the usual odds and ends. In the background of the first picture you'll see some mufflers sitting there. Big block and a small block Nelsons and a stack with a flipper cap thingy. I'm not a big stack person but for some reason it's calling me. I've been pondering what chore this tractor will have and I've pretty well decided on getting rid of the 314H and slapping the 42"sd deck on this one. This had a 42"rd but it needs work. I'm thinking that will be a project for this winter.

Well maybe not a new home ... but I could live there. A new man mall just opened very local that I have never heard of before and I consider myself a farm n barn store connoisseur. Very clean and very well stocked. Tractor parts, tools, hunting, fishing everything a guy needs. Very well priced too as it goes nowadays. https://www.theisens.com/ I doubt many here have ever heard of it either. Apparently it's a small chain based in Iowa. This is only their 3rd store in WI. I was impressed. A massive hardware aisle complete with Hillman style drawers that wouldn't quit. I thought it strange all their grade eights were bright blue anodized. The grade fives were a bright green. For easy id at the checkout I'm guessing. Best part like TSC and unlike Ace or other places sold by the pound. The 1045 may develop a blue glow...

Did some more maint work on free 702 today. Also installed hitch I bought at big show from Brian @K&B Wheel Horse on Workhorse.

All six of my Wheel Horse RJs out for some fresh air today! 1958 and 1959s. Wheel Horse made about 24,000 in those two years and $2.5 million in profit- enough to buy and build a modern factory on south side of South Bend, Indiana on Ireland Road! I was able to save both original tires on the 67 year old tractor i bought s couple weeks ago. They still had the tubes loaded with calcium chloride but the old valve had started to leak bad!

While I had this blade here I made templates to replicate it using two 42” Craftsman snow blades. The snow blades were cut to height and welded together with both backing plates. Everything else was made with heavier material. When finished it was put on the back of my 1277.

I put stripes in the dirt too. Picked this spring tooth at a flea market for 10 dolla. Bent the hitch tongue with the heat wrench to get it to trail properly. Works great for keeping a fire lane open.

My first thought when someone mentions a garden tractor is my grandfathers 1965 Big Ten, as a young kid I can vividly remember my dad and grandfather hauling fire wood out of the woods across the meadow to the where he stored and stacked his fire wood. I can remember when I got to drive the Big Ten for the first time, I was king and he was there to show me how to mow and how to change the oil and how to remove the deck and put the plow on to turn the garden. So I was set on a mission to find a Big Ten. He sold his and upgraded to a 716. I tried to search for his but I got to two owners than it just disappeared. So I found this one in Erie, Pa. I dragged it home and showed him what I got I was so proud of myself for finding it and getting it running, I was able to get him on the tractor at 90 and he had a huge smile and talked about that tractor and memories he had. It is always amazing to me the attachment me have to just a simple little tractor. I was not able to get a picture of him back on a Big Ten, I made a promise to myself to redo this little tractor and show him but I didn’t make it. So it sat in my shed for a couple of years and now I’m ready to get this done. Started the tear down and these tractors are a lot more complex than wheel horses. I really enjoy the simplicity of wheel horse. I guess that is why wheel horse is so popular they are easy to work on.

Rolled into crab camp at 3PM and moved in for the week. And the relaxing begins.

Moved the 2” receiver from the Workhorse to the 520-8.

If anyone here has seen the movie "Hacksaw Ridge" knows about the heroics of Desmond T. Doss. There was a TV show, "This is your Life", and one episode, it honored Doss. To make this on topic, the show gave him a brand new Wheel Horse Ride-away. You can see it on the below video at 24:30. Dorothy Doss, his wife, died in a car accident in 1991 and Desmond, himself, died in 2006 at age 87. He was a real life American hero that most don't know about.

So, let’s get to some of the good parts! The biggest part of our journey was planning the road trip! Interstate 80 runs from Reno Nevada all the way to Southern Michigan. It was quite easy to plan our route. We never really made an exact goal, but we wanted to be home in three days. 2100 miles, three days, 700 miles per day was our estimated goal. That is not including any travel on Friday. If you can recall, I recently did a trip down to Southern Kentucky and home in one day. That was 915 miles. I set myself a goal to drive 800 miles Saturday, 800 miles Sunday and have an easy drive on Monday. I think I ended up around 900 miles on Saturday. We stayed just outside of Sparks Nevada on Friday and dropped $550 at Walmart on RV, fluids, food, and fluids for us. I wanted to make sure that I had enough oil, coolant, and transmission fluid for any surprise! We drove Sparks Nevada to Laramie, Wyoming on Saturday. We made it from Laramie all the way to the Iowa 80 truckstop on Sunday. That place is huge! Monday we made it home for 2 PM and was able to pick up Rylee from school with the big turd. We saw all kinds of cool sites along the way. We saw deer, antelope, wild horses, roadkill coyotes, it was all great! The views in the mountains never get old. I feel like every single mountain. I see I can take a picture of. I love it just as much as the one before and just as much as the one after. The colors that come out of the ground, the shapes and sizes, the objects that defy gravity, it’s also so beautiful! I also realize that when it gets dark out, there is a very predominant star to the east that I can see from home. Most likely anywhere you are if you look to the east, you’ll see what I’m talking about. I followed that star from Nevada all the way home. We set up a time, lapse camera, had fun, stopping when we wanted to, enjoy a little break at Bonneville salt flats, and all kinds of other cool places along the way whenever we road trip, I try my best to get up early and get a couple hours of drive time in before the world wakes up. we’re also battling time zones. Nevada is three hours behind Michigan and it seemed like we crossed a time zone every day. So, getting up at 4 AM kind of meant that we actually only got up at 5 AM. We lost an hour every day. now, we are home. We don’t exactly know what we will end up doing with this bus. There is enough water damage, body damage, and exterior needs, that we know a big project is going to cost even more money. I also don’t want to lose all the money we’ve “invested“ into this! for not now, I plan to replace the bushings in the track bar that are so sloppy. Then, we will take a breather from it. I did walk the roof today and was kind of impressed. It’s nice to know that it’s one solid panel, not a applied barrier of vinyl or other soft material. It’s hard, solid, and serviceable.

Was talking to a good friend of mine last weekend at the coffee shop we meet up at every weekend, his son (also a good friend of mine) sadly passed away about three months ago, so he has been busy settling all of that. Anyway he brought it up to me last weekend that he was ready to sell some things, and was wondering if I might be interested in the camper his son had. We have been talking about buying one for a while, for years I have attended various tractor shows and just camped in a tent for the weekend, or a whole week in the case of our show that’s right around the corner. Never has bothered me to sleep in a tent, but Courtney can’t stand sleeping in a tent and informed me after our show last year that if she was going to go this year we were either renting a motel room for a week or buying a camper. That combined with the fact that I knew Rick was going through a rough enough time and not wanting him to have to deal with all the tire kickers and idiots that come with selling something these days, I went ahead and wrote him a check for it this morning. It’s a 2006 Forest River Wildwood LE 27’. We went and picked it up tonight after work, needs some cleaning from sitting for a while, Courtney is going to start on that tomorrow while I put 4 new tires on it and check bearings and all that good stuff before we drag it 100 miles to the show grounds next weekend. Will get more pictures of the inside tomorrow. Almost forgot the free boat that came with it too, he told me to get it out of there as well, no title and the floor is pretty well rotted out, but has a lot of good scrap aluminum in the framework, and two good pontoons I’m going to try and sell to someone wanting to build a floating dock. All I really wanted or had a use for was the trailer. Offered to buy it from him but he insisted that I drag it out to the farm and dispose of it.

Plastic lined the 2 stage blower chute today. Still need to make new rubber paddles for the impeller. They're worn down pretty far but ran for a good 5-6 years or so. Can't remember exactly where I saw this plastic thing done but it might have been from a geasy Pete post. Thought I'd give it a try this year and we'll see how it performs and holds up

In the last few weeks we keep having what looks like different flocks of Turkeys grazing through the yard. Group sizes 7 to 20. We've been enjoying all the wildlife at our new home in Maine. We've had deer, Bald and Golden Eagles, Herons, and even what looked like an Egret.

I was given a 68 Raider 9 a while ago and had to ponder a while deciding if it should be rebuilt or parted out. I know parted out makes some guys cringe but the parts needed to save one have to come from something. This is going to be one of those 'somethings' and a lot of the parts will hopefully get in the right hands. The transmission, being a 5060 6-speed limited slip tweaked my interest. The hubs pulled without much of a fight. As I posted earlier, one of the lug bolts is mangled bad. I intend to weld a nut on the head but haven't done that yet. The hubs have two setscrews with both having a factory ground flat. I didn't know they did that back then. The input pulley slipped right off and the key fell out by itself. The brake drum put up a fight but I prevailed. The axle keys were ornery. I did end up getting one off with the usual hammer rocking method but one wouldn't budge. Enter the rotary tool and cutoff wheel. After 20+ wheels I finally created the clearance to get it out. Note the smaller brake drum key. It was like that before I attacked it. Fortunately, the keyway in the drum is fine. Of course I want to open it up for inspection. First I drained the oil. It was motor oil and pretty clean. Then I brushed on some Purple Power I've had on the shelf and hit it with the pressure washer. Not much need to be done before it turns red. Then it's flush time. As I've mentioned several times in the past, I hate the diesel smell. For years I've used Motor Medic Motor Flush. It does an incredible job with very little odor. I reuse it. After another couple days and spinning the input shaft now and then I'll drain it into a clean pan and strain it as it goes back in the bottles. I really don't know the fate of this transmission right now. I probably would have used it in the Dino project had it come along sooner. Now I'm thinking it would sure go nice in my 76 reborn B-80 since that tractor is now dedicated to the dirt/snow blade.

My son sent me a link to a recent Flash Mob performance in Paris that I thought was worth sharing with ya'll. A lot of time and talent went into this one time show. Hope you enjoy.

If I could find the top of my bench I would probably do the same.

We are prevailed to live in a nation that was founded on freedom of speech and religious belief. The protection of these rights against discriminatory practices is a balancing act. My rights should only go to the point where they will not interfere with the rights of others. That was the philosophy of Charlie Kirk, freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Charlie Kirk was an amazing young man who inspired others through his "Turning Point USA" campaign encouraging young Americans to live a life of purpose, become involved and vote their conscience. In his thirty one short years Charley Kirk did more to unite and motivate high school and collage students than anyone I am aware of. He used the Constitution of the United States and the Bible as the basis of his debate points and would allow others to make their point in open debate. This is a sad time in our history Rest in piece Charlie Kirk.

Celebrated 62 years with Mrs. K. Sept. 8, 1963

Watching despicable me 3 Gru I'm pretty sure is mowing grass with a wheel horse

I took out some tractors I had stored in my enclosed trailer to put different ones in to go to a show yesterday. When I got home I didn’t feel like reloading them so I just put them in the garage.

Dock removal day today. Tapped Clyde, the C-197 for hauling duty. Got 5/7 done. I ran out of daylight and energy. For @c-series don and @rjg854: Clyde, the C-195 at work, hauling dock sections and at quitting time:

I asked for a wood lathe and this is what I got, yes a landfill score. Might even be older than the Foley Belsaw 905 wood planer and the lathe looks to have babbit bearings with an oil wick to keep them lubricated.

The white domed building is the McKim Observatory built in 1884. It is owned and operated by DePauw University. https://www.depauw.edu/about/campus/mckim-observatory/ 140 years old and very well preserved. On the National Register of Historic Places and has the original early telescope.

I came back with more than I left with at the Meet and Greet…. This time it’s a 1983 C-85 with a K181 engine in a box and no transmission. But if you’ll remember back in May, I bought a trailer and truck bed full of parts and the C-141 Frankenstein Automatic from @ebinmaine. Well, there was an 8 speed trans that went with it. That went into the C-85 this afternoon. I have a 16hp Kohler K341 that came from a RV Generator that needs some small modifications to work.That is the engine that will probably go in it. I also FSAG mocked it up for Side shot Saturday and Sunday. More later…

Got a few in the new workshop space.

Well I didn’t make bread or pancakes but I did make progress. I got all the roof metal on. Just need to trim the ends a little bit. Wasn’t too bad. I ordered the metal 2” longer in case I had a bunch of sawtoothing on the ends from being out of square. I was a 3/16” off across 36’. Not bad for a regular joe.

No matter your beliefs, no matter what culture or lifestyle- No one deserves to die for what they say. We have alot to reflect upon at this time. Emotions are running high and the shock of horrible events doesn't ever really go away, whether 24 years ago or yesterday. I pray that God will be with us all. Regardless of your beliefs, it's clear more than ever that we need it.

Fabbed up a fan guard for my 875

Super busy weekend with all kinds of tractor fun!!