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RedSquare mentioned around the 1:02:00 mark

My mom has been poking around going through old stuff at the house. She found this newspaper clipping from summer of 1974. Bruce of course is my late father. @Qball Yes... The Ugly Bruce. The plant in the following piece is still alive and thriving. If it was blooming in 1917 it was at least several years old then. So now it's 110? More? Horticultural Happening In Petersham By RUTH BASSINGTHWAITE PETERSHAM - Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Banks of Hardwick road recently had a "horticultural happening" in their home. A spider lily plant, last known to blossom some 15 years ago, began to bloom with one after another of the slender flowers appearing as day followed day. The bulb from which the plant has grown is known to be at least 60 years old, members of the family say. It belonged to the late Mrs. Lizzie Rich, Banks' great grandmother. In June of 1917 the plant responded to the bridal blooming month by wholeheartedly for the wedding of Edward and Mildred (Rich) Welch, the present owners' grandparents. Mrs. Vernon Banks, formerly Roberta Welch, had the plant for many years, but, not considering herself a green thumb expert, just "let it be" until her son and wife set up their own home. Mrs. Banks considers her daughter-in-law to be "a good hand with flowers" and it must be so. The younger Mrs. Banks noted that it was possible to witness the unfolding bud to flower production in an hour or two. How she had time to watch is a mystery to us as "almost four year old" Eric, and Heidi and Alana, nine month old twins, provide plenty of action every hour of every day.

Got these 16 x 6.50 - 8 for 10 bucks ea.

The 854 got a spiffy new set of adjustable tie rods commissioned from @ri702bill. Beautiful craftsmanship! Much improved steering now that the toe-out has been corrected. When giving it a test ride, I discovered that the tractor's left turn radius is a few inches tighter than its right turn radius when the spindle arms are hitting their respective stops. Only quirk is that the ball ends that I sourced have SAE threading on both the male and female parts, but the flats are metric! The shaft flats are SAE because Bill turned them from SAE hex stock.

Here you go then The line up 73 16 Auto & C160 68 Raider 12 68 Commando 854

11/16/25 I was going to look at a 314-8 with a BerVac 46” snowblower and a 42” RD (pretty mint!). 462 hrs!! He was the original owner and had all the paperwork from when it was new. So, we struck a killer of a deal. Did I mention that he said it hadn’t run in 6 or 7 years?! I rolled the dice, (I mean, hey it was a Kohler!!) I got it home. It was snowy out but i got the mouse nest out from under the motor tin and i pushed it back into the garage for the winter. Till today!! I did all the usual… cleaned out the tank, put in a new shut off valve, new lines, filter and primer bulb. I rebuilt the fuel pump and cleaned out the carb. There may have been a few things i forgot in there. But, primed the motor and it fired right to life!! It was a bit Smokey at first, 30 seconds into it and it didn’t smoke a bit! I made it around the yard once and the drive belt had had enough, it was toast!!

Cleaned up a downed apple tree at my mom’s house today. The tree had just started good apple 🍎 production! Uses the 314- 8 of my brothers anddhis 4 wheel wagon as our other Wheel Horse cart was being used by their neighbor . Five loads in the four wheel wagon and she was cleaned up!

Kinda kept this project quiet over the winter. Purchased it from @Buckeyes last year. Although I have original 4hp Kohler (w/matching patina) I decided to go with a more unique powerplant. 3hp diesel. Some modification needed to make it all work. Air cleaner wouldn't fit under hood so I had to improvise & use aftermarket. Slight modification to original belt guard mounting to get it to fit. Got original throttle lever to work w/diesel throttle control. Tried to make it look as original/subtle as I could. Usually starts on the 1st pull thanks to decompression lever. Think it will be my cruiser for when I attend shows..... 20260210_130010.mp4

More pictures of the diesel all painted my 74 year old dad did an awesome job using spray paint

Slapped some brush painted red on this dethatcher today (gray just wasn’t going to cut it!)

Put a 48" deck on my front mount. replaced 42. Truth here I abuse this machine use it more like a bush hog clearing pathways ... This is a tired old 48 with some see though parts and several welded patches...

Treated the lawn today with Scott’s Max Weed and Feed. Never used Max before but Weed and Weed in the past did pretty well! Used my 1962 Wheel Horse 702 and my Stryker spreader! Took about one hour. 51% chance of rain this evening and 100% in Wednesday! So i took a chsnce by spreading today!

Just joking of course. I'd love to be up there with them. Not sure I'd do touch and goes in random fields they way they do, but fun to watch. I was running my compressor and didn't hear them in time to get great pics, but this is my back yard.

Just back from enjoying a visit with some old friends in Ocean City, Md.

Just got me a 418-8 tonight, been wanting one ever since I got a 418-A couple summers ago. Needs some cleaning up but runs sweet and decent older 48" deck. Of course the paper ID tag is wasted on it. What would be the model number on it?

Your title is made up of the four most expensive words in the whole English language

Been riding quite a bit this week. Today I went on a stretch of the trail that I haven’t been on in a loooong time. It goes right thru the center of a small city which usually doesn’t appeal to me, but I actually had a great ride and eventually I passed thru the city and back into the woods. Stopped to snap a lot of pics:

April 11, 1970, Apollo 13, the third lunar landing mission, is successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise. The spacecraft’s destination was the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon, where the astronauts were to explore the Imbrium Basin and conduct geological experiments. After an oxygen tank exploded on the evening of April 13, however, the new mission objective became to get the Apollo 13 crew home alive. At 9:00 p.m. EST on April 13, Apollo 13 was just over 200,000 miles from Earth. The crew had just completed a television broadcast and was inspecting Aquarius, the Landing Module (LM). The next day, Apollo 13 was to enter the moon’s orbit, and soon after, Lovell and Haise would become the fifth and sixth men to walk on the moon. At 9:08 p.m., these plans were shattered when an explosion rocked the spacecraft. Oxygen tank No. 2 had blown up, disabling the normal supply of oxygen, electricity, light, and water. Lovell reported to mission control: “Houston, we’ve had a problem here,” This is such a coinsurance that Artemis 2 completed its nearly flawless mission the day before the 56th anniversary of launch of one of NADSA's most spectacular seat-of-the-pants engineering feats.

Lots of good wood for smoking. Apple wood smoked ribs on the menu anytime soon?

April 17, 1964 The Ford Mustang officially debuted at the New York World's Fair in New York City.

Thanks to the dimensional info from ebinmaine and the information previously posted by others I've made some progress on fabricating the grader blade components. Other than the block that the lift arm connects to on the main support arm, it's ready to weld together. The blade itself has previously been fabricated. I'm currently waiting on the plate that bolts to the blade, I'm having it bent to shape in a fab shop close by. After that I'll mill the three slots and make the pivot pin. I'm sure the lift arm won't be exactly like an original, but it should be close enough to function.

Not today, but YESTERDAY... We took a road trip to Mechanicsville to see @richmondred01. Along with the rebuilt K341s I bought home, I was fortunate to procure a nice straight fender pan and hood. Thank you sir! We took the scenic route home, through the Shenandoah Valley. The most difficult issue was iris continually trying to route us back to 95 and DC/Baltimore traffic. Aside from that, it was a really great day. Straight as an arrow, nice patina. And look, no spider cracks on the fender pan!

Doubled…maybe even tripled the value here ! Found a 300-400 series rear fender decal in my decal stash-pile that I’ll never slap onto a fender. Last picture is what I started with.

Put a little bling bling on that came from Vinyl Guy. Changed engine and hydro oil and filters and added oil filter cooling tin gasket.

I figured this group might a good source of information since we have an appreciation of old metal with patina. My Son In-law gave me this relic he found while doing demo on an old house and barn he bought. Does anyone here have any interesting insights on this 5-gallon milk can?

Getting ready to paint the thing Got it all mask off

April 13, 1976, The US reintroduces the discontinued and never-popular $2 bill to mark the nation’s bicentennial. The bill carries a portrait of Thomas Jefferson, born on April 13, 1743.

If you fertilize it, it grows faster...I do not seed the snow clouds why would I want to make the grass grow faster... ???

Ive always wanted to attend the show and this is the year I’m making it happen. I have already got time off from work and I’m looking into reserving a room not far from the show for 2 nights. I plan on attending Friday and Saturday. I plan on bringing the ol’ lady as well. What all is needed when I arrive there? Is there a fee? I’d like to bring my 1257 to ride around on, maybe. I’d also like to try and meet most of the good people from this forum but I only know user names, is there a spot “red square” usually has? I look forward to the show and see all the stuff and tractors. I’ll be there Friday and then go back to the hotel and then come back Saturday. Hopefully that’s ok.

If anyone is interested in learning about a really complicated surgery involving replaccing an Aortic arch completely with a Dacron unit. Look that one up its called Frozen ElephantsTrunk repair, its pretty wild. I got this done as a re-do from an aortic root dilation repair from about 3 years ago. Spent a week in Maine Med in Portland. The Malone tower has really great staff and Dr Rosu was great. Now it's time for some rehab, again...

Good idea Richard but most of mine are picked up out in the woods making firewood. It's been suggested to duct tape pant legs to boots but that doesn't really work they just crawl over it but yeah spray your legs and boots down with deep woods off or the like. Best thing to do is check the missus all over in the shower at nite for them ... I got nailed three time by deer ticks ... yep the nasty lyme ones... and they left nasty scars. No pics Sylvia's visuals.

Prepare to be WH amazed. If it's WH, it'll be there. And hang out for the ice cream social and cruise night Fri evening. Time will go by so fast that you'll think you time traveled and missed a day somewhere so try to soak it all in. I'm fairly easy to find if you see the bike, so stop and say hello. Your welcome to take it for a spin too. What all is needed when I arrive there? Nothing except you're expected to have a good time. Park and enter the area. Is there a fee? Nope But as mentioned it's always a good idea to join the WHCC. I’d like to bring my 1257 to ride around on, maybe. Definitely bring it. It doesn't need to be a trailer queen resto and most tractors there are workers. I’d also like to try and meet most of the good people from this forum but I only know user names, is there a spot “red square” usually has? Spread all over but you'll be able to run into many I look forward to the show and see all the stuff and tractors. Bet you won't be able to see it ALL I’ll be there Friday and then go back to the hotel and then come back Saturday. Hopefully that’s ok. Absolutely. No admission, no tickets no nonsense. Park and walk or ride right in.

I'll try to remember to wear mine. Look for the Red Square banners. And a trailer load of 5 gallon buckets.

Thank you @953 nut , good info to know. I wouldn’t mind joining WHCC when I get there. Redsquare has a 20 year anniversary that’s really cool, I definitely wouldn’t mind being in a group picture. I will be sure to try and find you and other folks. I also look forward to looking at all the goodies, shirts stickers etc, maybe another attachment… I already know it’s gonna be an expensive event, the Warden is gonna see it all…. .

Dawn Power Wash dish soap works well.

My property has oodles of weeds. Personally, so long as it's all the same color when cut the same length, it's good enough for me.

Just buried an old friend today. Your post and todays service reminded me that we need to enjoy fellowship with those who we have grown-up and grown-old with.

Love the 418's. I too would love to acquire the elusive 418-C.

I was using a push type reel mower on my lawn in Mo. Once, a couple teen ages came walking down the street while I was mowing. As they passed, one said to the other "oh, it's a lawn mower". I replied " yup, it runs on beer and cheeseburgers".

Did some staging on my bookshelf in the family room. The Nylint in the background is new to me.

A 310 I picked up this winter that needed some TLC. A very low hour tractor.

April 12, 1954 Bill Haley & His Comets record "Rock Around the Clock".

My son has begun to really like riding his bike, so I drug mine out of hibernation to ride with him. Apparently as I've aged, the amount of padding on my saddle grabber has disappeared. So I swapped the seat to the "old fart non-reclining couch" version, and it is so much better! Looks a little dorky on my bike but I don't care... It's a Cadillac now!

I was an Army pilot. We don't jump out of a perfectly good aircraft. Of course mine were helicopters so it didn't make sense anyway...

Added adjustable seat tracks to HHHOOOWWWAAARRRDDD!!!

So, this winter was a little brutal as far as work on my Wheel Horse collection, but I did stay busy working on my oiler collection. Between my brother-in-law, my wife, and me, we covered a lot of antique shops in Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Florida. It wasn't just for my oilers, but my wife collects old restaurant creamers. So here are some updated pictures of my oilers There are no two exactly alike Mrs. M collects creamers. Here is her collection. Just like my collection, no two are alike.

Ready for mowing!

We pullum to the barn then turn tractor around and push back in barn. We use to have a barn or two you could pull through which made it nice and one that was in a pretty flat spot with plenty of room and I could back wagon in it pretty good. Use to pull tractors with a young man 20yr my junior beat anything I ever saw backing a wagon he actually won the state FFA competition of wagon backing in high school. Man he could fly backing that thing, he could put two in a barn before I figured out which way to turn steering wheel first time .

We got started on the boy's truck today. It's going to be a long process.