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Follow-up: The wife got home at 5:15. The kitchen was clean, dinner was on the table, and the only odor left in the house was that of the barbecued chicken breast fresh in from the grill.

The other day, I heard my wife declaring my two rollers a public eye sore. I came across these "dead" solar Christmas lights we still had laying around, decided to give 'em on last try today. Tacked them up in place on the rollers this morning, and look what I just discovered out the back window. I'm hoping they will bump up the Feng Shui, or something...and they get to stay put a little bit longer.

I've had my shed a couple years now. I went out to Sheds Unlimited in Amish country. It took about 6 weeks to get it. It's pretty cool the way one guy unloads and actually drives the shed to it's location. My neighbor is a framer and said he couldn't build the shed for what I paid. I had to dig a 40' trench to run the wire from my house to the shed. I put in 2 lighting fixtures, 7 receptacles and an outside security light with motion detector. I'm now considering a 14,000 BTU window air conditioner which will fit. My floor joists are on 8" centers with pressure treated joists and the flooring is pressure treated plywood. This shed company will do whatever you want.

Found this little guy last week. This little guy is in tough shape, however it seems to be pretty complete. The mower deck came with it, but it will need to have new sheet metal bent and made with the old deck used as a pattern. unless I get lucky and find a healthy one. Which project to start first

Some days I feel like going back to bed. Today is one of those. I spend all day Saturday wire brushing, and sanding my wheels. I might have mentioned that my powder coater went out of business, and my neighbor's sand blaster is not available at the moment, so it's manual labor for me. After they were done, I shot a quick coat of epoxy primer on them. Then Sunday I devoted 4 hours to painting the wheels with several rattle cans of Gloss Ivory from our friends at Krylon. They looked great last night when I put them in the garage. I gave them plenty of time to dry. Then, this morning I gave them one more coat for good measure, and came back 10 minutes later only to find that the paint had lifted and crinkled over 50% of the surface. Note to self --- you had trouble with Krylon before, STOP USING THE STUFF. Okay, I feel better now. So after baking them in the wife's oven for about and hour, I sanded them smooth again, then repainted with Rustoleum Appliance Epoxy (color bisque). They are back in the oven again. Wife gets home at 5:00 pm and I've got to get this smell out of the house.

My 2 520's and Ford LGT165 out enjoying the nice weather. Cleat

Awhhh...they're so cute. Hook, line, and sinker...yep, worked like a charm.

http://trecker-freunde-fans.de.tl/Der-Ersatzteiltr.ae.ger.htm# Be sure to open some of the sections on the left, there are a 100 more photos of these Wheel Horses in Parades, Carnivals, Pulls, etc., but it's all in German (but then Wheel Horses are an international language). Glen Question: Is there such a thing as a ' Viking ' tractor? This is not the WH made in Oosterveld Belgium in 1970, this ' Viking ' sure looks like an 1980's Wheel Horse 211, . . . I have seen photos of a small tractor that was made in Belgrade, CZ in 2010 that has the name " Wheel Horse " on it, but it has a unique look, more like that of a Honda Harmony with a grass catcher on the back.

I had several of my Wheel Horse's at the Centerburg Farming Festival last September when a family came along and were asking if i did work on any WH's for other people. I said yes and gave them my business card. They called me a few weeks later and I met up with them at their house to check out their 10 year old son's WH's. They had 3 or 4 around in various stages of disrepair. Seems the boy can take stuff apart but not too good at putting it back together! Lol! Well they finally got around to dropping off one of the kids WH's, a 1964 job. It had a bunch of stuff wrong with it and a junky Briggs motor that the previous owner had installed. A bunch of parts were wrong and a bunch more were missing. So they wanted me to see if I could get it running and fix it up a bit. Well my buddy and I fixed the motor and got it running but the governor was messed up. It ran ok but it searched up and down rather fast. We tweaked the carb and that helped a little. Mean while I did a bunch of painting and scrounged up the missing parts. It also had a ton of cross threaded bolts from the boys lack of wrenching talent. So I had to tap out that stuff and replace alot of bolts. We pretty much left some stuff like he had it, like the rims and muffler pipe, he said he put some bling on it! But the paint turned out pretty good and everything works as it should now with the correct WH parts. I even installed a nice 704 decal from the famed but hard to get ahold of Ed Mayhew. I finished it up this weekend after 2 weeks of wrenching. I parked it in my driveway when they were due to show up so they could see it right away. They pulled in and saw it and they didn't even know it was their tractor! The boy was freaking out when he saw his bling muffler on it and he told his dad that it IS our tractor Dad! The dad was freaking out too and they were talking back and forth about how awesome it looked! That was the desired effect I wanted! We talked about what all we did to it and finally the kid got on it to start it up for the first time! It ran well and he took off and rode all over my yard playing with the choke and throttle's. As he cruised it around his Dad was grinning from ear to ear as well as the kid too! He asked about the amount owed and he didn't mind paying the $235.00 at all and said he has another tractor he wants me to fix up. It is a 1969 Model 700 with a Kohler engine. So he dropped it off the next day! I gave them a big price reduction just to get the kid more into Wheel Horse's and to be a nice guy as well. So here is the finished product! A pretty descent little 704 with an electric start Briggs motor! Hopefully the kid don't take nuttin apart on it this time around!

Hello folks, the 518 that i was going to convert into an 8speed didn't ever work out. What happened instead was i found a 520 hc close to home with rusted paint, grenaded engine and bad frame (from engine plate not tight). I swapped the hc running gear, hydraulics and all the other bits n peices onto a 414 8 frame then finished it off with the onan and 518 sheet metal I like it!

Buckrancher is the luckiest guy when it comes to canopies. His has lasted since 2010 I think. He does a lot of shows. The Little Guys Show this year was so windy Friday night that I don't know how the canopy stayed up. Brian must be one of those guys with a horseshoe up his tailpipe. Edit: My new canopy arrived today.

For me, this is alway such an exciting sight to see...hope everyone who's got a pict like this will post it here too. :popcorn:

I am thinking about asparagus in my garden. The garden catalogs say that you can buy: one year crowns, two year crowns or three year crowns. If I shell out the extra $$$ for the three year crowns will I get at least "some" harvest in the 1st year? What best the best variety for taste? and for long keeping? Thanks Francis

This will be a long term project, but I thought I would get it started since I have acquired the tractor now! This is my first roundhood, so I need some trained eyes. I know it need a steering wheel and shifter knob, and I think the hood stand is whacked up a bit. What else is not correct/bad shape? What is up with the front spindles? They are like an inch wider than the rims, wrong rims or wrong spindles? The paint job is bad but it stopped it from rusting more. Everything seems pretty mechanically tight. I will be doing something special (yes it will be whee horse red and linen beige wheels ) with this one, that's why I chose one that is close to original but a little too much of a chore for full original. Here's what I brought home from Portland today (thanks Devin!):

Not showroom quality, but super nice to drive and pretty darn tough.

From what I was told its the style of piston used. my k241 had a b or c stamped on it I can't remember know

they are different colors.....or should I say...shades.... you can tell by feeling them also....

My crappy old Ford...

Not sure if this is the proper spot to put this. A couple people have been asking about the trailer I use to haul my Wheel Horse. It is a custom-built drop deck trailer. All I have to do is pull up in release the safety and swing the spring up and it drops the deck to the ground. No need for ramps. Here's some photos. Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

You see a lot of trailers that raise and lower like that around me..... although 99.9% of them have ice fishing shacks on them!

I just picked up this very clean Wheel Horse D250 tonight that also came with it the snowblower. Most likely going to sell the snowblower. As for the tractor runs great and the deck is also in awesome shape. Is the a D250 Club out there? Sent from my LG-D800 using Tapatalk

Well, that answers that. Will give you a PM Glen. And for those who wondered, .17 cent per is a very good price. Many of the ones I looked at were considereably more expensive. As Glen said, buying in volume really brings the price down. There were some clowns on the 'bay selling 10 for $10.99. One producer would sell a "micropak" of 106 for about .23 cents per. You have to buy a s**t load to get down to Glen's price level.

i've seen a couple of those on the german ebay, atleast i'm not the only one that saw a 200 series horse in it koen

For the Wheel Horse shows; I have had the EZ-up brand two years now and have been very happy; but remember they sell 3 or 4 different grades of canopies in that 12 x 12' size ($200, $400 and $900), you get what you pay for. Got the $400 model in Red, it goes up easily via one person and has four side panels if needed, expecting 5-10 years life out of it, very nice wheeled case (weight is about 75#). Got caught in one heavy rain at Scotts Meet last Fall near Warsaw, IN, the canopy ad says "not for rain", stayed under the canopy during the 20 minute storm with canopy lowered half, worked fine, no damage but the 2" of rain on the top canopy really concerned me. Glen

I would try to drill it out first....that bearing plate has a series of gasket shims to correct end play (I guess this is the correct term....) and you may need a gasket kit. The gasket kit comes with a bunch of different thicknesses of them. I used the same combinations of shims as what was there originally.... For what this is worth....maybe not too much....dunno!!!

yes pull the footrest, and being a stick shift I highly recommend a WH belt, cost about $30 instead of $20 but will work better and last longer. you can buy them at most good Toro dealers

Looks like you buried one.

Check with vendor Glen Pettit here on Red Square. I am pretty sure that is who I got mine from.

My wife was giving me the same kind of grief over a 1929 Farmall Regular roller sitting beside the driveway. Said she was going to call the scrap man or turn it into a flower pot. I fixed her though. Bought a house in town where we now live. The tractor is still sitting beside the driveway at the old place. She doesn't complain anymore.

Craig, what a great way to give CPR. See how long that lasts. Glenn

I bought my first red canopy (EZ Popup) off eBay from a company call Peaktop. It lasted one show (2011) and the top ripped. They replaced it no charge. Then 2012, and 2013 it was fine. Later that summer, I left it up in the back yard and we had a torrential rain. The top bellied, and the entire frame bent, rendering it useless. No free replacement, and they don't sell parts. So I just bought a new one. It's being delivered tomorrow. $159.00. http://www.ebay.com/itm/181366589252

Simple fix, just take all good parts from the one tractor and place on the tractor that has those parts missing so you end up with one running tractor and only one roller! Mark.

Looks like fireflies in June in the Indiana farm fields ! Not an eyesore at all!

Now that's funny -LOL!!!!

What does the "Little Woman" have to say about the new yard art ???

Freakin cool!

My wife would say "you're one sick puppy"

I feel like I got hit by a train

Ok, problem solved. Stupidity was the culprit. First off, thanks guys for the help and advice. It was a wild goose chase, but I'm glad I cracked it open and with mike's help, replaced the 1533 bearing. In the process I also replaced all the springs and detent balls. Everything is back together and running pretty smooth. Now, to the stupidity part. During disassembly I bagged and tagged every piece. Aside from several failed attempts at detent ball pinball,, re-assembly went pretty well until I went to re-attach the hi-lo shifter. All that was left in my bag was shift knobs an a cotter pin. COTTER pin, not a roll pin. Apparently someone many years ago had done a quick fix and used a cotter pin. And me not knowing any better just assumed it was correct. But right there in the service manual it says 3/16 roll pin. In goes the roll pin and the whole issue with too much shifter travel was fixed. I suppose it's possible there were issues with the detent balls, but my money is on that 10 cent fix. Thanks again, guys! And from now on you can call me Mr Cotter. For the record, Steve had it diagnosed from the start.

http://www.shedsunlimited.net/ It's a big website. It's got many types of sheds and options. All the prices are listed which makes it nice. My wife and I drove out there and ordered it. It was an Amish farm with Amish workers. There were probably 100 sheds or more in stock to sell outright. Check out their mule on their website. It's what gets the shed from the truck to your location.

I purchased 25 3 year, Heirloom crowns and they arrived last Thursday. The instructions said to dig down 18" (cripes) So Friday after dinner I started to dig and dig and dig and dig.....ect. First a 8' by 14' down to 7" ~ 8" or so. Then Saturday I dug two 14' by 2' trenches about 9" deep; so the bottom was about 17" deep. I filled the trenches with a 50/50 mix of good dirt, LeafGro and aged goat poop. I then placed the crowns on top of small plies and covered them with 3"~4" of the 50/50 mix. Then I filled in the remaining dirt. My daughter helped some but I hand dug most of it. I HOPE THAT THIS IS THE BEST ASPARAGUS I EVER ATE!!!!!! Francis

This is my 1979 C161 Twin 8-speed with the 16 horse twin cylinder Briggs engine and plastic hood and fender. The dash and the dash tower are the older style so the hood will not fit the later black hoods of the early eighties. The plastic fender is also thicker and seems to be a lot sturdier than the later plastic fenders on the black hoods. Perhaps the thicker plastic fender was too expensive to continue to produce so the next version was thinner? 1978 was the first year of the C161 twin plastic black hood. One good point is that there is absolutely no rust on the hood or fender. The tractor is not a worker and lives in a garage under a tarp. I do need to get it out and run it some to make sure the carburetor is OK. I did drain the fuel and ran the engine out of fuel before I put it away.

I love the horses, but I am really liking that Ford. It's a great group.

I'll have to be "USE WITH CAUTION" on the paved driveway for sure Brandon. Most of my snow removal is on a stoned road though.

little by little its getting there, now summer is here, hard to get time to work on it. finally got the drive belt 93-9809 (superseded the original belt number) also got some other parts to finish off, clips, clamps, this nut to hold the upper bolt on the belt guard.... also got the pto sorted after much frustration....... still need to purchase the locking pin for the pto but i found an original that i straightened for the time being.

I use good ole' natural lubricant when I need to push in a shut-off-vlave...SALIVA!!!

Just remember, MATE ... if it wasn't for us, you would be spelling it REIFEN !!!!

Here is a link to the push valve caution decal you are looking for. http://www.redoyourhorse.com/push-valve-decals/

Martha Washington is the better variety and go for the three year crowns because it will still take longer than three years for a good crop! asparagus: an all-male cast purple asparagus IT SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE, since it’s true so many other places still: In the asparagus rows, males are in charge. ‘Martha Washington’ and ‘Mary Washington’ were names you used to see most often in catalogs, but no more. Their weakness: The Washington strains include both male and female plants, and the males are far more productive if what you want is lots of spears. Who doesn’t? In the mid-1980s, Rutgers University, a state institution in New Jersey, began a program to improve asparagus performance that focused on the extra productivity of the male plants. The resulting strains, most of which have the word Jersey in their names, are what you want to grow if you’re going to plant asparagus. They waste no time or energy on seed production and go right to the task of making spears. They can be harvested more often (about every two to three days in a productive, established bed) and yield about 20 to 30 percent higher than the old varieties. But asparagus tests even the most committed gardener, asking for a major feat of excavation followed by a lot of patience. Whatever kind you’re planting, you have to dig a trench about 18 inches wide and 6-8 inches deep (some people go a foot deep). Since asparagus is best planted in spring, when dormant roots are sold by mail, prepare the bed the previous fall or in earliest spring. Order roots, or crowns, by mail for the freshest possible plants; they will be either one or two years old when you get them. Growers like Jersey Asparagus Farms will tell you which all-male variety is right for your region. To prepare the bed, first test the soil pH by following the package instructions on a home test kit, or by taking a sample, according to their directions, to a local soil lab. The lab report will indicate how to amend the soil, and with what material; the typical routes are sulfur to acidify and lime to neutralize, but neither is a quick fix—or the whole answer. Adding large amounts of organic matter, preferably compost, to the soil should always be the first step; an organic soil is easier to pH-balance. For asparagus, you are aiming for a pH within the neutral range, or about 6.5 to 7.0. As you dig the trench, put the soil you excavate on a tarp or in wheelbarrows beside the site. Then layer the middle of the trench floor with a few inches of well-rotted manure and soil, sprinkle with rock phosphate and an all-natural organic fertilizer according to label directions, tamp the bottom, then fan the dormant roots out over the mound in the trench so they look like so many giant spiders with legs dangling. The illustration from Cornell University, above, shows the “W furrow†that is created once soil or soil and rotted manure is shoveled or hoed into the middle of the trench to support the roots, after the roots have their first soil heaped on top, as below: Space the crowns about 18 inches apart within the row, and leave a few feet between parallel rows. When they are in place, backfill an inch or two of soil onto the plants and firm, then water. Once the crowns send up green shoots, shovel in another thin layer of soil (don’t cover the tips completely), and repeat this step through the summer until the asparagus trench is filled back in. Keep the area weeded and watered. Now comes the patient part. You cannot cut any spears until the third spring in the ground – a full two years after planting. (Sometimes cutting for just two weeks in the second year is suggested; follow the directions your grower encloses with your crowns.) Until then, simply let the plants go through their cycle of sprouting spears that turn ferny in summer. Don’t cut off any foliage until cleanup of the bed in late winter or early spring. The payoff is obvious, if you love asparagus. And, best of all, if kept weed-free and otherwise well-tended, a planting can last for up to 20 years. Did I mention that you can also grow the super-sweet and exceptionally pretty purple-spear varieties at home (here’s one source)? Maybe food for another post…

Yes, both are Tach-A-Matic® tractors and accessories from 1973 and later will fit.