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Anybody else get sidelined for a while with this Covid mess? I’ve ended up tackling projects I otherwise wouldn’t have gotten to. First on the list is building Emory and I a man cave den in the basement. I’ve worked pretty steady on it for the last 5 weeks or so and havean’ t been able to be on here much. I’m nearing the end of this project and busting up the old concrete back porch and pouring a new one is up next. I need to put a drain tile in the back yard to divert water during hard rains. I need to paint the house trim and replace some brick mold around the windows. Lastly, will come cleaning out the garage. Big list, but with no shows this summer I think I can spare the time. We’ve lived here 15 years and are just now having time for these improvements. Below is a pic from when I first started with only the soffit around the ceiling done and some up lighting in. The others are where I am tonight. I’ll post more as I finish up. Emory is in hog heaven for us to have our own space!

Well it was one year ago today I went into the hospital for the surgery on my stomach. My journey actually started in Feb when I had a cancerous tumor removed in my throat. In Feb. they removed the tumor, tonsils,and part of my pallet. While in the hospital then ( 10 days) is when they discovered the mass on my pancreas. With the surgery on my throat that cancer was also going to be treated with radiation to the neck and face. 33 rounds. So in Feb I already knew I was in for a fight. The surgery and the radiation on my throat was going to be a hard fight by its self. Now I just found out I have pancreatic cancer as well. So after the throat surgery I was supposed to start my radiation. That changed as now I have to have surgery on my stomach. I cant even begin to tell you what goes through your mind when your being told you have pancreatic cancer. Your not thinking the best I will just leave it at that ,because like I said... words cant describe. So now all of a sudden the throat cancer is like forgotten. So now here we are to this date one year ago. I am being driven to the hospital at 4:30 in the morning by my mother. I didnt speak a word. I am just thinking that maybe it would be best if I just didnt wake up. Is all this going to be worth it? What will my life be like? Will I have a life? Will it be worse then they thought? I am not thinking sunshine and roses. I want to add this in here because I think its important that you have to understand what this does to you mentally. Cancer isnt just physical. It changes EVERYTHING. Mentally , financially, physically... EVERYTHING changes in a snap of a finger. So my surgery lasted 8 hours. They removed half of my pancreas, my spleen, my gallbladder, and a large section of my bowels. i wake up and I have tubes coming out of me everywhere. I mean everywhere and I am stapled up from below my bellybutton to my chest plate. That part is over. They tell me everything went well. I need to get up and walking around. Quicker I do that the quicker they can let me go home. Well understand that it would be hard enough to walk after the surgery but I have a tube going up my nose down into my stomach. I have 3 drain tubes going out of my stomach. I have a catheter coming out of you know where. An IV sewn into my neck and IV in my arm. So lets go for walk. I am doing very well. I am up walking, climbing the stairs. Doctors, nurses all telling me they cant believe how good I am doing 2 days after the surgery they are talking that maybe I can go home with some home health care. Remeber how things change with the snap of a finger I mentioned before? Well it happened again. Everything that could go wrong started going wrong. i wont go into all the details but I had many complications. During that time I had several other procedures done, I was restricted from any kind of food I was feed through IV, nothing my mouth. It was HELL. I went into the hospital in April and didnt get sent home until June. Everyday thinking what are they going to do to me today ? Whats the bad news going to be today? How much more can I take? Is the worst over? So June I came home. Was soooo happy to be out of there but so scared to be alone. I still had drain tubes, feeding tube coming out of me. i had a nurse come to my house twice a week. Still very week. Well being home didnt last long. I was home about 2 weeks. When back to emergency I went. I was feeling really weak I had an appointment to see my Surgeon. I went to his office and his Nurse took one look at me and asked if I was ok and I shook my head no. Was all I could do to walk, I had to hold the wall. My blood pressure was 76/40. She quickly got me to Emergency room. Sat there in a wheelchair for 30 mins until they wheeled me back. Took my blood pressure again thats when I saw the panic in their eyes. I was rushed into this little area There was like 8 people working on me all moving very quickly, where they ripped my shirt off and started jabbing IV needles in both arms. This is where I was most scared. I felt myself slipping away. hard to describe it. My vision was going tunnel and what was going through my head was " I went through hell in the hospital and this is how it ends? " Im going to die in the emergency room". Well I didnt die but back to the hospital. I had an infection and a leak from where they stitched my bowels together. Off food again IV feeding an IV antibiotics. Again imagine whats going through my head. I am wondering how much I can take, but I am taking it, I am still fighting the fight. So now I am better. I wouldnt say well but better and oh yeah, remember that throat cancer ? Time to jump back into that fight. They want to start my radiation. 33 rounds to my face and neck. Radiation to the face is no picnic. I still had the feeding tube coming out of my stomach because some people cant swallow during this procedure. feeding tube is to get nutrition in you when you cant get it down orally. So its now Aug. You go everyday Mon - Fri at the same time. They make a mask that forms to your face and they make a mouth guard to try and protect your teeth and the tattoo marks on your chest. You lay on the table,put your mouth guard in, the mask goes over your face and gets snapped into the table so you cant move. There are marks on the mask and tattoo dots on your chest. They line up lasers to your marks so you are in the exact same position every single time you go in. They leave the room and the Radiation starts. First couple times I am thinking this is nothing. I know it gets worse everytime you go. In fact even after the 33rd treatment you are still cookin. its like pulling something out of the microwave. Its still cooking even though its out. So the whole time I am doing radiation I am also going back to the hospital 3 times a week for Laser treatment in my mouth. The laser is supposed to help with the side effects from the radiation. Needless to say the side effects are bad. You cant even swallow your own spit. Thats if you have any spit because it also dries up your saliva. No spit but plenty of heavy white mucus. You cant even spit it out you have to pull it out with your fingers. Plus if you can still eat, I was able to still eat. I didnt use the feeding tube. You cant taste anything. You also get bad sores in your mouth. After my 33rd treatment they asked me if I wanted my mask... I said hell yeah. Not really sure of my point in writing this. Things are not over. Im still fighting the fight. My life isnt the same as it was. Cancer has taken a lot form me. It has brought me to dark places that I need to scratch and crawl out of. It has taken my livelihood. I can no longer do what I have done for a living my whole life. It has brought me to ruins. I also see the the silver lining. I see how good people can be. My entire stay in the hospital no one ever left the room without asking " is there anything else I can do for you" Not only did they say it... they actually ment it. The care i got was outstanding and these people were strangers. Not only caring for me but everyone else in that hospital. I am a proud man I dont ask for hand outs but I will take a hand up when I am down. Everyday I struggle to make it all worth it. While asking myself is it worth it? The mental fight is so much harder then the physical one. So here I sit one year after. Hard not to remember what I was feeling that morning driving to the hospital. What all I have gone through. How different my life is now in only one year and what this next year will be like. Still fighting the fight, doing what I have to do. Remembering how quickly like a snap of a finger it can all change again.

I just got my ohio steel rollin today. Had to shorten it by 3 inches because of rust. Worked out fine. Thanx to @Vinylguy for these great decals! Still have to do something with the wheels and put a truck bed liner inside of it. But it is now moving!!

„Freddie is Back“ after all fields are mowed, Freddie goes immediately to Hunt. I think there is nothing more impressive to see them Hunt. I can watch them hour‘s and hour‘s fly and hunt. Estimated wingspan compared to my RC planes is about 1,4 to 1,5m. There be two couples here in the closer Aeral. but Freddy is the biggest of them. His movement is more than mayestic.

What is Freddy? Do you have access to view the nest? Are they hatching young? What do they hunt? I spend a good amount of time watching our Bald Eagles. Our Pa. State Game Commission has several live feed video cameras on a local nesting pair. They have hatched several pairs of young in past years, but this year the eggs failed to hatch for unknown reasons. I collect deer that have been killed on the highway and place them in the field where I can watch them feed from my back porch. I also see them when I am fishing the streams for trout. They catch more fish than me.

Not really sure of my point in writing this. Because you felt it needed to be said and that's all that matters. Hope that putting your thoughts into words in some way helped. Just the fact that your here and able to express your feelings proves that your a fighter and that's a wonderful example to everyone. Looking forward to hearing from you again and praying the chemo goes well for you.

I woke my "Rat Rod" up from hibernation and put it to work. Nothing too strenuous, just hauling a tub around to to help get plants potted up.

I had to move to Virginia to find horses now you're robbing my backyard.

First i have to say that my wife is very understanding of my passion/obsession with my tractors so at the end of the day I have to chuckle. She said until you start to work on it.......... I'm using it. I said I'll sic the forum on you. I won't tell you what she said. You can guess. On another note I started looking at the 100 $ 312. Looks like a bad head gasket and exhaust valve. Seat looks ok and cylinder looks good too. And of course the usual clean up and lapping.

My third trip to West Virginia This year for Wheel Horse items takes place tomorrow! A tractor on the horizon with implements! Pics later tomorrow.

I am taking a heavy duty cart that was my Dad's and turning it into a mobile welding table/cart. Welder will mount underneath and adding on to it to hold the bottle. It will have 5/16" plate in the top, and I plan to add some holes for doing some fab work. I don't know what it was originally made for but its 1/4" T shaped steel on the top what seems like pretty heavy duty tubing. The wheels you see are what I am adding to it, they came off of a tool box I use for a dresser in my bedroom. I may take a while to get done, I will keep posting pics as I work. Enjoy!

Just wanted to publicly thank our friend Terry @ redoyourhorse for a little project he undertook for me recently . I've been looking for quite some time for NOS control knobs for my 520 hydro that i'm restoring, and I've also had numerous people contact me looking for these same items. They just don't exist. Most of us with 300 thru 500 series hydro tractors have the knobs, but the print is completely worn off. A couple of weeks ago I sent my good (but worn) knobs to Terry and I think he solved this problem pretty well. He will now be offering these for sale along with all the other great stuff he offers.

I have bee working a lot of hours and haven’t had the chance really to post much. 16 hour shifts lately! 😬. Will be changing that in July! Well it’s done a lot of raining lately so the other day when it let up the youngest wanted to play on the horses! So we gassed up and drove around before playing in the back yard ditch! The Arkansas RJ and the 753 and hubby’s 854 was our choice! Our oldest desires to ride the cart thing! We all had a great time! The RJ never slowed lol!!!!! The 753 and 854 belts got wet! Earlier the 753 had to be towed home where the carburetor got cleaned out and the sediment bowl. Easy fix for the hubby! Guess had stuff in it and wouldn’t stay running! Youngest and her father was cleaning the road side up! Then we relaxed around the fire for a s’more or too! IMG_0794.MOV IMG_0840.MOV IMG_0842.MOV IMG_0846.MOV

Well i dont know if its the cancer, corona lock down, or just that I am getting old, but when I woke up this morning I thought today was April 23rd Not May 23rd! Dosnt change my thoughts or what I have gone through but reminds me that I should go buy a big calendar ! I went in a year ago last month ... @Cvans yes sometimes it does help to put in words or say whats on your mind. I live alone and maybe dont express them as much as I should. Im sorry to hear about all others who have family and friends that cancer got the best of them. I want to add one more thing. So after I had my throat surgery and before my stomach surgery I met with my Radiologist for the first time. I sat in the examination room waiting for her. She came through the door with the biggest smile and says " So here you are I have been so excited waiting to meet you" and gives me a hug. Then she tells me " Do you know how lucky you are and how excited I have been to finally meet you?" My spirits were very low at this point. At the beginning of my diagnosis the radiation had always been my biggest fear. Now here is some quack telling me how lucky I am that I have 2 cancers. I didnt get it. Then she tells me " here you are with 2 kinda rare forms of cancer and we are going to talk about your treatment, how we are going to get through this". With a smile and excitement in her voice. Then she looks me right in the eyes and got very serious and says " Do you know how many people who sit where you are sitting and I have to tell them that there isnt any treatment thats going to help them and here you are with 2 cancers and treatment for both". Took awhile for that to sink in. All through my radiation she had that same smile and optimism. I totally understand her words today. I do feel blessed, I know things could have been much worse for me. I know all of this. That being said... there are still those days when I am just scared. Afraid that I am going to have to do it all over again. Hard not to think about... " what if they didnt get it all ?"... " what if it comes back?" ... " what more can they cut out of me?" I hope that I and everyone else have more of the " I feel blessed days"... take NOTHING for granted.

Been eyeing this little beauty on marketplace for the past couple of weeks. Need something to mow the new yard so I made him an offer and he accepted. So I hightailed it about 2 hours north and picked it up. Went to push it on the trailer and noticed it had a brinley adapter with the rockshaft and a regular hitch. Brought it home and started trying to figure out why it lost power. Only 0054. Hours on the meter. Almost NOS. Turns out someone had did the “twisty” wire (no solder or connector) on a safety switch bypass and lit up two wires. Also the main fuse holder wire is bad in the plug. The safety wires under the seat and dash panel have been bypassed. Gave it a good bath and will try the repair tomorrow and see if I can get it to fire over. Not bad for $180.

Found it!

Another story from the Peacemaker... Seeing the above JD green made me think of my dad’s toy tractor/implements. He grew up in a serious Case farm dating back to when the Stertz clan settled in Wisconsin around 1900. My uncles still cash crop with Case tractors to this day. They love to restore and play with the old letter series Case tractors... As well as the larger late model machines like Uncle Bob’s massive 90 series all wheel drive The reason I am relating this story is because back in 1958 when dad went with Grandpa to the case dealership to get some parts he was drooling on the little Case scale model tractors. Unfortunately at that time they were all plastic and grandpa wasn’t a fan. Over the upcoming months, dad would drop hints that he would like his own toy tractor. So grandpa looked into it and found out that the ERTL company had just started to produce an all metal scale model of the John Deere 630/730 series tractor. It was complete with operational three point and had multiple attachments. Christmas of 1958 rolled around and a 6 year old Don received his very own tractor and even though he was a dyed in the wool Case guy, he still thought the little JD was so cool! The interesting thing with my dad is that he has always been meticulous with taking care of his stuff. The next summer as a 7 year old, whenever he would play with his tractor in the dirt, he would bring it in and wash it in the laundry sink. Grandpa would continue buying him implements over the next couple of years until he had what you see here... Ive been telling him for years that he needs to build a display case for them and yesterday he sent me this pic of his project for the day. What you see there are the very same toys that he received as a child over 60 years ago and they are all original. He played with them regularly and yet took care of them. I assume that because they are a very early series John Deere set from ERTL that they would be pretty collectible. However, the sentimental value and family history far surpasses the cash/book value of them. Someday (hopefully many years down the road) when my dad has gone home to his eternal reward, that case will hang proudly in my shop amongst all the “RED” as a testament to a man of character who knew how to take care of his things whether big or small...

Here’s mine with the 212. It’s a monster for its small displacement and it starts on the first pull every time. Even with the upsized engine pulley it never breathes hard. It’s been my pusher and puller for the last three years. I had to modify the belt guard slightly so I used one in worse condition than my original. I got this tractor as a roller and my Dad had the Predator. The hood didn’t need to be cut but I did need to spread the sides of the vertical portion of the hood/grill to make room for the air cleaner. I added a bunch of different pictures to show how it looks and the flexibility the tractor has. I upsized the engine pulley by 1 inch and it gave me a top speed of about 8 mph versus the original 5 mph since I do a lot of driving around my rural subdivision.

We have seen pictures of your garage, that there is one BIG JOB! Nice job on the man cave, love the decor and the accent wall color.

You've not got time. You've a tractor to get finished.

Got the Gopher Terminator 14 out Had the perfect set up

Emory has been dying to post a YouTube video. He made one comparing my 3 year old Bolens trimmer to his new one. Check it out and give him a comment. He’s been so excited! 3:15 Emory compares two different Bolens trimmers Published May 23, 2020

My wife and I have been blessed with good health and sometimes take it for granted. The journey you have gone through this past year would have left most of us feeling bitter, your positive attitude is commendable. If I ever need a Radiologist I hope I can have her as my doctor.

My Dad had cancer and had to have the radiation on his head. My heart goes out to you, as I understand your pain and struggle! I hope you have as little pain as possible and kick that cancer in the nads!! Randy

Sorry guys, first time using the new YouTube dashboard. Thanks for putting it up Kevin! Emory had asked for several days for me to post it, but like most parents I try to keep my guard up when posting too much publicly. I’m very proud of him! He’s a great boy with interests beyond his years for the most part. The two trimmers are about 3 years apart Kevin. Surprise surprise the oldest one starts and runs the best. Dang Environmental restrictions!

You are doing incredible things with the limited resources that you have. What you accomplished with those 2 tractors so far is nothing short of amazing. I don't think i would have tackled either one and I've been a mechanic all my life. Just keep you head up and you know when you need help there are people for you.

Been working every day during the lockdown. I had to get my knee operated on just so I could get some time off!!!

Got out today and cleaned out my front yard which is basically my woods. Sitting in front of my elephant grass which is finally starting to grow! IMG_7976.MOV

I have a 16 horse Kohler that's sitting in my 606, along with an 8-speed posi from an 1067 I think. Just need to get it running....gotta get decals made up, 1666 lol...

nothing.....and its just a Very low tone bumping along like the Kohlers like to do. I have a new pepperpot that fits perfect in it if I need to sneak out at night after dark !!! I just put it in, it rests nicely on top, and lifts out to raise hell if I need to chase away undesireables

Some closeups if the tractor I bought today!

My mom had Lymphomium, she also was radiated like you. The doctor firstly meants she have an estimated time of about 4 or maybe 5 years max. That was her hardest diagnosis she ever gets, because her doctor tells her she had a very aggressive version, a survive percentage of this type of Cancer is less than 15% in the reality. While i had strong contact at this time to her, i just can estimate what you have survived. sent my Prayers to you and hopefully can it improve your will and your courage to still fight further. my Mom survived this type of Cancer now more as 10Years after that. Actually she has the Status healed, but a bittersweet taste still keeps. Every year when Flu grows, she prohibits social places. A Flu at her is mostly stronger than by a normal healthy person and develops a lot of mindstorms in different Way‘s. since 4years later she again begin to develop fine taste like sweet, sour, salty and hot again, before all tastes are like you eat some paper she told me allway‘s. She also can smell things again as before but also that depends to final about 3Years. some things come quicker, some things need their time to recover. I wish you all the best and a continousely grown health status and a good convalescent. Never give up the fight!👍 I will pray for you to sent you the Strenght to do that without too much Pain.

No worries. That's what we're here for. Need more pretty horse inspiration? Here's our herd. Trina's Pony 657 is the bright red one in the middle. That hub is busticated and really needs replacement. The gap is likely good news though. It'll mean easier removal. Replacement hubs can be had from an 80s 310-8 if you're looking for a good solid worker.

My prayers with you Sir. I don't know if I would have the strength to go through all of that. Usually, that Pancreatic Cancer is in-operable, they must have caught it early enough. My wife's brother had it...they could not operate. I just found out last week, our best friend's wife has it...also in-operable. Dang nasty stuff.

Obviously it must be your other knee Squonk because all that repetitive tapping would be rough on it😂 @dells68 what a cool man cave and a neat place to spend time with Emory. Love the paint scheme, woodwork, and the signage!

I thought i'd post the restoration of my Cub Cadet 70 which is very rare in the UK, I finished her last year. I was very happy when I won the auction but a massive task was ahead of me, it was nice to get a tractor that came with all of the original manuals and although someone had badly painted her at some point it was in an original condition, complete condition. Here is how I got her One of the first jobs was fixing the steering box which didn't work very well. We could see straight away why, as parts are expensive to import to the UK we tried to fix everything we could. My dad (meadowfield) fixed the steering box using bicycle headset parts and the steering box works exceptionally now. Since the steering box had been fixed I went on to refurbishing the steering wheel. First I used a dremel to remove all the rust and also drilled small holes into the plastic so that the epoxy putty i used would hold. I was very happy and its not noticeable now. Below is how she was before i stripped her down. Rust was very bad as you can see. After years of use and no way of greasing the axle the pin had seized solid, we tried many methods to remove it but had to resort to drilling out the pin, when reassembling the axle i added a grease nipple and we turned a groove in the pin. We then worked on removing all the bad metal and fabricating new pieces. \ I like to do restorations properly and so I sandblasted 99% of the parts to remove all the rust. Some one had smashed the hood stand to but a larger battery in so we had to fix that as well. That was then sandblasted. After many hours of repair and sandblasting it was time to etch prime the parts and paint the parts. I managed to save the original rear tyres which was good. Every part was painted separately and then i assembled for the last coats. The hood was littered with rust holes and pitts but in an effort to keep the originality the holes were welded up and lots of filler was required. Back on all 4 wheels The light knob was missing so from a picture I turned one on the lathe. After a few more bits and pieces and decals from my dad she was finished. Here I am on the first test drive! I managed to save the original number plates which i was very happy with. This has been my most favourite restoration i have done so far and i have learnt many skills including painting with a spray gun, (i did all the painting myself) all these skills will be helpful with my up and coming RJ 58 restoration

Trina and I are both "essential workers" ... expendable? Well whatever the term we been lucky to have a steady income but Man!!! What we could get done with the month off... Dell the man cave looks great!! Looking forward to seeing what else you get done.

I've had the same thought but it would be West for me. Safe travels Lane!!

Someday, I would love to hook on my trailer with a wad of cash and head east! Those guys have it made, stuff is scarce in these parts!! Randy

Not too heavy. We weigh these things down and they’ll plow a field all day!

Pics of my 1967 Case 195 resto.

I robbed West Virginia three times before June 1st this year - must be a better record than John Dillinger!

The belt guards were made with a particular engine in mind so you may be better off bu making your own guard. I made one for a predator powered with a couple of pieces of angle iron and some roof flashing. One piece of angle iron will go above the belt and the other will go below it. both pieces will have a flat almost touching the belt and the other flat side on the outside. Fine a threaded hole in the engine block for the two ends to be secured to and weld or bolt some tabs from the angle iron to the engine. Do the same to each at the other end keeping the angle iron close to the belt but not touching. Cut the flashing to size and pop rivet it in place.

The H/F motor will fit no problem. I put a 13 horse (close to same size as urs) in a '63 lawn ranger. Torque/power was an understatement. All mine have the patina, but since someone tried blue, i'd have to paint it lol. Least it wasn't green....

I wish we had that problem, both of us are key workers so our jobs list is miles high still 😊 I've got two weeks off now so going to try and finish up a few things, have a ride on to get sold to make room for another wheelhorse, sheds to build, etc

Been two months in lockdown now. Just about run out of jobs.