Well, been moving sod, getting concrete delivered, rototilling rock hard dirt and moving the dirt to try to make sure we’ve rototilled deep enough… I call this picture OneDeadTractor. Was just pushing along, and he stalled out. Then he wouldn’t turn over, or just barely. Going to let him cool then try the booster pack to see if I can at least move him out of the way.
I call this one“The hunter and its prey!”
In case you can’t tell from the picture, we’re moving onto another project here at the LittleTractorRanch… LTGal wants to move the garden beds from the middle of the yard to closer to the house… And surround them with 24×36 patio slabs. Probably somewhere around 54 slabs around 5 4×4 garden beds IIRC. Which means we have to clear a 9′ x 35′ patch of grass, dig it out a bit and lay down sand to put the pavers on… I have the sod cutter for the next two days over the Long Weekend… I might even need to wake Bror from his long slumber to see if we can use the Unicorn Loader to move great gobs of sod and dirt for us…
Took a lot of work and fiddling, but here we are! The big thing I learned is why my grandfather had one of his rear wheels set to wide stance and one set to narrow on Bror. It was because if you have it on the narrow stance, you can’t fit the rototiller onto the back of the machine.
Also learned how to get the fluid-filled tires onto the hubs. Set up a piece of thin board onto a wooden dowling to use as a ramp, then roll the tire up until its in the right spot.
Well, yesterday was a busy day for me in the front yard… I was very productive! Let’s see… I…
Mowed the lawn, removed a rotty old tree stump, weeded the lawn, dealt with my terrible ant problem in the lawn… Aaaand even possibly dealt with the problem of having bunnies poo in my front yard… All at the same time! And I took pictures! Let’s start with the lawn mowing….
And here’s the stump removal… Or is this the weeding?
First stage of ant control
Second stage (just to be totally sure they don’t come back!)!
And here’s some bunny prevention strategies! They won’t come sit on my grass and poo after THIS!
Oh, and, yeah, I built a driveway. Or at least supervised it…
So I got a chance today to get out to my off-site storage to retrieve Krusty, all of his attachments and my six boxes of parts that comprise my 1.5 dehydrated 110s, Krusty’s spare parts and the bits of the donor 160 from 3 summers ago. Here they all are, in the NEW tractor tent (aka, my former car port, one of those Shelter-Logic shelters). All this leaves out in offsite storage are the blower, the tiller and some front rims from 110s and rears from the 160. So, in the picture you can see Krusty, the 165 from Lance, the 112 SF ALSO from Lance and… if you look carefully you’ll spot the frame from Dehydrated Deere (I’ll have to come up with a better name than that… Maybe Poseidon)… Soon, very soon, I’ll start moving bits from Lance’s 112 over to Poseidon, to make him a rolling chassis.
So, I’m pretty happy to have all the Deeres back home now… However, as an aside, the birds are NOT happy with me… The Tractor Tent backs onto our alley, but where, in the old place I had a 6 foot fence with privacy slats to deter people from poking around, at the new place the fence is only a 4 footer… and its a gate with no privacy slats. So, I figured I’d close the “flap” on the outside end of the shelter and zip it shut, something I haven’t done, ever, at the new place. So I had JUST finished zipping it shut and was closing the hatchback on the car when suddenly I was dive-bombed by a furious robin! It hadn’t occurred to me, but I had seen the robins, over the past two summers, flying OUT of the carport… So, of course, they must fly IN from the other end! I think I just put a serious crimp in their migration patterns! Man o man was it MAD! Good thing I don’t speak Robin, it was certainly chirping up a storm at me!
Ya just can’t help wanting to trade’em around! And its even better when two MTF’ers can have a chance to meet!Anybody recognize this handsome devil? The one on the left, I mean, with the luxuriant beard!
Lance Skene and his buddy Mike (behind the camera) brought a trailer full o’goodies over from Alberta on their way through to do some camping east of here… So while they’re out having fun camping, I get to load some MTD parts into Lance’s trailer… Which, of course, means I also unload the goodies Lance brought for me!
More on that anon… But obviously, since you see where I’ve posted this post, you know what colour of goodies they are!
Gotta go play tractors!
Went out and hocked Krusty out of one of my dad’s warehouses today, where he’s been sitting patiently since I dropped him off last September. Here he is in his new home! For those of you who are wondering, Krusty previously belonged to my friend Gerald, out in Alberta. Gerald’s been downsizing, as he’s trying to move, and this little guy had to go. So I drove out to Camrose last fall and picked him up. Didn’t have enough room in the yard or the garage, so Krusty lived out in a warehouse for the winter.
along with the 32″ mower that came from MrBeef last fall… Hey if anyone knows where I could lay my hands on a set of lift straps for a JD 60 mower, let me know!
And the 40″ blade! This little beauty might be the first client for my Mark III electrolysis tank!
The dashboard is interesting… The PPO (Previous previous owner) did some exciting things with the electrical… Like, removing the key switch and replacing it with a toggle and a push button… Hmmm… That’s going to be my first goal with this machine, to try to return the wiring to as stock as possible. Already nailed down a key switch last winter (thanks, CementHead!), I’ve got the PDF of the technical manual (a big thank you to MrBeef for secretly shipping one up to LTGal so that I didn’t need to go postal on UPS, again), I’m just waiting on a donor wiring harness from a SF110 to arrive from its top secret location so that I can try to return things to as close to stock as possible (need the keyswitch plug… The rest of the wiring I can probably manage).
Its even MORE exciting BEHIND the dashboard! Must have been a fire sale on red wire…
The one with all the wires clipped off of it was the light switch… There’s still a pair of tail lights cut into the fenders, but everything is disconnected. There’s a plate welded into the grill where the front light must have been… I’ll probably rewire some tail lights, and possibly put some nice fronts on (since there’s some mounting holes on the hood post, it looks like).
Somehow, I don’t think this solenoid is stock. Can anyone confirm that?
Oh and look! A bypassed safety switch wire! Wonder where THAT goes?
There it is! Looks like the PTO safety switch. Hope it works! Tried looking for a neutral start switch, but it doesn’t look like there’s a bracket mounted. That may be task #2.
Its gonna be interesting to learn how THESE guys work!
Wonder what was connected here? “Accessory” for the lights, I’d guess
Theres a little bit of play in one front wheel, not sure if that’s normal or if something’s wrong/missing
Any suggestions how I could preserve this pin striping, LTGal wants me to try to save it!
All in all, just the cutest little tractor EVER! Haven’t really tried sitting on it yet, as I forgot the seat cushion in the garage (it needs a bit of work). Think I’ll focus on getting things rewired before I try starting it.
So, if you recall, I sold Ernie last Fall… He went to a good home… I’ve been keeping in touch with the person who bought him, and got these pictures a while ago….
Maybe I should hire him to look at the REST of my tractors!
“There’s something on fire in the oven.”
Of course, rather than running for the fire extinguisher (which occurs to me is still out in the garage in case of Wally- or Bror-related pyrotechnics), I came over to have a look-see…
Nope, it wasn’t fire, not at least by the time I got there. More of a bright-orange, molten-looking light… So we shut’er down and the “fire” immediately stopped.
Most of you probably know what just happened. Pretty sure some of the juice from the chicken overflowed onto the element, super-heating it until it cracked, and what I was seeing was the arc-ing of the cracked element melting the metal outer layer of the element.
Reached into the oven after it cooled and went to undo the element screws, and the thing broke into two pieces…
Its pretty impressive, what arc-ing electricity can do! Kinda like reverse-welding, in your kitchen!
Guess I’m off to the parts place tomorrow morning…
Wow! Months since I posted anything! Its been a busy summer! Taking care of LTBabe while LTGal worked in July, working on bathroom renos like a fiend in August…. LittleTractorGal, however, has let me do a BUNCH of tractor-y stuff in the last month or so… First was the big tractor trip out to Team_Green’s place outside of Edmonton to pick up THIS:
Its a John Deere 60 lawn tractor, circa 1969… Team Green is relocating, and wanted the tractor to go to a good home…
Its just as cute as a button, isn’t it? And the pin striping on the hood adds additional appeal!
But, interestingly enough, it didn’t come with a mower deck. So… two weekends ago, LTGal and I drove 2300 kms round trip to Minnesota to pick up a mower deck for it! Well, not JUST to pick up the mower deck. There was also a Model 36 snowblower for a 110/112 in it for me…
some jeans for LTGal (its a long story!) and some meeting and greeting with some great folks from MyTractorForum!
From left to right, we’ve got MrBeef, MrsBeef, DieselPowered, Whirly, Nan, BilltheTractorman, and myself!
But, into every tractor-hoarder’s life, a little rain must fall! There’s just not enough room for all these tractors, so one has to go! Ernie was the first, really, but he’s kinda the odd man out! No hydraulic lift, needs a fair bit of work to get into primo shape, and I haven’t had the time to do ANYTHING with him!
Someone may be coming to pick Ernie up on Sunday morning!
