Another beautiful day with temps into the 70's and dry ground. In February!!! The only bad thing about it today were the 40+ MPH wind gusts that made getting stuff done a bit more difficult.....
And annoying :(
I had a whole list of things to get done today in preparation for the busy season that get's kicked off here shortly.
I had to move the car hauler trailer back out into the barn lot. The sheep will love this because they really enjoy climbing up on it and pretending they are wild sheep on a cliff edge or something.
Then we had to pull the stock trailer out of the hay field and park it in front of the barn while it was dry so it's there when we take the slaughter lambs in next week.
Then it was time to put the bale spike on the 8N and move the remains of a round bale the old nags don't seem to want to eat into the barn lot for the sheep to munch on at night. The sheep will eat just about anything so waste not want not. Maybe those old nags discovered the anti-freeze I had put on the bale?
That was a joke really.
I left the bale spike on the 8N because with a little luck I will be putting up some more fence this week.
Then I cleaned out the front of the barn and moved the 861 diesel in there and parked the 850 outside for a while.
I remembered a little trick I used to use when shaping metal back in my medieval armor making days and decided to see if I could make the center emblem fit in the nose cone I had.
The problem is the back of the reproduction emblem has those raised spots around the rods that hold it in place. I don't know for a fact but I suspect the originals are flat because if it wasn't for those raised spots the emblem would fit perfectly.
The raised area hits the center support beam and was making the emblem ride out from the circle about a quarter of an inch.
So I got out my old ball peen, my copper shaping hammer, a chunk of lead and a stump. Placed the center cap over it and dished out the holes on the support strip so the raised spots would fit in snug.
The lead acts as a kinda squishy anvil and allows you to dish just how far you need without breaking or over stressing the sheet metal.
The emblem then fit like a glove just as it's suppose to. It then took me about three hours just to get the old nose cone off the hood assembly and I ended up breaking two of the bolts that held the old one on there too.
But it's off now and the new cone fits right where it's suppose to. All I got to do now is strip the new cone down and give it a paint job. Then I am betting the center hood strip won't line up properly so that will have to be tackled next.
At least it's progress!!!!
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!
That tractor is going to be a show tractor for a little while. The tractor girls will all want their photo taken on it. The old antifreeze in the hay trick, probably some won't see the humor in that. My horse is way to picky to fall for something like that, he can spit out individual weed stems while chewing a mouth full of hay. I'm going to try and get some work out of mine this year as the garden is going to need some working up since I plowed it in the fall, he can do some light shallow plowing to loosen things before putting a tiller in on it.
ReplyDeleteSf - Well I doubt it will ever be up to show status but I think I can make it look pretty good and good enough for the Christmas parade. Really what I am doing is pretty light work for an old girl like this only taking care of 25 acres so I am hoping she won't get too scratched up. I don't really have a lot of brush I run her through either. I guess compared to how she had been used she is in retirement now.
DeletePP,
ReplyDeleteGood progress!!!
I caught the joke regarding the antifreeze.
The car hauler makes for great entertainment for your 4 legged hair balls.
Sandy - They love to play king of the trailer on it. They head butt each other off.
DeleteUmm, sorry, I am a bit slow because I didn't get the joke about the hay and anti freeze! Good job with the tractor though!
ReplyDeleteVera - Anti-freeze is an old urban legend that was used to kill people without showing any forensic evidence in an autopsy. They used to say Women killed their husbands off by putting it in their drinks. Supposedly it also had a rather sweet taste and could be substituted for sugar.
DeleteBack in the early 80's tractors like yours were a dime a dozen in my neck of the woods. All the farmers were dumping them like mad and going to the big 8 wheeled monstrosities that could do the work of 15 little tractors like yours. Small holders like my Dad and I were on that like flies on ....
ReplyDeleteWe bought a small MF diesel like yours for about 3 grand. Pop fixed it up and 6 years later sold it for $16k...some yuppie on an acreage just had to have it - and we made out like bandits. The yuppie class land owners just loved the little tractors and would pay through the nose for them.
Being a mechanic Pop didn't get attached to machines. They were mere commodities to swap and sell...but when that little tractor went down the road all I had was a sense of loss. Those little tractors have soul.
Keep up the good work PP! Make that pioneer work and breathe again!
GF - I been flipping tractors all year that way. It's amazing how well it works. Too bad I will have so much into this one I can never resell it now :(
DeleteExcellent! I can see you have a talent for thinking outside the box.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lisa!!!
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