The Wabash Heritage Trail

This past weekend, we hiked a section of the Wabash Heritage Trail.  This trail is about 13 miles long, but we hiked just a section - 3.2 miles approximately.

At the north, it starts in Battleground, specifically at the Tippecanoe Battlefield Memorial. 

Our section of hike followed Burnett Creek.  Lots of big trees lined the waterway.

We went under I-65.

And we had some rests along the way.

It was a perfect evening of weather.  Even though it was humid, it wasn't overly hot.  The sun in the evening made for nice splotches of focus.

We crossed the Wabash River on an old bridge.  

Lots of stories and water pass through this way.

We made it to the end of our hike and were happy to be finish.  The boys, who had complained all day long about the upcoming hike, enjoyed it very much.  Give a boy a stick and he will be happy to do anything.

I hope we can continue our section hike and see the whole trail.

John Deere Fender Pan Cracks

My old 420 has been creaking and cracking more and more lately.  One common problem of these old machines is the fender pan likes to crack where the seat springs mount.  I had an extra bad case, and it's only been getting worse as the years roll by.

This past weekend, one of my seat springs bit the dust and cracked right in half.  So, it was a good time to take off the whole fender pan, and attempt a repair.  I'm sure this cracked fender aided in the break of the seat spring.

Here's the entire fender pan removed, and on the welding bench:

The cracks propagate all over the place

I cleaned up the cracks with a wire wheel on both sides.  

It took about an hour of TIG welding time to stitch it all together.  It sure isn't pretty, but it's much better than what it was.  I'll call this "farm grade" welding.

I didn't get any more pictures after this, but I primed and painted the welded area, and put it all back together.  Sitting in the seat, I can tell right away it is much more rigid than what it was before.