Grab That Chicken

Two kids trying to jump up and grab a very small plastic chicken taped to the top of the door frame.  This is how we pass the evenings.

And Then There Were Two

After a weekend of selling some items on the ol' Craigslist, I'm down to a mere 2 lawnmowers (from 5 at the beginning of the year), and that feels good.

A few weeks ago, I sold the Agco Allis 1616H.  This went to a nice family of Christian missionaries freshly back from Jamaica.

Today I sold two items.  The first is a snowblower for a John Deere garden tractor:

And lastly, I'm happy to sell off this old beast - the Case 446 I acquired 2 summers ago.

This frees up alot of space in the barn.  And space is nice.

So, now I'm down to two lawnmowers, and that is enough.  One for daily use, and one for backup when the main unit breaks down. 

These are my two keepers.

Timberrrrrrr

This weekend, I decided to finally take down the big pine tree in our front yard.  It was a beautiful tree, but slowly died in the last year.  Since it was a nice and cooler weekend, it seemed like a good time for it to come down.

 

It was a tall tree, and pretty wide at the base. The 18 inch bar on the chainsaw did not go fully through by an inch or two.

 

It fell right along the driveway.  My helper inspects in her jammies.

 

Jammies and barefeet.  Perfect for tree work.

 

Miss Muscles!

 

I hauled it all away with the old wood wagon.  I think I counted 7 loads.  I took it all back to my friendly neighbor's bonfire which he had burning.  It was real nice to have a big bonfire going at the same time as cutting.  It was very productive that way.

 

Now that I look at this photo, it looks pretty scary.  No worries, though - these pine branches were so wirey and locked together nothing shifted around.  In fact, at the bonfire, I had to lift out each branch individually by hand for they were so entwined together. 

 

Finally, I was able to dig out the Big Mama McCulloch chainsaw to cut up the main trunk.  I even made a little video by putting my camera on the stump and pointing upwards to the log.  It sure cuts nicely, and I'm well pleased with it.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDer6ZU4kEA

 

 

 

 

Such a Good Helper!

He helps with breakfast:

He helps with laundry:

He helps with paperwork:

The New Monster

Last week, Dad gave me this old chainsaw that's been in the family for years.  It is a 1960 McCulloch Super 44A.  Evidently, my Grandfather used this saw back in the 60's.  Or from the way Dad tells it, my Grandfather waited for one of his boys to use it - usually Dad's brother.

This thing is huge in every way.  It is over 20 pounds of arm-killing machine.  It has a 24 inch bar strung with 0.404 pitch chain.  The 87 cc engine probably has nearly unstoppable torque.  I haven't put it to any logs yet, but I bet the wood chips really fly.

I spent the past Saturday working on getting it started, and my body is still hurting 2 days later.  I did manage to get it started and running after partially cleaning the carburetor passages, but the carb leaks gas terribly bad.  I hope to find the proper rebuild kit for new seals after I do a little more research.

 
Now compare this old saw to my new Stihl MS250 I bought a few years back.  This, of course, is my primary worker saw.  I bought it because it had about the highest power-to-weight ratio within my price range. 

As you can see, the 52 year old McCulloch makes the new Stihl saw look like a baby's toy.  This Stihl saw weighs in at a nifty 10.1 pounds and has a respectable 18 inch bar.  The Stihl is just over half the displacement of the McCulloch - it is 45 cc's.  The Stihl does all the work I've ever considered to do.

So what are my plans for this old monster?  I think I would like to get it in good, running condition and use it once in a while just for the fun of running an old engine.  This is not an every day saw by any means.  I think it will be a fun novelty toy that will make me appreciate using new technology. 

Where Do I Begin?

It's been almost 6 years since I worked on this project last.  This is my old 1941 John Deere LA.  I bought it from a cousin in Central Indiana 7 years ago, and worked on it pretty good for the first year.  Things slowed down when Number 1 Kiddo popped out, but I continued to work on it slowly. 

Seven years ago, Dad and I hauled it home and it looked like this:

It's a small tractor.   Nearly the smallest of the small for that vintage.  If I remember correctly, it weighs in right around 2000 pounds, and generates a mere 14 horsepower as seen on the PTO.  Only 11 of those horses gets to the rear wheels.  (Keep in mind I just dropped in a new 23 horsepower engine on my lawnmower this past spring.)  The John Deere LA was intended for the "truck" farms - mostly vegetable and small produce farms.  There were only 60,000 or so made.  (Chime in if any of this is incorrect - this is all from memory)

So, all that is to say these LAs are kind of few and far between.  So imagine my surprise when we moved to our new house in 2007, and discovered my next door neighbor had an LA in a nicely restored condition.  Suffice it to say, we get along pretty good with our neighbors.

Since we moved over 5 years ago, I haven't worked on this tractor restoration project since.  I have stopped at this point:

And I have all these many parts to put back on:

It looks like a daunting task, but I hope I can keep up my motivation and get it done sometime this upcoming fall.  There's not too much to do:  mostly all body work on the sheet metal.  That's the hardest part of all these restorations - I dislike sheet metal.  But my job in academia is teaching me patience, so perhaps I need to try this again.

Not There!

Sweet potatoes don't go there!!