Leaderboard

I went up north to the Pere Marquette river today @Rob J. you near there? We used a drift boat guide. We put in at Green Lodge and drifted and fished to Gleason’s Landing. I landed 7 king salmon and my uncle landed 3. Our guide Kevin did a great job navigating the river! This was a fly only section of the river and the river is catch and release only. It was clean, and peaceful and awesome! The fish picture I was posing with my uncle with, he caught in the same spot his dad caught the biggest king the guide has ever seen on the river.

This is a late 1970's 48" deck I purchased new right after I converted my B-80 to a B-160. It's seen extremely heavy usage and while I keep the blades sharp and the bearings lubed the only cleaning it gets during the season is I hoist the front of the tractor and scrape the clumped wet grass from underneath. Every fall when I put it up for the winter I do clean it off good and spray it with whatever lubricant I have on the shelf. This year Free All got the call. After nearly 50 years it still looks like this.

More pics... This morning's campfire. Cave entrance/exit depending on trail direction. Me standing inside the cave waiting to pass packs up through. This old trail marker has some years on it. Here's the standard marker nowadays. This cellar hole is among the deepest I've ever seen. Around 6 feet in the far corner. Pretty unusual around here. Alot of the stone walls were also taller than normal. We wondered why... Mountain top pond. Apparently there year round. Also unusual for the area. More various pics ....

Saturday we did a bigger hike than I've been able to tackle in several years. 3 peaks in one loop. Sandwich NH. We started at the base of Double Head Mountain. Walked almost a mile up the State Highway 113 (small 2 lane back country road) to the trailhead for Mt Percival. Climbed Percival to the caves near the top. THAT was particularly interesting because I barely fit!! Pics later.... We then went across the ridge to Mt Squam. Continued across the ridge to both peaks of Double Head. Then down to the car. There's a HUGE difference between "peak prominence" and "total elevation gain". The total gain includes ALL the elevation gain AND loss. That's a much more accurate number of energy expended. Our total yesterday was over 2,900 feet of climbing!! Mileage around 8.11 I think. I'll post more pics later today or tomorrow. There's an unmarked trail that basically follows the left side of my finger. Our parking lot and hike beginning point is just about where the first knuckle is. We then went counter clockwise around the loop.

Stuck, then unstuck. Did some plowing. And some cleanup. Busy and productive day with the horses!

Opening up a furrow feels so good!

Happy birthday Olivaah!

Attended two days of the Prairie Land Steam and Tractor 54th Annual show in South Jacksonville, Illinois Friday and Saturday. I finally decided to take three of my RJs. Met up with my friend and fellow Red Square member Denny Clarke. Denny had his beautifully restored RJ56 and RJ58 on display. His RJ58 has a very nice front cutter bar with chromed two inch sickle blades. Lots of stainless on both tractors and beautiful paint jobs. Denny always has outstanding tractors! He also bought a very original 702 with hydro unit and will be the third owner. The show snd swap meet was great with lots of everything. I will post my I phone pictures for the Red Square members. We got a little rain Friday but Saturday was perfect.

While @ebinmaine was hiking up, down, and through his local mountains, I took the 1978 Dolphin Sr. sail boat we got about 6 weeks ago out on the lake for the first time. Had a 10 mph breeze to work with. Wind shadows on the east shore of the lake, wind out of the small end of the lake that did not match the wind direction in the main part of the lake. Wind was a little gusty, too. Got the boat up to a pretty good clip a couple of times. Nowhere near the limit, though. Didn't want to take a swim or figure out how to right the boat in the middle of the lake.

My name is Handy Don and I am a Snapper user... If there was a true mulching (recycler) deck for a round hood (854) that could really take care of moderate falls of leaves the way the Snapper can without bagging, I could kick the Snapper habit for sure.

Perhaps Red Green paraphrased here might help you with this issue: I have a Craftsman I can change If I have to I guess

What, you mean crooks and drug dealers may not abide by the drone and gun laws?

It was good to meet up again, Lane at a very nice local show.

With the start of fall the last of our tomatoes are of the cherry variety. A bumper crop to boot. The wife cut up and quartered the tomatoes, fried up and chopped the bacon, added chopped lettuce and steered in mayo. Made like a BLT sandwich spread. Pretty convenient and good on toast.

34 years and runs like the day the dealer dropped it off in my driveway. Has been the best money ever spent on anything I own. It has a very pampered life now. Saving it for someone who appreciates a made in the USA tractor. Applying it's first coat of wax in June of 89, a winter picture in 09 and a current picture.

@whchris (Chris Sweetland) actually started the whole thing

The 312 to 308 conversion rig…

I guess I'm the first to see this? Popped up on youtube on a Sunday morning. He is one lucky little SOB.

Some nice ones! That’s about 50 miles due west of me. Pure Michigan Baby!

ABSOLUTELY DO NOT TRUST THOSE C CLIPS FOR HOLDING THE SPINDLES IF THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE HOLDING THEM ON THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't stress that fact enough. It would save some pain to just go to the dentist's office and knock your teeth out there in the parking lot with a hammer so you can get treatment quicker.

Absolutely and without equal. I have a 1974 and a 1975. Trina has a 1966 and two 1967s. We restore them. We work them. We maintain them.

Any change for the trans pulley too? Going smaller for it will speed it up even more. You can substitute the belt support of the belt guard with some small steel rods attached to the engine to achieve the smooth clutching action.

Nice hike! Kudos for to you, but I don’t do small spaces so I’d have been standing outside giving encouragement.

@Tonytoro416 I have'nt had that pleasure..yet.. any advice on how to make (un)installing them more enjoyable? Took the mini IH outside to play today. Did'nt go as planned. Although I did cover about half of the horse paddock before I called it quits. Where before the aircleaner maintenance the B&S seemed to be running rich it now seems to be running lean?? It is surging pretty bad and will sputter and die unless I pull out the choke halfway. Any advice would be appreciated.

Beautiful scenery EB & BBT. A whole lot better than my surroundings today.

I used grow my tomatoes and lettuce too. Fell short of raiseing a hog. Two and a half BLTs is my personal best.

Dustin had some nice round hoods as well, and is a super nice fella too!

Thank you for showing me how you made that. I will be making a copy of that. I have never in my life been on a forum with such stand up guys. Thank you all for making me feel welcome.

All your stuff is nice Jim!! Notice how I don’t park any of my Wheel Horse jalopies next to yours at the meet/greet

I can never leave anything alone so I had Richie send me a raw one and I painted the wood black and put some red lights I had laying around inside. I’m happy with how it turned out. Will go on my desk at work

A little wet sand and buffing today

Love me a BLT … and BLT spread sounds pretty good

Whew! Great news the 40x80 is done! Worse news, I still have my 48x54 to do! Better news, the longest panels are 19’ now, compared to 23’ 6” on the first one, and it’s 4’ closer to the ground

Our home is on a piece of what was formerly the 10+ acre estate of the chief engineer of the New Croton Dam. The tower was built in the late 1800’s before our village had a water system. It was supplied from a hand-dug well (still functional under a manhole in our back yard) via a nearby underground pump room (in ruins when we bought the property and filled in for safety). The water from the tower supplied the buildings and grounds of the estate--the main house (destroyed by fire in 1976; replaced by a simple ranch house), the carriage house (now a residence), the tool house/ice house (also now a residence), an orchard (now three McMansions and a detention pond), a “woodland” (which later had a spring-fed swimming pool and is now a three-unit townhouse), and an extensive formal garden (where we live!) including a fountain (which we saved by having a crooked driveway). In the mid-1900’s, the village water system reached our street. The main house and outbuildings were connected and the tower went out of use. The formal garden and orchard were left to nature and deteriorated quickly, I’m told. The side of the hill with the tractor tracks is our private sledding hill--a “terrifyingly exciting” (according to one sledder) start with a long gradual runout ending at the level front lawn! The fountain with one McMansion in the background. The years are starting to show on the tower which is a brick structure faced with stone. Its roof has collapsed and where the pointing has eroded, the stone face has started to come off. My wife and I are considering how much to invest in repairs since its only purpose today is as a historical reminder and “hill art”.

Happy Being Born On Day! I hope it’s your best ever!! Cheers!!!

Have a Great Day Jim

Have a great day!

Yes @Sparky , that's him. I'm thinking he may also be the one who started up Red Square as a High School project ?

I would be interested in seeing them if it is possible

That sounds pretty tasty.

Awesome! Nice to see those old machines being kept alive. In today's world it seems to be more about quick and easy. I tease a bit some I know "ain't no change engine button on a remote, or change engine app on the phone" Oh, I like the modern conveniences and technology, but embrace the foundation that they were built on.

New parts arrived today: -hydraulic pump -pulley 155mm/6.1" -taperlock -filter Still waiting on: -bearing block (for the pump) -coupler (for pump/bearing block)

Actually did this yesterday, but I was too tired to get on and post! Loaded, hauled, and spread about 2,000+ lbs of wood chips on the side of the “water tower” hill. We thinned out the woodlot two years ago and weeds had started in the newly sunlit areas. The hill is pretty steep and covered in soft soil with a lot of exposed roots from the nearby trees. This is what the 854 with the 6-speed LSD did as it spun both rear tires on its way up on the first two test runs (it did keep its head down helped by the newly added front weight). I could see that pulling a cart with 200 lbs of chips was not gonna be successful So I put on the chains that I picked up at the Big Show and that was the ticket. No spinning. I used 3L and later 1H and the K181 just calmly went up and down with no drama at all. Someone once posted that their tractor had slipped out of gear on a descent and I didn’t need that kind of excitement so going down I used one hand to hold both shifters in gear just to be sure! I left the mower deck on for its additional weight--lowered here as an extra “parking brake” on the slope. All in all, a successful day. Plus I now know that when the masons come to re-point the tower that I have a way to safely move materials up there. The base of the tower is about 35’ above the bottom of the hill--the tractor is sitting ~5’ below the base.