Sunday, July 11, 2004

I & I Tractor Show

Today I finally went to the Historic Farm Days show presented by the Illinois & Indiana Antique Tractor and Gas Engine Club. It is about time since it is held in Penfield IL about 15 miles north of Homer/home. Of course the I have generally been working at the beginning of the shows & the last several years I have been going over to the SCCA Indy Grand Prix @ IRP on my Sunday off. This year the race was held last weekend and I didn't go - see next/last post.

It really is a great show, I am sure it was even better on Friday & Saturday, Sunday lots of people started to packup after the parade of power, but the I & I club has really find a nice home in Penfield. (of course they got 4 inches of rain on Friday night)

See their site for more details - but they bought or were donated the old school and adjoining grounds.

Here are some images of a few of the tractors:


Minneapolis Moline was the featured tractor, along with BF Avery and Sheppard Diesel (PA).



1938 luxury cab tractor - too expensive for the times, some 30 - 40 years later it the cab features became standard.



The oldest commercially produced gas powered tractor on loan from the Smithsonian Institution - I got to see it run.



Some assorted others:








(Of course some used some age appropriate transport) After seeing all the various tractors I think MM had some of the best designed sheet metal - BTW MM was bought by White and is now is part of AGCO)


(I had one just like this, took it to the dump - only it didn't have the engine cover - weak sheet metal differential housing but it really gave a great job cut some grass - single 26 inch blade)




posted by Jon at Homer @ 11:02 PM 0 comments

Sunday, July 04, 2004

Pumps & Parades

I got the mini-deck built to mount my cistern pump and hide the plumbing for the irrigatrion supply system.



This shallow well jet pump with controls and mini-tank will provide me water for irrigation - it puts out more pressure that the city system.

Now the nice thing about a small town - you can be working in your back yard and hear the parade starting, hook up the dog, hop on the bike & be on the route before the first part of it gets there.




(I am glad the coroner didn't have his sign on a plain white van like the county clerk, someone might have thought he was in town making a pickup...)


one of two pre-schools

The man who I'll vote for congress (an young ER doctor running for congress, shook his hand - of course I shook Rose Perot's hand too and we know how well he did even with my vote)

The Cub Scouts. - That is a segway


NOW for something that is truly important BBQ ON PARADE - pulled by a Willis FC160 (forward control - 4wd). Yes a real wood burning BBQ shack - nothing cooking yet but I could smell the wood.


YES, a BBQ FLOAT IN THE HOMER 4th of JULY PARADE - I'll bet no one else's parade had a real BBQ float! (I can hear Steve drooling - not only that but I can get real cane sugar Coke, R/C, Pepsi and Belemiums(sp?) Ginger Ale down the street too)



The republicans contingent seemed a little lite - most of the candidates must not have wanted to be associated with them this year... (one senior republican) Of course to be fair there was no democratic banner with anyone, however this is a republican county - except for Urbana)



No, the jeep isn't being pulled over for speeding (today at least) the Homer Police vehicle was pulling sweeper duty.

For those that don't believe it here it is a again BBQ on Parade!!
Pulled by a Willis FC160







posted by Jon at Homer @ 7:08 PM 0 comments

Saturday, July 03, 2004

Garage fixups

Today I started off just wanting to clean my garage windows and ended up with an A/C installed in the garage.

Once I started to clean the glass I noticed that I better prime the sill to protect the wood from more water damage.



Once I had the sashes out I decided to prime & reglaze them too. I got to put the high speed drill & putty cutter/chaser to use - it does a much better job using a high speed drill.



So once the putty & glass was removed I scrape the sills and primed them too.



Then I got to thinking - first was I should really mount them on hinges so they could open and maybe put in a screen to keep the bugs down. Then I though, I have that 5000 btu A/C that is still sitting in the basement (I bought it used last year and Calvin hasn't shown any interest in helping me with running a new circuit to the front bedroom to power it) so I decide if it would fit, I would install it in the garage. It shrinks down to 19 inches and the opening on the garage windows are 20 - bingo.

While the paint is drying I head out for hardware - hinges for the garage windows & plumbing parts for the cistern pumps.

We get an inch and a half of rain but my cistern didn't fill up that much - damn now I am going to have to clean the gutters & drainage pipes. More on the cistern job tomorrow - if it isn't raining.

Now if I ever find out who shot BB's at the garage windows (plus several others around my house...) - 4 of the 8 panes had holes, and one was cracked. I only broke one removing the glass but it already had a BB hole in it so that doesn't count. I installed three good panes and one with a hole not cracked (I am saving the one with the BB hole along the edge to serve as the model for the 5 new panes I'll have cut soon to finish the other sash.

I popped the A/C in - cut some scrap 3/4 plywood - glued some white plastic to the exterior and mounted the other sash on hinges. So now I got A/C - well it's an uninsulated garage but it will likely be better than having the doors open where Daisy can escape and bugs can get in - it's not like I am planning on leaving it on 24/7.


posted by Jon at Homer @ 11:46 PM 0 comments