How is everyone? Been awhile

[SS5150]

Just wanted to jump back on and post an update since I've been pretty scarce for a while....I've been reading the board almost each day but haven't posted much.

2020 has been,,,,,I think everyone knows. We were relatively busy at work, until recently, and now it sounds like the Gov is gonna shut us down again, so maybe I'll get some time off again. Plenty to do at home anyway.

Bought myself a Cub Cadet Pro Z to mow with in August, going to keep up farm property with it too. IT HAULS.....I can't believe how fast this thing is!! Dealer gave me a great deal, and discounts alot of my parts so that's a bonus.

Wife and I had to put down her dog earlier this month...OMG one of the worst things to go through. I'm still upset about it. He was really a sweet little guy.

My Brother sold/gave away 3 of my parts tractors....I saw them listed on Facebook Marketplace, asked the guy (since they were my Dads and Grandparents old machines) if I could have the serial number tags, and the guy blocked me. Nice. They went to southeast WI if anyone is wondering. A 782, 100, and 123. They were parts machines, but still had some good stuff on them. Kind of thought blocking me was odd. Throwing the tags in an envelope really wouldn't take too much effort, I don't think. Not like they were resto candidates.

Never got my 1861 sold.....thinking it may donate it's engine to my dual hydro 782. I'm on the fence. Haven't found an organ donor, and the 1861 is nice, but not too nice. Not sure what I should do, but the 782 is my snow plow tractor so I need to get it going. There's a rough 1863 close by here, guy insists engine is good, but man, it is rough. Hasn't run in years. I'm skeptical. Still, partwise it's worth what he's asking. Haven't decided yet. Seller is a bit hard to get ahold of.

Garden did OK this year. Not as great as in the past. Weather was odd, and the Derecho tore some stuff up. Still, looking forward to next year. I'll change some things up, plant some new stuff, eliminate some things I didn't like. Probably put more flowers in actually, neighbors really commented alot on them. Peppers did well, as usual.

Fixed the rubbed through dash and leak on the creeper on my 1050, but not in time to get to a plow day. Maybe next year. That tractor is awesome.

Picked up a nice set of IH wheel weights a couple weeks back. Gave them a coat of Ironguard federal yellow. Not sure if I'll put them on the 782 or 1050.

How's everyone else been? Anybody got a good project going on? Trying to decide on a winter project this year.

[J-Mech]

Hey Brian!! Good to hear from you!

I hope everyone is doing well. Been dead on here for quite a while. I was hoping winter would bring some guys back to the table. I miss seeing you all and hearing from you. But, I've been just as bad. I need to catch up on all my goings on as well. As usual, I've been busy.


I bought a chipper/shredder from my bro, Lance. It's here and I've used it once. Not an IH or CCC machine, it is a Kemp. He may have posted a picture of it when he had picked it up. Works great!

Traded my 185 Lo-Boy and the parts 154 off with a guy on FB for an International 284 tractor. It would be the next size up from the Lo-Boy, but it is considered a "row crop" tractor. I just started working on it. I need to get a thread going on it. Ended up getting a Brinly 3pt disk and a Dearborn blade with it too. Brinly disk was a "they didn't know what it was" deal. I asked if I could have the disk in the weeds, and they said "Sure", lol.

My brothers and I have sought out and bought a windmill that used to be on our family's ground, the land my dad's house is on. Looooong story, and I need to tell it. In due time. Trying to wait until we present it to our dad as a gift on Thanksgiving. We knew where the windmill was. Dad has wanted it back for 40 years. My great grandfather sold it off, possibly before my dad was born. Kind of neat to get it back.

Garden did well. Mowing drug on F-O-R-E-V-E-R this year. Crops on the farm did well. Harvest ended for us last weekend, but I've been doing fall tillage all week. Worked until 7 tonight. Rain tomorrow. Probably done with tillage for the fall.

Rented a larger shed and moved all my Cub and equipment storage to it. It's 13 miles away, but it is HUGE. Plenty of room now. Still need to empty the contents of my garage at home to the rented garage in town (3 miles away). Then I might have room for my new tractor in it, lol.

Got a 782, but maybe I had shared that already in a thread?

Not looking forward to winter. I hate cold and snow. Good news is we built a new shop on the farm this summer. If we get the inside finished, we will have 80X104 of floor heated shop to work in!!! WOOO WHOOO!!!

Here's a couple pics just for fun.

322.jpg 388.jpg 2020 091.JPG 2020 289.JPG 496.jpg 441.jpg 481.jpg 2020 431.JPG

[SS5150]

Wow look at those sunflowers! I grow Mammoths each year for decoration, but 90% got knocked down in the derecho. I also planted a couple smaller varieties, more 4-5 tall range, one of them had more of a black flower, and another had a violet red flower. I'm going to try a couple more varieties next year (Pikes Peak will be one, maybe instead of the Mammoths.) And that shed is huge! Guy I worked for about 15 years ago had a floor heated shop building- it was awesome, could get two semis and two combines in there, (with heads, with room to work) plus 3 rows of parts bins, a bathroom, and a small meeting room in the back, and an overhead loft over those sections with tanks for fluids and more parts storage. It was pretty impressive

[J-Mech]

I'll tell my (step) daughter you like her sunflowers! They are hers. It all started with a thing at school. Her class started a few seeds in a cup. They sent them home and if they planted them, they were supposed to keep track of their growth and could enter a summer contest for the tallest. She talked me into putting them in the garden. (Not that it took much convincing. I mean, do you see her beautiful red hair??) We planted them and she loved it. We saved the seeds, all of them, and next year planted like a whole row by hand. Just me and her. We did that for 2 years. This year, we used the IH planter and put out 4 rows. We now have like 2 bushels of sunflower seeds from this year's garden crop!

Last year, we also got some smaller multi colored variety sunflowers and made a sunflower garden in a horseshoe shape in the back yard. This was the second year for that. It attracts all kinds of birds. Small brightly colored finches I never even knew were native here, hummingbirds and lots of other "pretty" birds like bluejays and cardinals. We didn't get any seeds of them because the birds ate it all.

We plan to use the big sunflower seeds to feed chickens. I think we're going to get some here soon. Tired of paying for eggs. Plus, they eat bugs and if they quit laying, we can eat them.

[SS5150]

Jon, any pics of the sunflower horseshoe? Sounds interesting.