A lot of where I'm going to be headed here has to do with sustainable farming practices. It's pretty easy to find info and I usually listen carefully to guys like Joel Salitin, Will Allen and Geoff Lawton but at the same time some of what they do doesn't translate to other peoples operations. I know in my own experience I have to resize things to suit my own circumstances and abilities and that's the things that I can hopefully pass on here.

Back again, finally!

Wow it's been just short of 3 years since I did this last. In my defense, I considered getting back to it this time last year but..................  well anyway! A lot has happened in the past few years and there are new things coming up all the time that I'm figuring on commenting on. I'm starting to see some direction in my little farm and that's probably where this will go for the most part. So if your new here pull up a chair and, hopefully enjoy.

Caterpillars on parade

These pictures were from the Pagent of Steam show in Canandaiqua,Ny from August of 2009,Caterpillar was the feature tractor and there were Caterpillar and Best tractors of all shapes and sizes.

wash day in the early 1900s

In the early days of gas engines,people were finding all sorts of uses for gas engines,most of the engines were stand alone stationery engines that were used to power mills and such but it wasn't long before somebody decided hat they would make washday chores easier,the earliest washers were wood tub washers and used an engine that sat on the ground beside the machine.



With the music playing it's hard to hear the engine running but you get the idea,in the background of that video about halfway through you could also see another common chore for gas engines and that was turning a butter churn.

As the years went by and by about the middle to late teens Maytag came along with an engine that fit under the machine like this one.



That machine is mine,I have another older one that I'm looking for a decent correct engine for.I want to get a meat grinder attachment and a butter churn for it to display at shows,yes by the late 1920 or early 1930s your washing machine could grind meat,churn butter and even generate electricity.

maytag gas engines and washing machines

In the early days of gas engines Maytag,yes the washing machine company built their own engines,they started building them around 1910 and continued into the 1940s.The first engines were upright single cylinder engines that sat on the ground beside the washing machine,around 1918 or so the started building engines that actually fit under the washer.I have a couple videos on youtube of Maytag engines and one of my washing machine with the engine on it.These are a couple of the engines that I've had and got running.

Farmall M road grader

I always enjoy seeing how companies worked together to build equipment that handled a variety of tasks,this is an M Farmall probably built in the later 1930s or early 1940s that shows up occasionally at shows around here,it's fitted with a road grader attachment built by the Trojan co,it looks like a pretty nice setup although it wouldn't be real easy to take off and put back on.

1943 B&S model A engine

I've had this B&S model A engine for almost a year and finally got around to getting it running.The engine was complete when I got it,it looked like someone had cleaned it up some a tried to get it running.When I got into it,the first thing that I found was that it was turning pretty tight,I found that the engine had been put together without a gasket that sets the crankshaft end play,so I made a gasket for that,the points plunger was sticking,probably from old oil so I had to get that free again.Once I got those things out of the way,I tried cranking it and found that the compression felt pretty low,I tried to start it a few times but it wouldn't even putt.I ended up taking the piston out and found the rings were stuck in the ring grooves from carbon,I was able to carefully and with the help of liberal amounts of wd40,I was able to get the rings free.Once I buttoned it back up,it didn't take to much to get this one singing again.To me these old engines are a testament to sound engineering,this engine was built in 1943.It's all cast iron,even the head shroud and blower housing,it weights about 75lbs and produces about 1 1/2 hp,that's probably the real reason why they last as long as they do,while they are a far sight better than the hit N miss engines that came before,they a far cry from the engines that power lawn equipment a such today.