They really don't understand

KenB_Texas · Nov 9, 2009

But I think more than a few here do..

I was on Ebay looking around last night and found a listing for "2 McCormick Deering Farmall T-20 Trac Tractors" Being kinda curious I started looking at the pictures. Shells of tractors, with piles and piles of rusted parts, one without a motor, enough rust everywhere to make the PB blaster company envious. Even mosses growing. Yett as I examined the photos I caught myself thinking "man that looks like fun" If I had the time and the space and the cash I could have a blast with those.

Am a prime candidate for the big house. What kind of nut looks at something like that and thinks of "fun"...

I think most folks really do not understand. Recently I had my trailer parked in my drive, it was full of planters, a cultivator and extra parts for my SC. I had 3 or 4 people ask me when I was headed for the scrap metal yard. You should have seen their faces when I told them I had just bought that scrap.

Even my wife cringes every time I leave the house with the trailer and the checkbook. She still wants to know when I will get the FIRST tractor fixed.. I keep telling her I am working on it ...

Brownie 450 · Nov 10, 2009

Mental health.

MN Mike · Nov 10, 2009

I"m not sure what the therapists are getting an hour these days but $50-$100 in parts to keep an old tractor going can keep me sane for a long time.

Dave H (MI) · Nov 10, 2009

I don't think you are a nut. I look at all the stuff I have done over the years and probably the most rewarding has been learning how to fix old tractors from the guys here and then applying what I learned. The tractor I am currently working on was headed for the scrapper but it is shaping up real nice now. My only thing is that I try not to start one and then move to another etc. I try not to buy too much stuff ahead either although I am currently behind a little having two that don't run. Soooo...I am over 50, business is down about 60 percent, kids are getting pretty grown up, wife had to get a part time job to cover the business decline, customers I do have complain constantly about the economy and often pay late or not at all...guess if working on those tractors keeps me getting up in the AM then I'll just keep working on those tractors!

Anonymous-0 · Nov 10, 2009

Every once in a while, I move some stuff around. Some days I will actually clean up and paint a few parts. On a really good day, I will get to bolt some parts back together.

The secret is to move enough stuff around so the pile/stack/etc looks different.

LenNH · Nov 10, 2009

You need to tell people who ask about the next trip to the junk yard that you are working on conceptual art with a twenty-first century postmodernist twist. I don"t know what the hell that means, and I am not sure people who write that sort of stuff do, either, but it might work.
I"ve been there with accumulating stuff I never worked on. Eventually decided I had had enough
busted knuckles working on old iron (ALL through my youth and young-man years on the family farm), so I just gave up. Still, I applaud anybody who has the guts to start on a project that looks like scrap and make it into a working machine.
My father always had a "shop" (I called it, privately, a junkroom) where he kept all kinds of stuff, from wood to angle iron. "Never know when ya might need that," he would say. Lately, I"ve found that--if you have room--it"s kind of handy having iron, wood, bolts and screws around.
Go for it. And it's true, "they" don't understand, but who cares? The older I get, the less I care about what "they" think.

M Diesel · Nov 10, 2009

Ifn she kinda cringes about cultivators, them T-20s will cause a spasm. :lol:

FYI, there are several guys on RedPowerMagazine.com that have them and can help with parts. Cool little machines. 8)

They really don't understand

KenB_Texas

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Brownie 450

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MN Mike

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Dave H (MI)

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Anonymous-0

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LenNH

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M Diesel

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