The Weekend Tractor Project Part III

The old gal is starting to receive a new coat of paint, one section at a time. This is her instrument panel. The old Massey Ferguson red sure is a nice hue, not too bright, a beautiful deep cherry type of red.





New gauges await the instrument panel. We will need to let the panel sit for several days now, since it was just painted today.




The faded gal is going to love her new red!

It was good visiting with our friends today. We have been busy for a number of weekends. My husband has been studying, I have been working in the soap shop, and it has been too hot to throw open the garage doors (even though our friends have air inside the shop). Today we enjoyed our great friendship once again!

You can follow prior tractor project posts here.

Sunday's Tractor Project-Sandblasting Begins

The tractor project continued yesterday. I always have a good time with our friends, learning about tractor parts, listening to the guys find more problems, and better yet, find solutions. They love what they are doing! I loved hearing the tractor run.

Sunday was the day to begin removing parts from the old gal that need repainted. My husband, pictured above, finally got to use his new sand blaster. He donned a mask, then a hood, long suede gloves (his welder's gloves) and went to town sand blasting.

Pictured below is the "before photo" of the tractor's pull hitch (in an old water trough converted to a sand blaster tub) before it was sand blasted. The next photo is the hitch looking nearly new. Amazing. The guys then put the metal frame of the tractor seat in the trough. It came out beautifully clean, ready for paint too. The cushion part of the seat itself is on order. Expensive!

The '56 Massey Harris model 50 is going to be really spiffied up!

Sunday's Tractor Project-She Is Running!

This past Sunday we visited our good friends. It was a tractor restoration day. This is Bob (our wonderful friend, not my husband Bob) pulling back off of the street, returning to the garage.

This is the newest tractor project. She is a dandy! I love this one!

The guys did not know how soon she would be running, but wouldn't you know she is putting right along already! So far they have adjusted the hydraulics and the carburetor, and Bob has given her new tires. Great progress has been made.

This girl is going to take a lot of work, but I think the more work they need, the more interesting they get!

The Tractor Project, and Weekend This and That

Our weekend consisted of helping our friend move the new tractor project into his garage, using the prior tractor project (still a work in progress, nearly a year now) to do the work. I love these projects. The guys really get sparked, and I have learned a lot too.

Our friend, Bob, lives in-town, and is the talk of his small town whenever a new "old" tractor is brought in on his trailer.

The rest of our weekend was spent resting in between does kidding. We had a nice set of triplets born yesterday. I have a list of only 4 does left to freshen. Things are starting to wind down on the kidding calendar! It will remain busy for the next couple of months, as long as we have bottle kids, and until the barn and lot begin to clear out again (return to our set numbers).

Today I took a photo of the spring flowers that popped up in front of the house a few days ago. They likely will not survive for long in the wind/snow/sleet and dropping temps that we are experiencing. The photo is a bit blurry, but the colors came out gorgeous. I think the camera was cold too! :)

Tractor Project Part Two

There is something about tractors that grabs my attention, almost as much as barns, especially old barns. An old tractor has history under its fenders. It might have helped to plow a field, clean out a dairy barn, or perhaps helped with the family farm chores.

This is the latest tractor project, a 1956 Massey Harris Model 50. Yes, I know all of that. How I went from my office position behind 4 walls to this wonderful life is beyond me, but I absorb everything I can get because I love it.

My husband was the "driver" of the tractor. She does not run, by the way. The prior tractor owner used the Bobcat to lead the old gal out (flat tires were sunk in the ground). She went up on our friend's trailer with ease.

I was going to make goat milk soap today, but I like to freeze the goat milk in one particular way, and I was not prepared. Tomorrow for sure!

Another tractor pic:

New Tractor Project

I am pretty much too tired to write tonight. We went on a road trip with our good friends today and picked up a new "tractor project," as we like to call it. Now there will be two antique tractors in our friend's garage. When we get tired of restoring the one, we will work on the other.

We had kids throughout the weekend, 8 total. The milk is coming in good and strong now. I believe I have 5 dairy girls yet to kid.

Tomorrow I will post a few more pics of the tractor. I like the front end the best, the old grill area. This will be a long project, one that will probably take a couple of years to complete.