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It certainly could not be much easier of a repair. Just remove the radiator cap when the engine is cool, pour in the bottle of K-seal, put the cap back on, and you’re good to go. I just used the cheap, regular sized bottle. They make a larger one for bigger radiators, but why bother with that...

It would be well worth the $ 16 to try a bottle of K-seal before tearing the tractor apart to install a gasket. That stuff is made for that type of leak and did a great job on my 4120. Still no leaks or excessive temperature and I’ve been using that tractor a lot since making that cheap, easy...

Switch from white to pork fried. Significantly more btu/cu cm.

The Cub got a couple hours on it tonight, cultipacking a few acres of wheat and clover that I had just sown. The oil leak repair held up good. The lights worked well also. Good thing because I needed them to finish up 1/2 hour past sunset.

I put one in on the other side of the country (upstate NY) about 30 years ago with my 1951 Ford 8n and 3 point pond scoop. I paid $1200 for the tractor (from the widow of the original owner), and $175 for the scoop. The pond was 32’ x 22’ x 6 ft deep. It took me about 50 hours to dig with...

Will do, thanks for the advice. I’ll probably be changing the oil and filter next spring, if I use it a fair amount this winter. It’s got one fresh quart of 15W-50 Shell Rotella in it now, that I added to whatever my mechanic put in it, 50 or so operating hours ago. Before I took it apart and...

My main job with the Cub in the summer is cultipacking, but I also use it to pull my boat around and move it back into the barn after I’ve been out fishing. After my last time out “pet shopping”, I used it to transport the pets (4 largemouth bass) to my pond. There’s a tricky culvert crossing...

Yes, twice , that’s not it.

Weak and intermittent spark. I’m thinking it might be in the wiring harness or coil. I’ll buy a NAPA coil, to replace the cheap aftermarket one on it now, and if that don’t work, I’ll swap out the harness. No time for that until winter though.

If they won’t give you cash back, maybe they would let you put it towards an implement.

The 18” drop from the step was what was aggravating my bad knee. Now that I cut that down to a standard 9”, no trouble at all. It don’t matter what leg I start or finish with since I did that, but I was trying to make sure that last step down was with my good side, prior to adding that step.

I first injured it in a bad snowmobile accident 34 years ago. Tore a tendon or something. Dr said it probably wouldn’t bother me much unless I played professional basketball. It’s acted up a few times thru the years but this last stretch has been the worst. It started in mid May, when my...

I suppose I could replace the (2) 3/8” grade 5 attachment bolts with 1/4” and fender washers. That way they would shear off before the factory step would get damaged. Seeing as how the step is lined right up with the tires on that side, I don’t think that will be a big concern. Also, this...

I thought it looked kind of low too, but no issues in the mud or ditches last night. Good idea on the weld breads. That’s my main snowplowing tractor so those will come in handy this winter for sure. If my knee heals up my then, I might take it off for the winter. It really is amazing how...

I’ve been having some knee issues since my 1951 Ford 8n broke down in mid-May. My only other 3-point hitch tractor (John Deere 4120) has a much higher operators platform. I always did most of the smaller jobs, that required lots of getting on and off, with that old Ford. I am not going to have...

I’ve been driving GM’s exclusively for 44 years, several for over 100k miles. My current Silverado (the one with the camper on it) is from the last millennium. I gave that other one to my father in law who sandblasted and welded up the corroded frame and is still using it to plow snow up in the...

There’s no doubt that it does have some advantages for those of us up near the Northern border of the USA. Back in the prior millennium, it took a lot more firewood to heat a house thru the winter. Now, I can heat our 2000 sq ft house from fall until spring using less than 6 face cords. It’s...

I really do enjoy clearing it. There’s just something very refreshing about getting outside in the cool crisp air, and moving the snow out of the way. Last winter was pretty lame for us here, and I only got out plowing 5 or 6 times. I think I only needed the big tractor twice. We have a...

That’s the beauty of existing outside of time and space and human understanding, like He does. I talk to Him all the time and He has helped me achieve many things that I thought were impossible. Not to mention the sheer number of fish that He has put in my boat and deer in my freezer. It...

This is where my tractor sleeps in the winter. I have used it to dig myself out of several blizzards that dumped more than 6 ft of snow on us. I keep the block heater plugged into an outlet that’s switched inside the house. That way, I can warm it up real good before I go out and battle the...

It appears that the Good Lord has deflected that personal attack upon you. I’m sorry about that, because it was I who brought up His name, and who justly deserved the attack.

I used the Cub on one of my 7 ft cultipackers for planting turnips at our place last week. It’s definitely my favorite tractor on that implement. I have another 7 footer over at my parents place and I used my dad’s John Deere / Yanmar 770 on that one over there. The Cub is way nicer and...

There’s no easy answer for that stuff. I’ve been thru some pretty serious physical and mental trauma myself, one time getting hit head on by a pickup truck going about 50 mph while I was on a snowmobile and 25 years later surviving a brain tumor that was larger than a softball. I can’t wait to...

I recently completed a “tractor shed” near the back of my pole barn. It is 25 ft long x 10 ft wide and was originally an open back porch, that I intended to use as my woodshed. I live in a spot (upstate Western NY) that gets a fair amount of bright sunny days, consistent rain, and occasional...

My only big complaint is that I don’t know why some folks refuse to accept Jesus Christ as their savior. Life here on Earth is not perfect like it will be in the hereafter. I can’t understand why everyone would not want that. Don’t they realize how fleeting our time here is ? Tomorrow is not...

Here in upstate Western NY, we have been blessed with at least 1/4” of rain no less than every 4 days since spring. I’ll likely wear out my lawn mower this year but I never seen a growing season like it. My corn is over 9 ft tall and will likely make over 200 by/acre:

It was raining most of the day so I split up about 1-1/2 face cord of cherry that was in my splitter shed. Hopefully, I’ll get another 3 face cords cut and split by the end of the summer. That will make 18 face cords in my woodshed, enough to heat our house thru (3) average winters. The...

This fiberglass 8 ft truck cap was probably my best. It fits my old pickup truck perfect. It was a faded forest green color. I bought a quart of Rustoleum hammered black paint for about $ 8 and painted it with that. This 3200 psi pressure washer was my 2nd best. All it needed was a new...

My 1951 8n has been laid up for some time now with an electrical issue. The sputtering got worse as I was getting ready for my second corn planting in late May. I tried a new cheap aluminum carburetor on it but no go. It seems to have very intermittent spark. My cousin thinks the problem...

Here are both of my great great grandfathers old barns (made mostly from American chestnut). I used lots of that inside my new barn (built on the site of the first old one that I dismantled) These pictures were taken from about the same point, about 50 years apart. I planted that maple tree...

I had planned on bringing home a light load of ash logs, from my parents place Sunday, but 1/3 of a big three way split cherry fell down across their yard a few days prior. That, and the small dead ash behind it made a pretty good load, maybe 2-1/2 face cords total. After I get that split up...

It’s nice that you were able to save that old barn. There were a couple old timber framed barns on our farm that my great great grandfather had built in the 1880’s. Unfortunately, they were too far gone for me to save, with the foundations and roofs failing at the same time. While I wasn’t...

That looks like a busted up impeller on the water pump. I think the op mentioned a water pump issue on his, in addition to the timing cover sealant joint leak. How much for a new water pump ? Was it tough to get off ? Was it overheating, loosing coolant or both ? Maybe the K-seal did fix...

Is that the $ 414 OEM Bosch starter from JD or is it the $ 146 aftermarket one from Amazon ?

I know just how you feel about the old Ford. My 1951 Ford 8n is down and out right now with some type of electrical issue. That tractor is loads of fun when it’s running but is a real bear to do maintenance and repairs on. Even an oil change is a pain. And what’s up with having to remove the...

Check the compression on each cylinder. Those sound like the symptoms mine had when it needed a valve job.

Still some bargains out there at garage sales. I just landed another nice smallmouth bass wearing the new $ 3 fishing shoes that I picked up a couple weeks ago. Color clashes a little with my father in laws 62 Johnson though. I should have brought my 56 Evinrude.

Check the coolant level in the radiator. My 43 hp John Deere 4120 was running a little hot on a 5 ft medium duty Bush hog. It was about 1/2 gallon low on coolant. It turned out have a small leak from a sealant joint behind the timing cover. Rather than pay the dealer est $ 6000 to install a...

I finally finished my annual bush-hogging, nocking off the last two fields today (the smallest one and the largest). I cut about 20 acres total each year. Today was a great day for it, cool and windy with no skeeters. I did one field in the rain yesterday when it was calm, warmer and...

Sounds about right since the aftermarket one of questionable origin was $ 146 on Amazon when I got it about a year ago.

Damn, they must have assembled that one on a Monday morning after their football team lost on Sunday.

Well whatever they did with this one really worked. It cranks the tractor better than the OEM (Bosch) one ever did, even on real cold days last winter. Not sure how long it will last though. If it more than the 3 or 4 years I got out of the original, I’ll be lots of money ahead. The last...

To get at the back bolt, I used an extension on a 3/8 drive socket ratchet. I think I may have stacked (2) shorter ones together to give me enough length to swing the ratchet from the back of the starter. Changing that starter took me between 15 and 20 minutes and I think the new one cost less...

It varies by region. Here in upstate Western NY, few have any clue what a “cord” really is and that always means face cord to them. Knowing that this is not a state forum, I always try and make sure to differentiate so that those in regions like yours can understand easier.

I’m just starting into firewood season at home. The first step is bush-hogging the fields. Our farm consists of (6) smaller fields from 5-10 acres in size, separated by thick hedgerows and several small wood lots. Over half of the trees were ash, but all of those are now completely dead or...

I’ve changed starters twice on my 4120 and I don’t remember having too much trouble getting at the second bolt. Seemed like it worked with standard wrenches and sockets. May have needed the right length extension on a ratchet though. As far as the coolant leaked, a regular standard bottle...

I’m now about half way thru one of the biggest jobs that I do every year with my 4120 (bush hogging about 20 acres of hay fields). The K-seal continues to hold. In fact, my coolant temperature has been running as cool as I’ve ever noticed it during that job. It will be interesting to see...

I can see where buying a new tractor from the nearest dealer could be a big deal with the some of the brands, where frequent dealer service might be anticipated. I bought my “one and only” new tractor at “fair special” price from the farthest away John Deere dealer in our county. I’ve never...

Soon, you will get to the part where Jesus Christ pays for all of our sins, so it’s all well and good to work it continuously now. A little break for the land is still not a bad thing though. We use to work ours much harder, back when we had cattle and hogs (from a few years before the Civil...

I think your auto insurance would cover it if you carry it in the bed of your pickup:

There are (2) natural gas furnaces in the basement of our L-shaped ranch, one for each wing. They only run on winter days when the temperature at sunrise is above 35 F. It gets too hot in the house if we use the wood stove when it’s that warm. I thought we were only going to use (5) face...

I took a vacation day from my factory job today, and I pulled a “David Frizell” with the 4120 (That’s 10 more operating hours). I started out cultivating and spraying my first planting of field corn. It was up about 2 ft and looking pretty weedy. Next, I hauled a bunch of top soil and finish...

Things were certainly a lot tougher for the folks up north, prior to global warming. Burning (12) full cords of wood, to heat a house thru winter, seems mind boggling to me right now. That is (6) times more wood than it takes to heat our house. I’m way up north myself, less than 30 minutes...

What engine did you get in that ? I’ve got the 4.7 liter 8 cyl in the one I use as a field car. I think it has about 140k miles on it, not sure the year. Has always started and ran great. This thing certainly has one heck of a suspension on it. I never had a field car that rode smoother at...

Jury still out on the buckwheat. I haven’t noticed it sprouting yet but I planted a little over at my parents place and the rest here at home, in spots where I’m going to put in wheat/clover deer food plots this fall. I’m hoping that it builds up the soil and shades out the weeds between now...

I planted some buckwheat tonight. The little Farmall Cub works great on the 7 ft cultipacker.

I bought a set of Caldwell Deadshot shooting bags. They were on sale for $ 29 at Runnings. I was never very happy with my old metal and rubber adjustable bench rest, plus I seem to have misplaced it. I also picked up some bass lures from the clearance rack (opening day is this Saturday here...

The only time I didn’t realy enjoy working on firewood was during the 3-4 years between when I started dismantling my great great grandads old post and beam barns, and when I finished my woodshed. Stacking wood outside on skids and covered with tarps in an area like ours, that gets lots of...

There are lots of sugar maples over at my parents place, which is about 20 miles away. I remember my grandfather tapping them when I was a little kid. They have about 50 acres of woods and at least 25 % of the trees there are sugar maple. Whenever one of those goes down from the wind, I get...

It’s kind of nice for lumber though, because it’s soft, just like pine, and very easy to drive nails thru. I’m getting my money’s worth from the free canopy top on my loader tractor today. I’m working on splitting large hard maple and ash rounds. I load the split stuff into the bucket and...

1800

A bushel of buckwheat ($ 35), and $ 60 worth of stuff at a garage sale (jig saw, corner sander, axe, 4 ft level, (3) pair of shoes, (3) pair of sox, leather belt, fancy wool Orvis fishing hat, camo hunting hat).

I use an open Rubbermaid box on my Farmall Cub. It holds a chainsaw, small gas and oil cans, log chains, etc.. I don’t work outside much in the rain, so no need for a top. I store the tractors in the barn. I can remove the box of woodcutting supplies from the wood side rack and store it up...

My neighbors across the street have some real swampy ground behind their house. They have got several different pieces of equipment burried back there including a compact Kubota tractor and a big old Chevy Suburban field car. One time they got the suburban in so deep that the mud and water...

I noticed my coolant temperature starting to creep up a little closer to the red zone on the gauge, as I was getting near the end of bush/hogging this thick, 5 acre hay field on Tuesday night. I was wondering if the coolant leak might have started again. I used the 4120 tonight, to move...

(4) more operating hours this evening, last 15 minutes with the lights, all heavy bush-hogging. This was our warmest day of the year so far at 85 F. The engine temperature gauge stayed well in the green throughout. I’ll check the coolant level again, prior to next job, but I doubt it lost any.

I finished planting my corn on Friday. I put in 2 acres of RR fieldcorn for the deer and 1/4 acres of sweetcorn (Kandy corn and Silver queen). I had also planted the same amount of RR, Kandy corn, and Bodacious on May 15 and that’s all up about 6” now. After that, I went over to my...

This is the most refined form of the original on a 1951 Ford 8n. It was first invented by Harry Ferguson and offered to the public, in partnership with Henry Ford on the Ford model 9n, in 1939:

If your starter keeps giving you trouble, the repair is cheap, quick and easy. I got an aftermarket replacement starter from Amazon last fall for around $ 140. There’s just two bolts and one electrical connection so changing it out was an easy, 15 minute job. I’m not sure how long this new...

I was going to relax today after a pretty busy “vacation day” yesterday, but I managed to get 4 more operating hours on the 4120 this morning. Most of that was heavy duty bush-hogging. I also cut up and hauled up a large ash tree that fell into one of our hay fields over the winter. Still no...

That was a bit of a drive for me, way down near the south border of the county, while I’m up on the north end. They were running a special at the county fair the year I bought that tractor. There was another “mom and pop” JD dealer, just a few miles from our place up north, but they just got...

I had some of that stuff on the shelf in my shop, but was reluctant to use it on this tractor, for exactly that reason. It did work good in an old field car that I had one time (a Plymouth Volare with a slant-6 engine). I damaged the radiator on that while punching thru brushy hedgerows...

Probably to save money and/or time but more likely somebody just didn’t know no better. Happens everyday, old knowledgeable folks retire and those that replace them are lacking know-how. Not taking into account the fact that different materials (in this case iron and aluminum) have different...

Mine hadn’t leaked any until about a month ago. I just checked it tonight and the K-seal is definitely holding so far. I haven’t really got into the heavy usage yet this year for that tractor though. I bush-hog about 30 acres with it, usually in the hottest part of the summer. That will be a...

What year is yours ? It sounds like the dealer “fix” has been to replace the sealant with a gasket. It sounds like once that’s done, there hasn’t been any reoccurrences. Only trouble is coming up with the $ 6k to cover the 20 hours of dealer time to do the work. It sounds like lots were...

I bought a $16 bottle of K-seal from Advance auto on my drive home from work yesterday. My 2005 John Deere 4120 tractor was starting to loose a little coolant and I feared the dreaded “timing cover” sealant leak. A “proper” repair of that, at the dealer, would likely cost in the neighborhood...

I think I may have recently had this issue on my 2005 model 4120. I noted that the coolant level was approx 1/2 gallon low a couple months ago and I topped it off then. About a week ago, the high temp alert came on and again it was about 1/2 gallon low on coolant. I had last changed the...

One of the neat things about the last of the old barns, that I took down and am still working on cleaning up, was that it had the build date (1883) cut out of the siding up under the front peak. The older I get, the less I like heights, but I got up on a tall extension ladder and managed to...

Sounds good to me. My woodshop framing, walls and roofing is made from mostly American chestnut that was salvaged from my great great grandfathers old barns and them cabinets are made from steel salvaged from my grandmas old house. My great great grandfather had built that house also.

That’s part of the metal kitchen cabinets that my grandmother bought in the 1950’s. The old farmhouse caught fire and mostly burned up in 1980. The kitchen fared the best in the fire, which started on the other side of the house. Grandpa stacked the cabnets out in the barn but never got...

The price sure was right (free is always good). It is pretty handy. The glass front is the nice because there’s no wondering if the tool I need is where it’s supposed to be when I’m walking up to it. The style fits good with the reclaimed 1880’s chestnut timber’s and barnwood that I used to...

Notice there’s an opening on the right of the middle (“curve cut”) saw shelf. I burned up the motor on my corded jig saw a few weeks ago. It was a cheap Black and Decker that I paid about $15 for at a flea market about 10 years ago. I’m leaning towards a Wen model that Amazon has for about $...

Probably a good idea. I’ve got a bunch of junk stacked up in one corner that I hope to be able to get sorted out before winter. If I do, I should have plenty of room did everything. Not sure where or if I’ll find the time for that though. I’m hoping not to have to store my corn planted on...

I built a 12 x 20 ft woodshop inside my new pole barn a few years ago. Just after I finished it, I noticed this big heavy dining room hutch out by the road for garbage pickup, just around the corner from our place. It works real nice for storing my power tools. The shelf’s are made from...

I am hoping that I can fit lots of stuff in my tractor shed this winter, (5) tractors, my pickup truck, suv, wife’s mini-van, my field car (Dodge Durango), truck camper, boat, canoe, bush-hog, corn planter, wood-splitter, (3) bikes and (24) face cords of firewood. We usually get lots of snow...

I am almost as far north of Florida as you can get (upstate NY) without entering Canada. Our kids are the 7th generation of our family to live on the 40 acre farm that my great great great grandfather homesteaded in the early 1800’s. Our farm is on the lowest elevation road in our town and we...

The old 8n sputtered a little while I was plowing this area but didn’t miss a beat on the planter yesterday. I suppose that prior roughness was a result of using up The gas that was left in the tank from last year. It ran like new once the fresh gas got to it. There is certainly no modern...

I’m actually out hunting turkeys on that wheat plot right now (for about 10 more minutes, then I got to go to work).

Here are my two “rebuilt” 7 footers in action last fall, pressing in wheat/white clover and turnip plots:

I would try and make a replacement wood sleeve bearing and slide it into the steel housing. You could turn the outside diameter on a lathe and drill the inside diameter. I’ve fixed up several old cultipackers that were of a simplified end bracket design, using pressure treated pine 4x4 with...

There’s probably a bunch of them stranded in Baltimore.

I had one that I sold quite a few years ago.

I definitely prefer to keep tractors in their original paint, if possible. That gets tough, because so many are left outside, and the sun is very punishing to paint jobs (and rubber). My uncle, who was a collector of old cars and tractors, passed away a couple years ago. They had a little...

I’ve got mine from the 51 also, with almost the exact same implements. I’m not sure exactly where it is right now though. I think the tractor alone was around $ 1200, which matches what I paid for the whole package about 40 years later, when it had 1200 hours on it. I like the gear speed...

No, it’s got the stock 4 forward and one reverse. The reverse ratio is about the same as third gear forward. That is perfect for pushing snow backwards with a blade, but two fast for scooping in reverse with a pond scoop. I did use one of those in forward with it, to dig a 1/4 acre pond...

Three reasons I don’t own one: 1) They are not free. 2) It would get in the way of really useful stuff like bolt on forks, or a piece of 12” x 24” long steel C-channel, that I bolt under the center of my heavy duty bucket for transplanting trees or digging narrow ditches. 3) It would be tough to...

My history with this tractor goes back to around 1969. I was 5 years old and it was owned by our neighbor across the street. He was fairly well off financially, having the top union job at the largest employer in our town. He didn’t own a lot of land, less than 3 acres, but he went top notch...

What kind are running ? We’ve got Samsungs and never had any trouble with them. The oldest is about 15 years old.

A new starter for my wife’s 2010 Toyota Sienna mini van. In 43 years of driving, that’s the first time any of my vehicles had to be hauled to the shop on a hook. I’ve always had Chevy’s though, but she really wanted a mini-van back then and they didn’t offer one. I look at it as a blessing...

Close call here, I’m thankful that I replaced my worn out 6 ft light duty bush hog with a 5 ft medium duty. I only had a couple inches to spare in my new tractor shed: Sometimes, you got to size your equipment to fit your shed. One other nice thing about the 5 footer, is that my old Ford...

For mouse control in my pole barn, where I store (5) tractors, a boat and a truck camper, I use a couple of these little plastic traps, baited with a dab of peanut butter. I catch a dozen or so per year out there in those, mostly in the cooler months. I’ve never had any mouse damage to any...

That’s similar square footage to mine (36 x 50 main with 10 x 25 back enclosed shed, 6 x 25 back lean-to woodshed, and 10 x 25 side porch. The main walls are 12 ft high. I really like the 10 ft truss spacing on this Stockade building because it lets me utilize lots of that upper enclosed...

My dad’s old Yanmar built JD did pretty good for me yesterday, but I’d be a little concerned about long term parts support as a “lifetime” tractor, especially if I was a as little younger (I’m 59 now). Reason for that is the current supply chain issues, and the “reshoring” efforts. The...

I love the gravel floor in my pole barn for multiple reasons. First, its no big deal if a tractor drips a little oil on it or a boat leaks some water out of the bilge or live wells. Second, if a little extra clearance is needed to fit something thru the overhead door (like a camper roof top...

I got to try out my generator hookup a month ago when we lost power for 6 hours. I’ve had this little 6250 peak / 5000 steady Black Max gas engine generator for about 15 years. It’s always been a pain to drag it out during storms, and running extension cords, so I seldom did. Fortunately, we...

“Opinion” is certainly the key word here, because it eliminates all the wrong answers. I can only comment on the brands that I have personal experience with, that being John Deere, Allis Chalmers, Ford, International Harvester, and Case. Since two of those (Allis Chalmers and Ford) have folded...

We had a good steady rain this afternoon, so I finally got to use my splitter shed. It worked pretty good. I was able to split a bucket load and stack it in the woodshed, in about 40 minutes, all while staying very dry. I patched up the canopy top on my loader tractor, with a combination of...

No dust gets on anything except the firewood in the open ended woodshed across the back.

Your tractor would handle a 12 foot pull-type or an 8 ft 3-point. I certainly would recommend the pull-type as I’ve yet to see any 3 point disk that I thought was worth more than its weight in scrap metal. It takes many more passes with those, to get the ground sufficiently worked, wasting...

It’s mostly real. It still has most of the original parts on it too, including all (4) tires and paint. I have had to change out a few though, over the last 800 hours that I’ve put in it (it had 1200 on it when I got it, back around 1990). I bought it from the widow of the original owner...

If I were to add them up, I suppose I’d have a dozen or so, category 1 3-point implements. I have (2) tractors with 3-point hitches, one mid sized and one large. Keeping the implements on level ground makes changes relatively easy, especially with the mid sized tractor. My mid sized tractor...

We usually only use ours a couple of times each year. My brother and sister have a small cottage up on the St Lawrence River and we always go there for a long weekend in the summer. Last summer it was pretty cool up there and we hardly needed the AC. I’ll be needing it on the Fourth of July...

That’s the third truck camper I’ve owned. It’s 25 years old. I bought them all used. This one looks like it spent most of its time indoors. My wife saw it out for sale (2) years ago, and talked me into buying it. The one we had at the time was just a couple years older. The roof leaked a...

I plowed 5 or 6 times with the Cub thru the winter, and twice with my larger tractor (when we got more than 12”). The Cub certainly earned its keep, especially thanks to that PVC pipe under the blade. For the first time ever, I couldn’t find a single stone in the grass this spring. I was...

This one is a little closer with better parts availability due to higher production numbers:

The plastic covered totes look like they would work pretty good, but they are ugly. My wife with complain, if I tried that.

If you don’t go with a John Deere, you will most likely always live with some regrets. That don’t sound too fun to me.

Stacking firewood was my least favorite part of the whole process, until I finished my woodshed. Now, that’s my favorite part. I haven’t found much worse than stacking fire-wood outside, except maybe trying to unstack it, to bring in the house and burn over the winter. Having to shovel thru...

3

I moved some split ash into the woodshed this afternoon. I’ve got room for about 12 more face cord on the newly completed east side. I don’t know if I’ll get that much processed this summer, but it’s nice to have plenty of room if I do. I used to be able to do more firewood in the winter, but...

I hadn’t used my old Stihl MS 280 in a while but it ran real good with some fresh ethanol free 50:1 mix this afternoon. I chunked up the hard maple that I hauled home from my parents over a week ago. It’s been kind of muddy back by that trailer with all the recent rain. Hopefully, the...

That’s interesting. The Cub I have now is my second one. I bought my first one as a dedicated cultivating tractor. I bought into the “cultivation” hype, but after getting it, I was disappointed. The first single row tractor, that I cultivated corn with, was my grandpa’s 1949 JD model M...

It is pretty and I ran my red one yesterday (pulled it up into my shop so that I could remove the snowplow and rear tire chains). I’m definitely a little more addicted to the green paint though.

Upstate NY, about 30 minutes from the Canadian border.

How many acres only tells half the story. I have 34 acres and 5 tractors. The engine horsepower adds up to 111, so that works out to 3.26 horsepower per acre. That includes 10, 14.5, 15.5, 28, and 43 hp models from (4) different manufacturers. (2) of those are lawn tractors, used only for...

It might be a compression issue and you may need a valve job.

I’d go ahead and try the brush-hog mowing and bringing in some loose hay if I was in your shoes. Hay bales aren’t all they are cracked up to be. I was around 10 years old when grandpa got a baler. Prior to that, we drew the hay in loose. I liked the loose hay much better than the bales, and...

Spring maintenance time. I bought a new 6 volt battery, for my Ford 8n tractor, an oil filter and 2 gallons of 15W-40 for my JD 4120, a 12 volt 250 CCA battery for one of my lawn tractors, and a maintenance kit (2 quarts 10W-30, oil, air, gas filters, and spark plug)for the other one. I’m...

I disagree here. If you put all your eggs in one basket, odds are that you will drop it. I can’t imagine having just one tractor. That sounds way too stressful for me.

A decent sized hard maple fell down across a trail in my parents woods. There wasn’t too many mud holes on the way back there, so I hauled up a pickup truck load (three trips with the carryall and my dad’s little JD 770). There’s probably (2) more pickup truck loads back there. The tractor...

I think that they are pretty neat and I would have liked to save the old barns. Unfortunately, my great great grandad built them in a low spot with poor drainage, and the foundations were failing at the same time as the roofs. If would have cost much more to fix them properly, than it did to...

I will never forget taking my then brand new boat (which I still have and use regularly), down to my buddy’s camp, for opening day of Walleye season on the first Saturday in May in 1989. We had to shovel over a foot of snow out of it that morning, before we could go out. I’m going to leave...

Look at that ash go: It got warm out yesterday afternoon and I worked late finishing up the woodshed. I didn’t have time to start the wood stove last night and the house was still quite warm inside from burning it the night before. Not so this morning. Woke up to a hard frost and 65...

None taken, and you are correct in the importance of keeping things plumb and square. My buddy did a pretty good job, when he put up the shell of my Stockade building, back in 2018. He put concrete under all of the pt fabricated posts. My nephew poured and finished the concrete floor sections...

I was wondering about the big “lawn ornament” that one of my neighbors has. It’s a good sized cabbed unit, of that era, that has been parked in his front yard for over 10 years. Trees are starting to grow up thru it now. Sad what happened to that company. They (IH) held the top spot for a...

I’d be leery of expecting to get new “forever” tractor at this time. It seems to me that a great deal of the design and engineering effort is going into electrification and emission controls. That said, I’m pretty confident that I have my forever tractor, that I bought new almost 20 years...

I used a level quite a bit on that project. Those big swinging doors on the east end of the splitter shed swing real nice thanks to that. I’ve had those (4) big iron strap hinges for about 10 years. I knew I’d find a use for them some day. A neighbor tore down an old barn and sold them at...

I finally finished the woodshed today, with the completion of the east end back wall. Now, I got to get going on cutting and splitting up to 12 face cords. There is currently 7-1/2 ready to go in the west end, most of which is ash. My next big task, is moving all the leftover old barn siding...

I think mine is a 22 ton. It’s got a 5 hp Honda on it and I got it from Northern about 20 years ago. It has worked great and never given me any trouble. I change the oil in the engine once a year and split 7-8 face cords a year with it. It can be used vertical or horizintal. I leave it...

It looks like we are getting a few more nights in the 30’s, so I brought a little more ash up to the porch for burning in the house. My old 8n was needing an oil change and lube anyhow, to get it ready for spring plowing. That little wood hauling job warmed up the old oil enough so that it...

Looks like we are supposed to get a few flakes between 7:00 and 8:00 pm tonight here in the NW corner of NY state. Probably won’t be enough for me to plow. Doesn’t look good in the long range forecast after that. Probably won’t see enough to plow again until December.

It all depends on how much time you have to get the job done. Personally, I like to have options because sometimes (like on the weekends) I’ve got plenty of time. Not so much before and after work on weekdays though. I’ve got 34 acres to maintain, along with a house, a barn and a couple of...

There’s lots of use left in the first two, and the bottom one hasn’t even made its first cut yet. I used to loose pocket knifes regularly, but that little EDC seems oddly unloosable. Once, I lost it outside in the winter, while ice fishing at my in-laws place. They found it the next spring...

My favorite hunting knife: My EDC: New one my brother in law gave me for Christmas:

I didn’t want to miss out on some hard maple, that blew down over a trail in my parents woods, so I decided to finish up the other side of my woodshed. That will give me room to store it after I cut it up and split it. I had to move some old barn beams out (now mostly under the overhang) so...

Ash lasts thru the night for me, but I still can’t wait till it’s all gone. My wife tops off the stove around midnight, and there is always plenty of red coals left, when I get up at 5:00 am. Problem is, I got to shovel out the ashes about every other day. I can go once a week with those...

The biggest reason I like cherry better than ash, is that I need to clean the ashes out of the stove about 1/4 as often when burning it, and it seems to heat better. I just finished cutting and splitting about 3/4 face cord of ash. That will probably be our campfire wood for this year. I used...

I am on the north west corner of NY state, about a half hour drive from Lake Erie or Lake Ontario.

My “Summer Silverado”, 2000 Chevy 3/4 ton 2wd extended cab with 8 ft box and 6 liter V8. Florida truck with no rust and 80k miles. Hopefully, I’ll get another (40) years out of it which will take me to 100. Don’t suppose I’ll need it much after that. I don’t care for any of the trucks they...

I’m really looking forward to burning some other woods again. Ever since the emerald ash borer threat started, over 10 years ago, over 90 % of what I’ve been burning has been ash. Roughly half of the trees on our 34 acres were ash, as were about 1/4 of those, on my parents 64 acres. Even...

The best thing about ash, is that it is the only wood that I know of, that can be burned without any seasoning time. That means if you ran out of wood during the winter, you could go out and cut and split some fresh stuff, and burn it the next day. With a woodshed that holds at least (4) years...

I knew that the 20 year old 6 volt battery, that I had in my 1951 Ford 8n, was on borrowed time last fall. It had never been used. They gave it to me at work, after I bought a Farmall Cub (that hadn’t been run in 20 years) at a silent auction. The cells were half empty and I topped them off...

If you locate the lowest spot (use a tape measure or a ruler to find where the water is deepest after a rain), you might need to only drill one hole (11” deep to go thru both layers of concrete, to the gravel below). If you use a large diameter drill bit (1-1/2” plus) then you could install a...

Got er done:

I would mark the spots where the water accumulates the deepest and drill holes thru the concrete there with a hammer drill when it’s dry. There should be crushed stone under the concrete and the water will drain away into that. You should be able to do that in less than 15 minutes. 1/2”...

My splitter shed west end wall is coming along pretty good. It’s all framed in now and the window and door are installed. I put the window extra low, to equalize the upper and lower wall supports, and to make for a little more comfortable deer blind. We’ve been having a mid-September...

I’ve got the day off of work for Good Friday and really should get outside and finish up the west wall of my splitter shed. It’s 30 degrees out there now and supposed to hit 32 around 9:00 am. Don’t look like much more freezing temps in the long range forecast, tonight and maybe again next...

Only one rule of thumb for me and snowblowing - Don’t do it, snowplows are way more fun:

It looks like we are done with snow up in the nw corner or western NY also. This past winter was definitely the least snow I’ve seen in my 59 years here. We only had (2) snowfalls of just over 12”, where I used my larger tractor, and (4-5) of 4-12”, where my little Farmall Cub was perfect...

Probably not as much as the emissions controls they are putting on those over 25 hp these days.

Winter just does not want let go, up here in the NW corner of NY state. I had to go out to southern CA for work over the last week but it was so cold here at home that my wife burned up every last piece of firewood I had left up on the porch for her. They are calling for a few more days of...

I definitely see where a cab would be nice for a blower. I never cared for blower because it only seems like they work good when it’s real cold and the snow is light and fluffy. In recent years, it seems like the wet, slushy snow is getting more and more common here in upstate western NY...

It’s way different for sure. I was only in the city once and I hated it. Our daughter’s high school field hockey team advanced to the final four a couple years ago. The tournament was on Long Island and I spent 3 hours, stuck in traffic in Queens, getting there. Our daughter liked it though...

Damn, we must be. I’m in upstate NY, but spent all of the last week working in SanDiego, so I’m still on CA time. As I recall, that little muffler you can see on our M quieted it down pretty good. I definitely liked that two-banger “poppin Johnny” sound though. That M was always a gutsy...

Damn, that is a close match maybe only three years off. Is your M a Farmall or a John Deere ? The first tractor on our farm was a 1949 John Deere M, which my dad still has, but which he hasn’t tried to start in about 15 years. He says he’s leaving that one to my brother when he passes...

Yeah you could say that I guess. The same holds true for my 1951 Ford 8n. That one also still has the factory tires on it. It also still has its “work clothes” ie factory paint. My Cub had been repainted by the old maintenance guy at the factory that I bought it from. It must have sat...

I’m just thankful that I gave a Cub a second chance, after not having much luck with my first one. I owned that one for about 20 years. The only thing I missed about it after I sold it, was plowing snow. It’s hard to exaggerate, just how good these are for that job. There’s just something...

We got a 6” snowfall last night, so I got to use the Cub again. I did our two driveways and our neighbors on each side. The PVC pipe, on the bottom of the plow, stayed on the whole time. I’ve plowed snow with many different rigs, but none were as fun or did better quality work than this one...

I’m thankful for one last glorious 6” snowfall here in western NY. I was stuck down in southern CA for work all week, and I have had just about enough of those beaches, sand and sun. This was a perfect snowfall for my old Farmall Cub, that I paid $783.17 for at an auction a couple years...

Yeah, but the convertible was a lot more fun now wasn’t it ? That’s what I’m talking about. My “fun” time is outside on the tractor. If the weather is horrid (which is seldom the case where I choose to live), I stay inside.

That was a light snowfall. This past winter was the lamest I recall here on the NW corner of NY state. The winter before we got hit with two blizzards each dumping more than 6 ft of snow. I bought that cub because I enjoy snow plowing so much and it lets me spend more time doing it than if I...

I’m 59 years old and If I wanted a cab I’d just stay indoors. I love my outside time on the tractors, even in the winter. I can’t take the heat though, and no doubt I’d go for an air conditioned cab if I lived south of about mid PA. Only way I’d live down there would be at gun point though...

Well at least the human body heals up on its own and now you got some scars to show for it. A cab would have cost money to repair, glass replacement etc.

We are in north western NY state, about 40 miles southeast of the Canadian border. We have been averaging 6 face cords over the last 10 years, but we only use the wood stove when the morning temperature is supposed to be under 35 degrees F. Otherwise, it gets too hot for comfort in the house...

I thought I was done for the year with hauling firewood up to the house, at 5 face cords. No such luck. After a brief warm spell with a few days in the 70’s, they are calling for lows in the 20’ for all of next week. I brought up another light load today. Hopefully, that will be the last needed.

Ironically, I know one old farmer who will never buy another cab tractor because of bees. He didn’t notice that they had built a nest inside the cab of his tractor until he was hauling a manure spreader down a road with steep ditches on each side. The bees began their attack at some point and...

Along with most of the roofing boards, I saved almost all of the siding and interior boards, and about 2/3 of the sawed rafters and hand-hewn posts and beams from the two 1880’s 36’ x 46’ x 16’ timber framed barns that I took down. The remaining third was too rotted to be of much use. I’ve...

I finished the swinging doors and latch on the east end of my splitting shed yesterday. I wasn’t sure how those big heavy doors were going to swing, after I cut thru the center of the cross members with my sawzall, but they work pretty slick. The little Ryobi 18 volt saw is laying on the beam...

If, for some reason, I was forced to live south off about mid PA, then I would surely get a tractor with an air conditioned cab. I would only do that at gunpoint though, because I can’t stand the heat. Just got back from a work trip to central VA. It sure feels good to be back home again and...

I do like the portability of the gas splitter also. I made another shed for mine, using a garbage-picked truck cap for a roof, out on the creek bank by my bucking wagon. I think the splitter I have is around 20 ton with a 5 hp Honda. It’s got to be at least 20 years old and has never...

Fixed it, thanks. I’m hoping to finish up the swinging doors on the east end of my back barn porch (rainy day splitting shed) this weekend. I’ve just got to nail up a few more old 1” saw-cut chestnut roofing boards (recovered from an old barn I dismantled), and make a wood latch for it, then...

What you ought to do is turn that negative “stacking” into a positive. The key there is having a properly designed place to stack it. Do that, and you may find the stacking (and unstacking) to be the most pleasurable part of the firewood operation. I have certainly found that to be the case...

I love the bee argument. I’ve yet to see it not come up in these “cab or not” fights here, yet in 50 years of operating open station tractors (almost exclusively), I’m still waiting for my first bee sting.

I’ve said it before and meant it, you couldn’t pay me to own a cab CUT. I work full time in a climate controlled factory and I cherish my “outside time” on my open station tractors. That said, I do appreciate my large home made canvas over wood frame canopy on sunny and rainy days. I know it...

As I type, I’m almost thru making a big set of swinging doors to enclose the back side of my new barn’s back porch. They were going to be too heavy for me to lift alone, so I’m doing it “one board at a time”: That new bay is going to be for my field car (Dodge Durango).

My campers have never been stored outside. I used to keep them in my great great grandfathers old timber framed barns. They had front and back 14 ft high x 12 ft wide swinging doors that you could pull a loaded hay wagon thru, with a team of horses: There was a monorail crane up top, with a...

I really like having that camper in the barn. I’ve spent a few hot summer nights in it out there, because that AC unit up top works better than the one in our house. I’m surprised how efficient that old camper AC is. I was going to run a 30 amp circuit and outlet for it out there, but it...

I can get my camper (with AC unit on top) into my 12 footer, thru a 10 x 10 overhead door. The key was not doing a concrete floor inside the whole thing (I only put in concrete for the shops under the loft). I’ve got about a 6” gap below that 10 ft door, so that I can back the camper in with my...

Sizing mine was pretty easy because it was a replacement for a couple of 36’ x 46’ x 16’ post and beam barns that my great great grandfather had put up in the 1880’s. Unfortunately, he had built them on poorly drained ground and the foundations and roofs were failing simultaneously. I would...

This is the mildest winter I can remember here in the NW corner of NY state. It looks like I’ll use less than 5 face cords of firewood to heat our well insulated 2000 sq ft L-shaped ranch house. I had been averaging around (6) face cords a year and made my woodshed big enough to hold (24). I...

John Deere Green.

I am also thinking about welding up a small set of brush forks to mount on the reinforced Farmall Cub snowplow frame, after I pull off the plow for the off-season. My hedgerows are loaded with dead ash trees and that would allow me to quickly process them into firewood, and clear the fields, as...

Wow, after reading this I’m thankful that I’ve always used 5 gallon cans to get my fuel from a service station. I bought my current tractor new in 2005, and have only drained the fuel filter (original) one time. I always add a performance additive to my summer fuel and Powerserve to my...

My wife and I were up in the mountains visiting her parents this weekend and our daughter back at home texted that it snowed a lot and she didn’t think she could get out with her car. I told her where there was a shovel and see what she could do with that. She did ok and made it out to her job...

I plug a compressor into an outlet that is controlled from a switch next to the front door of my shop (on the right side of the photo below the sub-panel). The overhead LED fixture up there is also plugged into that outlet. I never leave the light on when I’m not out there so I never forget to...

I’ll be 60 this year. I started helping my dad with firewood when I was about 10, so I guess this year will make a half century for me. Growing up, our house wasn’t all that well insulated and we went thru a lot of wood. I’ve tried to do it more efficiently as I’ve gotten older. I used to do...

We’ve had the least amount of snow that I can remember, in my 59 years so far this winter here, in the north west corner of NY state. I’d have normally plowed snow more than a dozen times by now, but just (4) so far, this winter. I am thankful that at least it’s been cold enough to keep...

When it comes to breathing tractor exhaust fumes, that is highly dependent on the exhaust location. The only time I had issues with my pre tier-4 diesel (2005 John Deere 4120), which has a low forward exhaust, is when I’m standing in front and loading the bucket with firewood. I solved that...