Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Lost Dish


A few minutes ago it seemed like a lunch was in order.  Within my ability to cook are few options.  I decided to scramble an egg, add onions and some chopped hotdog, a little milk, and salt and pepper.  I found everything but the salt and pepper in the refrigerator including half an onion in a small covered dish.  Removing a small plastic dish from the cupboard I cracked the egg into it.  I added salt and pepper, and began dicing a piece of onion into it.  I put the cover back on the onion and returned it to the refrigerator.  I then proceeded to cut up about half of the hotdog into small chunks.  I went to drop this into my dish, and the dish had disappeared.  How could it?  I hadn’t moved from where I was standing.  It was no where to be found.  I spotted the onion dish and decided to put it away while I solved the disappearing dish problem.  I couldn’t locate that cover either.  It dawned on me.  The mixing dish and the onion dish were identical.  I had placed the onion cover on my mixing dish and put it in the refrigerator.  Senility wins again.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

1949 Ford 8N Farm Tractor Update


After finding sediment in the bowl I removed the fuel tank, sloshed and dumped the fuel, and made a fresh start.  I cleaned the sediment bowl and screen.  This seemed to help, but I still had problems with it stopping without warning.  I then found a piece of metal moving around in the bottom of the tank.  This may have been shutting off the fuel flow.  I also had a mechanic clean and adjust the carburetor.  It has not stopped again since, but if the fuel is left on after engine shut down the carb will overfill and run on the ground so I shut the fuel off whenever the tractor is not in use.

I want to use it for snow removal during winter so I found an old used loader and bought it for $200.  Not knowing what I was doing, after I got it home I found there is no hydraulic pump or control, and it is expensive to buy them new.  I am watching Craigslist for sued parts, but no luck so far.

Next I located an old Dearborn snow plow about 150 miles from here that I could buy for $300.  I decided this was probably cheaper than repairing the old loader.  My problem here was that it costs a lot to have something as heavy as that trucked 150 miles.  I had to sort of give up on that at least temporarily.

Since then I located an old snow plow about 40 miles from here that had been removed from another 8N so it should go on mine and work.  I bought that for $200, as well as a set of tire chains for the 8N for another $75.  Paying $30 to have this trucked to my dooryard seemed a bargain.  I now have a heavy duty blade, an underslung framework, and a hand lever assembly to raise and lower the blade.  I don’t like the hand lever part so am thinking of converting it to either an electric winch, or a cable back to the three-point-arms and use them for lifting.

More as it develops.