Homestead Texas Tractor

As we began working the land we realized we were going to need some machinery - some farm machinery - a tractor.

We hatched a plan whereby dad's old tractor (now residing on a trailer in California) would be driven to a half way point somewhere in New Mexico by Ric/Christopher/Robby, some combination thereof, and brought the remaining way by Don/Josh.

At about the same time that plan was being discussed, Tammy ran across an ad in our local Craigslist for a tractor located in, of all places, Davilla! (the owner lives in Georgetown)

We met with the owner, Kit got checked out in proper tractor operation and maintenance, money changed hands and then Kit drove it the 4 miles "home" with a Nissan Frontier and flashing lights escort.
We've named it "The General" and eventually it will sport a Confederate battle flag on the "hood" (just to tweak the liberals who see it).

The machine in question is a 1939 Allis Chalmers "B" machine that had recently been fully restored lacking only a new paint job to be parade-ready, and in fact that's where you will find most machines of this vintage - as antiques - washed and polished and pimped and pulling children-laden hay trailers in small town July 4th and Christmas parades.

Ours, however, was put immediately to work, as it was built to do.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Power and air. That's all you need on a construction site, power and air. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

1/17/2016
 
 
We've been calling our tractor "General Lee" because of its cool Allis Chalmers orange paint job and the color reminds us of the car by that name on the TV show "Dukes of Hazard".
Now it's official.
Hopefully some Liberal will find this picture and experience vapor lock.
 
 
 
Future Farmers of American try out the General Lee's captain's chair. Team work = one running the pedals and one steering!
 
5/22/2016
 
 
 
You simply MUST respect the mud on the farm.
Kit and I took some building materials and garden supplies out Sunday, transferred them to the trailer and headed back. Or tried.
In retrospect, we had 6 bags of compost and 4 bags of mulch for about 500 pounds of garden supplies.
Plus (22) 2x4x8 and (6) 2x4x10 boards, plus the chop saw, plus a box of nails (nail gun), plus bee food, trimmer, trimmer batteries, loaded 9mm pistol and a partridge in a pear tree.
Figure a thousand pounds of stuff on the trailer.
My continuous mistake in dealing with the mud is to go slow. That's just not how you get through mud.
You crank it up and blast through the stuff, wheels spinning, mud flying, but forward momentum maintained until you get through the bad patch.
But once you're stuck, you're stuck, and all we can do is wait for drier conditions.
We used the lighter trailer and made several trips (staying on firm ground) ferrying smaller loads each time and two hours after arrival, got everything back to the cabin.
I'd like to say, "Lesson learned" - but... didn't we learn this lesson before? Maybe twice before?? Maybe more???
 
 
7/31/2016
 
We have a new-to-us chipper, and wow does it work well!
It's powered from the tractor PTO which has the power to drive it, and the chipper has blades to chip up to 8-inch diameter material - a claim we verified more than once.
 
 
 

The only problem we experienced with the chipper was moving it.
Our little 1939 row tractor with aftermarket three-point hitch is not what they had in mind when they produced this chipper.
With the chipper flat on the ground, the hitch position is already higher than our three-point will raise, ergo we could only drag the chipper on its skids.
That was quite unsatisfactory, so we cobbled up a better method of moving the chipper using a strong aluminum dolly and some straps.
 
We added a platform as the dolly wasn't quite wide enough for the chipper's feet, and after lifting the chipper from the old oak tree limb, sliding the dolly underneath and setting the chipper down onto its new wheels, we were able to strap the thing down securely.
We didn't know for sure that it would be towable (the idea was to hook up the three point hitch and drag the dolly - the hitch would offer support as well as push and pull.
 
But it worked quite well!
We tested it forward and backwards, and two 180 degrees turns confirmed stability.
Woo Hoo!
 
 
 
Redneck Mobile Chipper
https://youtu.be/t3Ig45y8ggQ
 

 
Back To Homestead Texas Home
Ground Breaking
Clearing For The Cabin
Labor Day
Labor Day II
The Cabin
The Truck Patch
The Bee Yard
The Hay Field
The Project Trailer (mobile shop)
The Tractor Barn
The Pasture
The Barndo