Some Chainsaw Action

More from the Tractor Show in Eagleville a couple weeks ago.....

Okay. We got two things going on here that I don't know a damn thing about.

First off, we've got a David Bradley chain saw with 2 blades. Count 'em, 2 blades. I don't know why.

Second, there's a David Bradley chain saw with a circular style blade. Again, what's that for?

Anyone that can shed some light, please do.......

Smiling Dick

The Captain smilingly accepts another First Place Award from the Guru and TLC after the ITSA Trials held this week-end at R.Q. Old's Vintage Acres in Palymyra, Tennessee. Proving once again, always choose your class wisely.....

Man, what a good week-end. There was camping and fishing and food and beer, and even a Trials Seminar by the Guru. The two guys who beat me attended, while I fished and drank beer with the Captain. Dammit! Ah well.

Chain Stitching

More from the Tractor Show in Eagleville this past week-end.....

One of the coolest things I saw all day (maybe the coolest!) was this Willcox & Gibbs hand-crank, belt-driven, chain-stitch sewing machine produced in 1880.

It was owned and operated by Mrs. Douglas, who is a collector of such things.

The other cool thing about meeting the Douglas couple was that her husband had his single-hit-and-miss motors on display and that she, unlike most of the rest of the wive's or girlfriend's who were just hanging out, had her own thing going on, and it was something that they shared. Doesn't get much better than that.

Hot-Rod Tractor

In the sixties my Dad had a Massey-Ferguson lawn-tractor similar to this one owned by my friend Country-Ham. I'm not sure of the year model but Timmy and his son have restored this one to a quite nice condition.

Trust me,when you're a kid of ten or eleven years of age a Massey-Ferguson thirteen-horse Kohler engined lawn-tractor is definitely a Hot-Rod! It was really easy to talk me into cutting the grass. I used to love it when-ever Sam (my Dad) had the deck off of the tractor, it was my Indy Car at that point. I used to sneak rides on it whenever I could.

I sure hope that the statute of limitations has run out at this point, but you probably wouldn't believe how many times that thing was tossed on it's side, or rolled completely over, a couple of times with my little sister as passenger. It's a major wonder that neither one of us got hurt during that hooligan bullshit. Gawd.

Santa On Holiday

Hey y'all, check it out! I found out where Santa Claus hangs during the off-season, he operates the lead-sled at tractor pulls down south! Talk about migration!

He was pretty incognito though, what with the Wrangler jeans and pearly snap-button shirt and those Red-Wing boots......

VW Micro-Bus Indeed

Caught this particular piece of gear at the Tractor Show in Eagleville this past week-end.

I realise it has absolutely nothing to do with tractors, but I thought it needed to be tossed up here for my buddy Jeffro who seems to be fairly queer for most things Volkswagen.

This is a decidedly chopped and channeled VW Micro-Bus, with a wheelbase of less than forty-eight inches.....boy I'll bet that's stable at Interstate speeds. Hell, it probably wouldn't even have the room in the back for Arlo's shovels and rakes and implements of destruction.

1937 Plow Trac

This is my buddy Country-Ham and his 1937 Montgomery Ward Plow Trac, essentially a walk-behind tractor. He had it, along with a similar David Brown cultivator and a couple of Massey-Ferguson lawn tractors on display at the Eagleville Tractor Show this week-end.

You want to talk about a piece of gear that looks like it might kick your ass? Then this Plow Trac is it folks. Eight-hundred pounds of ass-kicking. Timmy said it was only five horse-power but it sure seemed like more. This thing also had a ball hitch right there between the plow blades that you see so that you could walk directly behind the cultivator, holding on to the handles, and pull something else behind you. I can't think of an easier way to plow my-own-self right into the damn ground.

I personally thought that it's one redeeming value was that when he started it, it was loud as hell. Just like a good old big four-stroke single race-bike. And we all know that loud pipes save lives.......He said it came stock that way.

Standing behind him there on the right with that hand on his hip is the infamous Mr. Wesley, press brake operator from hell, a genius bender of metal. He must be, he made all those cleats for those wheels on the Plow Trac that you see here. A true heavy metal master, as it were!

It sure was good to see you guys! More to come.......

Old Beezer

Gary was kind enough to stop by a couple days ago at the Ranch at B&J Racing to let me check out his most recently completed project. It's a 1962 BSA A50, first year of the unit construction Beezers.....

It's taken him about ten years to get this one to the final stages. According to the Smiths gauges in the headlight stem it has 20,130 original miles on it. He thinks he's put about 250 miles on since he completed it a couple of months ago.

The color is not spot on to the BSA original color. Gary say's it was a bit too drab of a green for him. And since he's not planning to show the bike and he built it to ride, he found a green that was close. Next time you see a new Volkswagen Beetle in a teal green, that's it.

HERE's another of Gary's BSA restorations that was the subject of a skatetruck blather.

Sounds Off

The only fireworks generated by the Nashville Sounds organization on Saturday night were after the game during the fireworks show for Labor Day.

The Round Rock Express rolled over the Sounds 14 to 3, all of the Round Rock runs coming in the never-ending 2nd and 3rd innings, with 7 runs per inning.

One of the highlights for me was watching a true junk man take the mound for the Sounds in the 2nd inning. Jared Fernandez is a knuckleballer and after the disaster of the 3rd inning he seemed to baffle the Round Rock batters with many off-speed and full floater pitches that had batters swinging about 8 feet before the ball got near them, or golfing in the dirt for a pitch that they knew better than to swing at.

Kudos must also go out to Sounds catcher J.C.Boscan for handling all the garbage that Fernandez tossed up all night.

Deflowering the Virgin

The Nubster, Alice and I got to ride with the Captain on Thursday afternoon. The Captain, of course of ITSA Championship fame, and also the first recipient of the ITSA Bike of the Month award. The Bike of the Month is the KT250 Kawasaki Hot Rod pictured HERE , and above.

Nubbie and I had the privilege (hmmm....maybe privilege ain't the right word) of watching the Captain crash two different times, fairly spectacularly I must say. Sadly on the second tumble he scratched and dented the newly painted tank of the Hot Rod. That sucked!

The Captain was philisophical though, saying "Well, at least I've got that over with!"

Ten Speed Lawn Mower