I had intentions on writing up a photo-book story of the restoration process of the John Deere Model A. I’m having a hard time finishing it, so I thought in the meantime, I’d just throw it up here. If there are any major spelling/grammar mistakes or things you’d like added, please use the comments field below. I’ll add some photos later. Click “Continue Reading” below for the full story.
Christmas was good to me this year. All of the family was up, and everyone seemed to have had a good time.
Growing up my cousin and I both had toy pedal tractors. We had a lot of fun on them, and tried to take them everywhere. My little nephew (slightly under two) is currently obsessed with tractors, so I thought it would be fun to get him a little pedal tractor as well. Christmas morning, to his delight, he opened up a beautiful John Deere 720 pedal tractor. Needless to say, he really enjoyed the gift and had fun sitting on it for most of the remainder of the time they were here.
The following day we went and fed the beef cattle. After I parked the cab tractor we fed with, his eyes glazed over the lineup of “big” tractors. He pointed at the Model A and called it his own. Seeing how it resembles his toy tractor made him want to go ride it. So, I fired it up and took her out for a little drive through the snow. You can tell by the look on his face that he had a good time!
less than 18 months ago this tractor was a ‘fence line tractor’. I dragged it down to the barn and the engine, brakes, and clutch were seized up. The radiator cap was gone and the cooling system was completely full a junk. A mouse nest was in one of the cylinders… I looked it over and almost gave up. I never thought that in this short amount of time not only would I have it running (and well too!), but pulling a plow!
Here’s my photo journal for April 2012. Sorry I’m a bit late–with the days getting longer it’s harder to find time to do stuff like this (but easier to find time to take photos). What’s neat about this month is you get to see the change in landscape as the snow leaves and the valley starts to green up.
I took a nice little stroll to the beef cows that are currently on the dry farm on the 1939 John Deere Model A. I’ve been working on the tractor most of the winter, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to warm the motor up a bit and let it stretch its legs. It was so pretty that I decided to film it. Since I’m just holding my camera, it’s a little bumpy. The video shows the beautiful west hills in Freedom, Wyoming (which is actually in Idaho) on the Robert Weber farm.
I spent a little more time on the A, and decided to take her for a test drive. She did okay, but still needs some work. I don’t know if it is the timings or carb but the RPMs just wouldn’t go up, making it have no power. Eventually I’ll get there…
After doing some research and finding out the the first tractor we had on our farm was a 1949 John Deere Model A, I decided to keep an eye online and see if I could find one. At first I wanted to see if I could track down the original machine, but after realizing that was not going to be possible I decided to look for someone selling one of the same year. I found this tractor, which is a pretty machine so I’m happy with it. I know it’s not our original, but it gives me a sense of what my grandfather would have seen. I can only imagine how it would have felt going from farming with horses to using this tractor!
I love old tractors, and I especially love old John Deere tractors that we used on our farm. I was looking at some old photos that my great-aunt Nola took, which contain a John Deere Model A. I would love to find out about what year this tractor is. I think it’d be fun to find one and restore one, especially where my grandfather spent so much time on it. Ideally the exact tractor would be nice, but that’s not going to happen. So I thought I’d post the photo, and if anyone can figure out what year it is I’d sure appreciate it! My guess is between a 1939-1941. Click on the image for a larger version.
Over the weekend I shot my last photo assignment for Art 206 (Color Photography). It was a good semester and I learned a great deal and became a little better at photography. As you can tell, I finished the photo journal assignment on the 29th. The photo journal is a pretty cool idea; sometime in the future if I get ambitious I’ll pick it up again.
If you haven’t noticed by now, WordPress (the back-end to my webpage) really desaturates my photos…