Driving around the 1939 John Deere A after doing some work on it throughout the winter. We replaced the radiator core, muffler, and rebuilt carburator. This is the same tractor that I made the time lapse video reassembly of. It’s amazing how much work you end up doing any time you decide to tear down into one of these things. You go to fix one thing, and find that there are two more things that need to fix.
Since we had Monday off for Presidents Day, I took the opportunity to go on a quick ride up Deer Creek. The snow was pretty nice and it is close enough to home that it allowed the dogs to come and have a good time too. The video here shows me on my 2008 800 Polaris Dragon with a 163 track. The snow has been a little late coming this year, but the past few storms have seemed to be an attempt to make up for it.
Here are my photos from the 2012 Thayne Wyoming Snow Days. If you’d like to check out the video that I compiled at the event, please do so by going here. Snow Days is a fun filled day of various snowmobile family-oriented activities. If you desire to contact me you can do so by sending an email to kylew01@gmail.com or use the comments field at the bottom of the post. If you are not seeing the photos, please click “Read More” to see the remainder of this post.
Here’s a video that summarizes the events from the 2012 Thayne Snow Days, held on February 4th, 2012 at Thayne Wyoming. If you’re looking for photos, keep checking this site as I will post them within the next few days.
It’s hard to believe that we are coming up on one year since we burned down the “Old House”. This house was on our farm from about 1914 to March 16th, 2011. The home was built by my grat-grandfather Lawrence Weber and his siblings for their mother, my great-great grandmother Verena Weber, whom was born in Switzerland and came and settled as an LDS immigrant. She lived in the house for only 2-3 years before she died (according to the information I have received). I suppose it was about that time that Lawrence Weber took over what is currently the Weber Farm, where he ended up raising his family and living until his death in January of 1949. My grandfather, Rex, lived in this house until marrying my grandmother and building their own home, which was built next to this house.
This house was a very beautiful building in its time. It had some lavishing woodwork on the outer trim and other parts of the exterior. I’d even go as far as to say that it was one of the most beautiful homes in the valley at the time it was built. Unfortunately though, it fell into disrepair as it became a storage place for old car junk and other items. After this started happening it became clear that no one was ever going to fix it up, and in the past few years it had started to become a dangerous place to be around.
After the house finished burning down, it left some interesting traces of how it was constructed. It was built on a rock foundation, which was capped in the early 40s. It also had two brick chimneys and one cinderblock chimney, which I believe was added later when they made the edition to the kitchen. We have since collected all of the bricks and rocks.
Although this video and photos probably doesn’t seem very interesting to random people, to those that have a connection to it (especially us that still live on the farm), watching it burn was a very emotional time and experience. If the video seems a little overly dramatic for you, I apologize. I tried to capture it how it felt to us.
Earlier last fall I learned that someone in the valley has a very nice 1929 John Deere model D. The D was the first tractor that John Deere produced under the “John Deere” name (the Waterloo Boy was officially the first, which John Deere purchased to jump start their tractor line). Here is a picture of myself and a friend driving it in action. It was a fun tractor to drive, though compared to my Model A it was akin to driving a tank…
Star Valley winters can be tough. Fortunately, we have our nice sleds (snowmobiles) to help us get through them. This is a video I compiled of clips shot up Willow Creek, one of the valley’s many popular canyons. Featuring Eric & Rob Heiner on their Yamaha RX1s.
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…