Weekend Steam: Durango And Silverton Snow Special

Summer is nearly over, and wouldn't it be great to take a Fall trip on the Silverton? This trip is pretty neat, as snow is pushed back from the rails on a Wintertime run. 

Get Off Our Shingles!

Chinese Chestnut, about twenty years old and growing like a weed.

Ruger's Auction To Benefit The Light Foundation

Ruger is offering a P89 Double Action Only pistol that was made in 1994 and returned to the factory in 1995 for unknown reasons.  It is being sold as a used pistol, but the photos on Ruger's website show no wear.

This fine pistol will sell mid-day, Wednesday, August 28. Click Here to read the full description and to place your bid. $555

Tuesday Torque: Really Big Engines

Leading Up To Labor Day...

...let's listen to some working songs!








Back To The Old Grind!

Forty Years? Holy Cow!

Kentucky let us go on USFS fire detail in 1979, but we had to take of vacation time to do it.  It was well worth the vacation time for the experiences we had.

We almost burnt up, we did not get smashed by boulders rolling down a mountain or by Douglas-firs that were tipping over after their roots burned. Sleeping out under the stars in Montana and working in Douglas-fir and subalpine fir made some great memories.

Helicopters sure beat hiking for miles. We were on the Continental Divide near Anaconda in this photo.

Susan and I moved to Illinois in 1980, and I got on with the Illinois Division of Forestry several years later.  Springfield finally allowed us to go on USFS fire details beginning in 2005, and I got to make a trip to Minnesota in '06.  It was a good trip, and I was running  a chainsaw instead of a Pulaski, but the Montana trip still beats it.

Midwest Old Threshers Number 70!

The first Midwest Old Settlers and Threshers show was in 1950.  The eight founders showed fifteen steam engines and eight threshers at McMillan Park in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and they attracted 10,000 attendees.  Old Threshers has always offered good family entertainment with no alcohol served on the grounds and no carnival attractions.  They are still going strong at 70, and this year's show will start the Thursday before Labor Day as it has for years.

In 1979 when Old Threshers was turning thirty, Dana Close Jennings published a great paperback book about the show, full of photos he had taken there.  I'm glad I got a copy forty years ago, because it must be pretty scarce today.  Here are a few pictures from Mr. Jenning's book.

This Aultman-Taylor engine belonged to Milo Mathews.  He restored it in 1946, and again in 1977.

Threshing with the Jumbo engine.  Threshing with steam and with horse power is still demonstrated every day at Old Threshers.

Here is Stan Mathews, the driving force behind the establishment of the Midwest Central Railroad, grinding on a locomotive frame.  Stan brought engines 2 and 6 in the early Sixties, and Number 9 in 1966.  Number 9 has been on loan for several years to the Georgetown Loop, but it has returned to Mt. Pleasant this year.

Here is Engine Number 2, which was retired many years ago for boiler problems, but it will be up and running again one of these days.  If you are able, get yourself over to Mt. Pleasant for Labor Day Weekend.  They always have some new old stuff to see, plus a bunch of the same old same old, which we never tire of watching.

Weekend Steam: How To Wake Up A Steam Locomotive

Merle's Pick this week; Thank You, Merle! Nickel Plate Road 765.

Ruger's Auction To Benefit The USA Shooting Team

Ruger is offering a good one again this week.  It is a P85 Decocker in 9mm, made in 1990.  This is a New-Old-Stock pistol that has been stored in Ruger's vault since being built and tested.  It will sell mid-day, Wednesday, August 21, 2019. CLICK HERE to read the description and to place your bid. $685; a good deal!

Tuesday Torque: Hoe That Corn!

Here's a rare machine that I am guessing did not sell well, or create satisfied customers.  I bet if you put me on it, I could destroy 20 acres of corn per day trying to keep it between the rows.  I never was good at driving a tractor with a cultivator, and it gave me the nervous jim-jams trying not to disturb the corn roots. The young farmers of today have never used a cultivator, what with the use of herbicides.  Farmers today take off in mid-summer and go on vacation. Old-time farmers might have slipped into town on a Saturday night and had a cheeseburger and an ice cream cone.  Times sure have changed.