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Crankin' It Up

We pulled out an obscure act from the record cabinet for your weekend dancing pleasure. The Virginia Creepers recorded this nice Fox Trot in 1920 on the Pathe label. Frank Bessinger sings, and if you do a search you will find he is almost as obscure as the Creepers.

GUILTY!

Normally, I try to go into winter with the gas tanks either full or empty on our small engines and tractors, but last fall I parked this lawnmower with just a little bit of gas in the tank. After a couple of pulls without a pop I poured gas in the intake, and it fired, so I pulled the bowl off the carburetor and found this mess. I had it cleaned up in a couple of minutes, sharpened the blade, and put it back to work. The funny thing is, this mower was a freebie, because the previous owner let it do the same thing and he did not want to fool with it. We have another lawnmower with the same story. If you run into this problem, use fine wire, carburetor cleaner, and compressed air to clean things up. Wear your safety glasses when you are using chemicals and air.

Sears Economy Engine

This year marked the 100th anniversary of the Hercules engine factory in Evansville, which sold many of their engines through the Sears Catalog with the Econmomy label on them. The SIAM show at Evansville had a great assortment of Hercules and Economy engines this year. This engine is a 9 HP, the same model as one taking up space in our garage. One of these days we hope to get back to work on it and make it run.

Lovely Evening

It has been an unsettled day, but most of the storms have moved out of So. Illinois now. The sky got real pretty for a few minutes.

July e-Postal Results Are Posted!

Click over to Sailor Curt to see the results.

UPDATE!

This is my centerfire target, and you can see that I am not a threat to anyone's pride. My pledge to the True Blue readers is that I will continue to enter these contests so others will feel no embarrassment. Now, click over to Curtis Lowe and download the targets for August, and get in on the fun!

It's Almost Like I Can Dance!

This summer it seems like spring never ended, and the soil is nice and mellow in August, when it would normally be as hard as a brick-bat. We took advantage of the nice soil condition to move some volunteer pecan seedlings to fill in some blank spaces in our yard. We should have logs in about 40-50 years or so. Planting trees in August is almost as rare as seeing me dance. Whoa---a twofer!

Cut Out For Us

Lumber; and work. The next couple weekends are spoken for.

Not My Victrola

Our YouTube friend Pax41 has posted another great record from the 1920's, "Are You Happy?" played on a Kimball organ by Eddie Dunstedter.

Here Comes Monday!

Back To The Old Grind!

Lean On Me

These pin oaks seem to have found a way to prevent being windthrown. Loggers will have a tough time if this catches on in the forest.

They really are grown together! I had to zoom in to make sure. This is something that you won't see every day.

Weekend Steam

This is a brief video and slide show of the Kitten engine at the Boonville, Indiana July show this year. A highlight of this video is seeing someone hand-crank the Keck-Gonnerman tractor that is hooked to the bundle wagon.