living in the woods and making stuff

My dad and I have a tractor. Her name is Louise and she is yellow. These are the important things.

Louise is a 36 hp Ford 2110 (similar to a Ford 3000, but with shorter front tire spindles) produced in the early/mid eighties (’83-’86). My dad and I found her in Oskaloosa, where she dutifully spent her life wearing turf tires and pulling a mower for the local golf course. (This is also why she is the industrial yellow instead of the classic Ford blue.) When we found her, Louise had been sitting on the lot for about 2 years, and her tires had been changed to ag tires. She didn’t have any implements, and needed a little bit of tuning up.

Our friend Mike came along with us to meet Louise. Mike can listen to a tractor hum and know if it is a good one. He approved of Louise just about right away, and took her for a little spin around the lot. Mike knows just about everything about tractors. No Joke.

After we purchased Louse, Mike tied her up onto the back of a trailer pulled by Tonka Truck (his large rig), and took her home to Fairfield. Mike did a bit of work on Louise. He patched her rear left tire rim, which was a bit rusted through, and fixed the starter, which wasn’t working properly, and replaced the tachometer. Louise had about 7500 tractor hours when we purchased her, but she was in good shape. Working at the golf course has its benefits.

Louise runs on gasoline, and has a newly fixed up motor. She has power steering, and a pto, and a class one three point hitch that we can attach a mower, plow and disc to.

When we got Louise home, the implement hunt started. I have gotten really good about asking everyone I know if they know of anyone that might know of anyone that might know something about a disc…or plow…or mower…or front end loader…or snow plow…and on and on.

Tractors are handy, but without implements they just look pretty and are fun to drive.

We set out to find a disc and plow first. To get the field ready to plant pumpkins, squash, corn and beans. Mike had a friend who found a rusty old plow at an auction, and he picked that up for us.

My dad found a beautiful red disc, and took Louise to pick it up.

Louse, the plow, and the disc made it out to the farm, piece by piece.

Currently, Louise has plowed the pumpkin patch. We are waiting for the soil to dry to disc it up. It is awfully wet, and Louise doesn’t do so well with muddy soil.

Louise spends most of her time in the garage with Big Red.

Her skin is sensitive, and she has to stay away from all those UV rays.

Sometimes she takes a drive down the lane. Just for fun.

Louise has 8 speeds, and reverse. She can turn on an individually braked tire.

No such thing as a three point turn for Louise!