New Englander

Boston's 2015 snow pile finally melted on July 14! Tremendous amount of trash and junk left when it finally did.

Isn't Heet methanol? Just another alcohol.

Amazing that the administration has not declared it a "National Monument"!

Can you elaborate on the ground issues? My shop is built on what has been called a floating slab that’s supposed to be designed for less than stable ground. Heavily reinforced perimeter with rebar and wire/fiberglass reinforced floor with no frost wall. I used it to economize on the concrete rather than any issues with frozen ground. It’s performed well and I saved enough money on it to construct the approach ramps for the doors. No cracks except at the bottom of the score lines where it should. The downside: I should have spent the money for a frost wall construction. The slab must be dead level so unlike a frost wall construction you can’t pitch the floors to drain out the doors. Consequently all the snow and ice that comes in on the vehicles and melts in the heated shop pools and has to be squeegeed out. 28X42 shop with 12 foot ceilings heats on less than 300 gal/yr with a Miller mobile home furnace on a cottage base. 2X6 walls and clear span I-joists make for lots of insulation room.

Appointed to the USCG Academy. Four years school plus five years obligation. I'm quite proud of him.

Went skeet shooting with my son and we had a great father's day. He's off to the military in a week and I'll miss him.

Front I hope. And get the dang pedestal this time After having terrible luck with a Maytag front loader we went with a Samsung, and did get the pedestal this time. We wanted American made and threw a grand+ away on the POS Maytag. The Samsung is highly praised by every reviewer, and I can count our family in that group now. Finding a totally made in America washer is nearly impossible: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2012/12/finding-appliances-made-entirely-in-america-can-be-tricky/index.htm

I bet he can't back those up! I only towed tractor trailers a few times when I was a kid. The one time I had to back one up I was glad it was nearly straight and short.

Long days are heading your way though. I was just looking at my paperwork for tonight's trip to Iceland and sunrise is already at 05:44, sunset at 21:09. They're now low '40s during the day, just above freezing at night.

Here's a 3616 that's still going: There's no question the Case 580 is a better loader/backhoe. This 3616 is gas, so it starts well in any weather. It's a shuttle shift. Every now and then I see an AD for a hydro; it usually reads "runs good, ............doesn't move". Anyway, I have few complaints about the old girl. The hydraulics are strong and both the loader and 3141 hoe work well. I've resealed just about everything so it's pretty dry. Anyone used to working a modern hoe probably wouldn't like the controls but most everyone doing serious work now is using an excavator.

Actually there are several reasons. One being that IH actually lead the way with inovations that it took other companies decades to adopt. More than 2 cylinder engines, Diesel powered farm tractors, row crop farming, shift on the go transmissions, hydrostatic transmissions, ceramic friction materials in clutches and etc. I can't verify that IH was first in all of these revolutions, but were responsible for many. And these only include tractors and do not include farm equipment designs. Another reason can be found in the Nebraska test results showing time and time again how they out- preformed other similar hp sized models built during the same time period in torque rise and HP hr/gal figures. As a mechanic that works on many brands of pre 1985 tractors, I can verify simplicity of designs with very few "Rube Goldberg" contraptions found in other "popular" brands. (Like the SCV, 24 volt split load electrical, pony motor starting and Permaclutch in JD). The sheer numbers of IH tractors are still alive and well and farming around the world today in spite of the fact that the newest International tractors are now over a quarter of a century old, testify to their durabily and usablity. Although I am an admittedly an IH fan, I will be the first to say that they and their products were not always THE best, but overall you would be hard pressed to (leaving opinons behind) honestly find another ag equipment producer that matched IH for innovation and contributions to designs and manufacturing proocesses that paved the road to our country being an agricultural giant that it is. I don't have any particular brand allegiance. Does it do the task and is it reliable are my criteria. I see Tee shirts and decals that talk up Deere killers and the like but rarely any of the like announcing they're IH killers, perhaps because that's already been done. Even Deere knew they had pushed the two cylinder too long but, although primitive, they were fuel efficient. The 720 had fuel figures better than anyone. As for pony starting, International had start on gas, run on diesel about the same period as Deere was using pony motors. Cat used a pony as well. I still have a 620 gas and although it's mostly retired, it will still start in any weather and put in a day's work. I bought an 86 series, my first IH other than industrial, because it was a cheap and reliable power source, not because of any technology as they were well behind the power curve by then. Deere had a reliable power shift for years while IH was still flogging the TA. The 86 is an ill-shifting machine compared to the competition. I like it because it's simple and suited to the task I assign it. When it comes to maintaining old stuff, simple is good. It really cannot be compared the competition of the same period for technological advances. If it could, perhaps they, IH, would still be in business.