[AT] Shop thoughts (was)Air Lines

[Roger Welsch]

Grant...   You really hit the nail on the head.  For some of us, it's a
hobby.  For others it's a way of making a living.  I think we can profit
from each other but we shouldn't confuse what we're about.

About heritage foods...  There are seed banks that are BEGGING for places to
grow ancient and endangered species to keep the line going.  I am currently
nursing two corn stalks from seeds salvaged from a 19th-century Pawnee
prayer bundle.  I just got back from carrying water to them...and
appreciating the women who on this very ground nursed the same plants in the
face of grasshoppers, drought, hail, wind, buffalo, and Lakota.  The U of
Nebr has a collection of ancient melons and squash from Nebr tribes and some
friends and kin of mine are nursing some along in their own gardens.  I once
grew some incredible blue corn...hard and sweet and immune, apparently, to
insects...that was entrusted to me by some Omaha women.  They NEED isolated
plots to plant this stuff and keep it going and so do we, to insure a rich
gene pool.  Outdoor museums are often a good source for things like heritage
trees or perennials like daylilies.  And don't forget the wilds!  (Okay,
okay, I have a book coming out next spring on the topic!)  Here I have
nursed some ancient calamus for decades and this year I'm working on sweet
grass and tipsila, or wild turnips.  The river I see out this window used to
be called "Plenty Potatoes" by the Omaha and Pawnee and now there's not a
single plant to be found.  With some luck and some help, there'll be some
next year.  Ancient tractors...ancient crops...ancient geezers...not that
far apart.

Ol' Rog



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Grant Brians" <gbrians at hollinet.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Monday, August 01, 2005 10:35 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] Shop thoughts (was)Air Lines


> Frank, I know exactly whereof you speak. I have little money to spend and
> the shop shows it in the lack of massive amounts of shiny new tools. But
on
> the other hand when I NEED a tool I figure a way to get it - preferably
used
> so that someone else paid for the privilege of getting it out of the box.
On
> the other hand I just bought a new Makita chop saw because the Harbor
> Freight one I had literally fried its motor. I did so because I need to
have
> it to make the money that keeps me going in the welding business.
>     I cringed at buying a made in China unit and wished I could have found
a
> locally sold American made one, but could not find one. By the way, is
there
> anyone on the list here in California who has a top quality American made
> vise or two they would sell to a pauper like me???? I am DEFINITELY in
need
> of that!
>         Grant Brians
>         Hollister, California
> p.s. I'm on as I research heirloom vegetable varieties to see if I can put
> together more products to sell on the market!
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Indiana Robinson" <robinson at svs.net>
> To: "Antique tractor email discussion group"
<at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Sent: Monday, August 01, 2005 6:54 AM
> Subject: [AT] Shop thoughts (was)Air Lines
>
>
> > This thread has taken an interesting turn... All of a sudden it all
seems
> > to be about
> > huge commercial or near commercial shops and what is needed in them.
When
> > I posted that I
> > had not found any problems using common air hose to get air around the
> > shop I was not
> > thinking that nobody should use anything else or that no one should plan
> > or dream for
> > their ultimate dream shop. Rather I was thinking that here is a list of
> > several hundred
> > guys (and maybe a few gals) that have an interest in old tractors and in
> > some cases have
> > very limited shop facilities and limited funds. Sometimes I tend to
forget
> > in my own
> > tight cash situation just how much money some of you guys have to throw
at
> > the hobby and
> > how casually you spend hundreds of dollars on extra toys. The dozen
email
> > list I own are
> > all oriented toward "the little guy" and the frugal. My mind just works
> > that way all of
> > the time. When I try to say something hopefully helpful it will almost
> > always be based on
> > spending the least amount of money to accomplish the goal at hand in a
> > satisfactory
> > manner. When I discuss shop things I am really talking to the probably
80%
> > of the members
> > of this list who have the more limited shops to work in.
> > There is a reason that Tim Allen's character Tim Taylor become so well
> > known. It is a
> > "guy" thing with an awful lot of guys. "More is always better", "bigger
is
> > always
> > better", "more power is always better" and so on. That thought process
is
> > fine if they
> > can afford it but the problem of sorts comes when that thought process
is
> > espoused or
> > assumed to be for everybody.
> > I tend to be an oddball...   :-)   I love to see guys shops of all
sizes.
> > I am not all
> > that impressed by the big huge shops that have just had $$$ tossed at
> > them. One shop that
> > should impress anybody is George Willer's. It is disgustingly well
> > organized and complete
> > but he hasn't just tossed money at it.  Larry Goss is another with an
> > organized shop. I
> > would about kill to be organized... The "Dotson Gang" do not keep
"flashy"
> > shops but they
> > do some of the finest work I have seen. I get impressed when I see good
> > work coming out
> > of a very simple shop or a very crude building. One of my ongoing fears
is
> > of us turning
> > even one new antique tractor guy off on the hobby because we convey a
tone
> > of "if you
> > don't have "x" or "y" to work with then you have no business in our
hobby.
> > Some of you know that I spent 20 years as a shoemaker / cobbler /
> > cordwainer / shoe
> > service technician (you pick a name). There was a fellow named Roy
Sutton
> > who became the
> > one true giant in that industry who bought out almost everybody else in
> > the shoe repair
> > machinery industry. Roy started out in the depression working on the
> > sidewalk. His tool
> > kit consisted of an old claw hammer, a couple of knives "borrowed" from
> > his mother's
> > kitchen, an ice pick and some pieces of broken glass which he used to
> > scrape finish the
> > sole edges. He bought a large box of used shoes and had to scramble to
> > borrow $5 to pay
> > for them when they arrived COD. He carefully repaired all of them and
> > began selling them.
> >>From that start he became the giant. That impresses me.
> > There are likely a few on this list that would be embarrassed to have to
> > work out of my
> > shop but it has served me well for a long time. Its biggest failing is
my
> > lack of time
> > and organized work habits. Too often I roll up to the shop with a
tractor
> > and implement
> > and make some rushed repair and head back to the field leaving tools and
> > scraps in a pile
> > to be put away later, after all the rain is coming quickly. That and a
> > lack of space to
> > put all of the "stuff" that shouldn't be in there in the first place.
> > ;-)
> > I guess I have only a passing interest in hearing from guys that are
doing
> > "professional" restorations or the guys with the big huge complete shops
> > doing big
> > things. I prefer hearing from guys that are solving problems the best
they
> > can with
> > things the average list member has at hand to work with. The younger
guys
> > with a table, a
> > vice and a small box of tools are the future of this hobby (I hope)...
> >
> > -- 
> > "farmer", Esquire
> > At Hewick Midwest
> >      Wealth beyond belief, just no money...
> >
> > Paternal Robinson's here by way of Norway (Clan Gunn), Scottish
Highlands,
> > Cleasby Yorkshire England, Virginia, Kentucky then Indiana. In America
100
> > years
> > before the revolution.
> >
> >
> > Francis Robinson
> > Central Indiana USA
> > robinson at svs.net
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
> >
>
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