[AT] Simple lessons

[Dean Vinson]

Chuck Bealke wrote:

> Was thinking the trees along your path today might be gorgeous 
> in the Ohio fall and then marveling at the impressive buildings on 
> your place.  Instant heritage, a farm to sink ones roots into, and 
> a full schedule of awaiting work were all on display.  Can feel that 
> the Vinson imprint will soon be upon the farm. Will you give it a 
> new name?  Imagine you really appreciate the higher clearance 
> for the exhaust pipe at the new place after using a garage built 
> for cars.  

Hi Chuck.   Yes, this place is quite handsome in the fall--that's when I
first saw it, late October, and knew right away it was what I'd been waiting
for.   My fiancée of some years now and I had been looking casually at farms
for about the past three years and looking quite seriously for maybe 18
months or so, and had seen quite a few nice places but only one other that
had really grabbed us--and that one went well above our means at auction.
Its value was all in the land--55 acres of the most beautiful and productive
rolling farmland and big-tree hardwood woods you could ask for--since the
house and barn had never been anything special and needed a ton of work just
to get back to decent.   My place (35 acres) isn't so big and has only a few
acres of good tillable land and the woods are more scrubby--but the old
brick farmhouse house is magnificent and has been well cared for, the bank
barn is a classic with massive hand-cut oak timbers and pegged joints, the
various other buildings are well situated and maintained, and the overall
setting and lay of the land are very nice indeed.

You're right about there being plenty of awaiting work, too.  The bank barn
needs some minor siding and window repairs right away, and all the
structures could use paint, and at some point I'll probably want to put
rolling doors back onto the north side of the big shop building (the one in
which I parked the tractor).  I already replaced the lighting and electrical
receptacles in the farrowing shed, since I'm leasing it along with one other
building and the pasture to a fellow who's raising Boer goats.   There's a
big old bull pen structure at the northeast corner of the barn complex that
I'll probably just tear down someday--looks to me like its principal value
is in the nice structural timbers that I could save for some other use.

We're calling the place "Sundown Farm", since that had been the name of a
small farm that my fiancee's late father had owned many years ago, and she
has good memories of it and suggested bringing the name back.   I'm happy to
have that connection; I never had the opportunity to meet her dad but from
her stories I can tell he was a fine man and believe he'd have enjoyed this
place too.

And yes, good to have plenty of clearance for the muffler on the Super M,
also!   Even the top of the steering wheel just barely cleared my suburban
garage door, with me ducking over sideways and inching carefully along.
Very nice, and much easier and safer, to have a proper equipment bay to park
in.

Brad Gunnels wrote:

> I was amused on how much the muffler changed from the 
> beginning to the end of the video. You're going to have to 
> either find some better  muffler paint or just get that ol girl 
> out and let her stretch a while and let the true colors come 
> out. 

Brad, yes, that was interesting to see, wasn't it?   That 2-1/2 drive is the
longest single workout I've had with this tractor...but as you suggest, I'll
certainly have the opportunity now to give it some meaningful work now and
then, and aside from keeping it inside will just let it weather as it does.
The folks I bought the property from left me an envelope with notes and
photos from prior owners before them, and there's a photocopy of a
black-and-white aerial view from the late 1940s--with the then-current owner
on his Farmall M in the lane right between the house and barns.  I like that
sense of history, and as much fun as it is to have this nice tractor it's
even more fun to hear and feel it working.

Steve W. wrote:

> I did notice one thing missing in the overhead shot, 
> Where is the pond!  I looked around the area and 
> hardly anyone has one. What's up with that...  

Steve, right, I've got a dinky little creek that runs most of the year but
no pond.   Gotta go deep for groundwater around there--static water level in
the well is 140 feet down--so natural ponds must be pretty rare.

I'm working on my house in Dayton today...almost ready to put it on the
market and make the final move up to St Paris!

Dean Vinson