After many many rain dances, we finally have rain. You can almost hear the critters, plants, & grass sigh with relief. We needed it and although it didn’t last long, we’ll take what we can get.
Not only does the rain bring nourishment to the plants, cool the air down a bit, but it also gives me some time to sit down and update the blog.
I learned my first rule of blogging, never promise updates in a week or so. Farm life can easily consume your time and by the time you settle in at night you are ready for a tasty beverage and a good movie. Blogging is furthest from your mind. Blogging rule #1: leave a little mystery for when you might post next. It is a lot more realistic. Trust me…I am about 30 blog posts behind based on my initial promises. So I officially wipe the slate clean…and I’ll leave it to the weather to predict my next blog post.
Okay, back to SweetWater! Been busy little bees here. All you have to do is step outside and you can see SweetWater is bustling with life. It has been fun watching the transformation. Nate & I often find ourselves stopping and catching our thoughts. Amazed at how much we have accomplished in such a short time. Pretty “Sweet” if I do say so myself.
Speaking of accomplishments, Nate has been making amazing progress on the Super Dexta. Of course it has been one of those projects where you open something up to fix it and realize you have two more parts you have to fix before you can get to your original fix. Given the desperate TLC this tractor has needed, I am surprised I have not heard more colorful languages filling the air. Nate really deserves a lot of credit on this project. He takes his time and focuses on doing it right. So far we got the tractor all painted up and he started putting the parts back on her earlier this week.
Then he was able to finally get her started up for the first time since we bought it and I am happy to say it starts without using the glow plug and runs pretty clean. He was worried we might have to do an engine rebuild but looks like we are in the clear. Unfortun
ately, once running, he realized the clutch will not disengage and was suspicious of the fork and or throw out bearing being damaged. Well, he got the engine/trans separated and found the cause. This has a dual stage clutch, one for the transmission and one for the PTO. The trans/drive disk was obliterated and not much left on the PTO disk either. So he ordered the rebuild kit and got it all back together by end of the week. Now he is putting the finishing touches on the electrical which needed to be completely replaced. Here is a list of all the new parts that we have purchased for the Super Dexta thus far.
Not to mention all the welding and fabrication Nate has had to do to get the original parts back to serviceable condition. He eventually wants to design a canopy/brush guard over the 
top of the tractor to protect us from the sun and branches and I am sure some new tires are in our future as well.
Soooo….yes, it has been a lot of work but we did only pay $800 for the machine and it will be a “better than new” machine when we are done. They sell for well over $3k in average operating condition so it leaves a lot of room for parts. We’ve done a lot of research on these particular Fordsons and they seem to be very well respected around the world. Quite the little powerhouse for the size.
Oh and I should probably post more pictures of those cute baby goats too. Trust me, I could write an entire blog about what we have learned about raising goats in just a few days of owning them. I can tell you that they are worth every penny! I guess that post will be coming soon….stay tuned.More Super Dexta FootageOh you should be able to leave a comment now. We would love to hear from you.
