Back home again.....

Well - we had to make an unplanned trip to NW Missouri to my wife's parents house last week. We were just over there Thanksgiving. My wife's Grandmother was not doing well and took a turn for the worse when we left. The weekend of 16 December, her parents told us that she was REALLY down and had refused food and water for several days. We decided to go see her one last time and help out with anything we could. Grandma decided to hang on until 7:00 pm Wednesday 20 December 2006 before she died. A problem we faced, was that 2 of her 3 remaining sons live about as far away as you can get from Missouri, and still be in the CONUS! One is in Florida and the other in California! While Getting a flight from Orlando to Kansas City seemed easy, one from CA proved to be a challenge! The blizzard in Denver and the holiday weekend did not help matters any. The other son managed, after CONCIDERABLE searching, to get ONE seat on a flight from San Bernadino to Las Vegas to KC. His wife was unable to come with him. We all got together on Saturday morning, the 23 of December for Grandma's funeral. See was 89, and had led an interesting life. She had four sons of her own and helped her husband raise 19 Foster boys. Two of the foster boys were Pall Bearer's and two more attended.

My wife's parents are busy deciding what they should do FIRST. We figured out that since they were married in 1967 - after the first 9 months before thier son was born until the time my wife left (1991), they were busy taking care of thier two children. Three years later, his parents moved in and they have been busy caring for parents ever since. They took care of all four of my wife's Grandparents - all four of them died at home. Each one happened to die in the same room as thier spouse. So - it all boils down to - since they got married, they have spent a total of just a little more than 3 years alone with each other, since 1967! They are trying to rearrange the house and get used to thier "new life".

Since we were going over there, I borrowed a friend's trailer to bring my corn picker back on. I had it all ready to load, just waiting. The day after Grandma died, my wife's dad and I went to Independence MO to get the arrangements finalized.While we were thier, we talked to one of his cousins. He retired from working at the Allis-Chalmers Plant in Independence. We were talking tractors, when I mentioned that I needed a 2 bottom plow. He told me he had one in the shed out back. I went to look at it and he told me it has sat there for 20-25 years since he bought it and NEVER USED IT! He told me that the man he bought it from had had it in HIS shed for awhile without using it. I don't know for sure how MUCH use it has seen, but not much. He told me that if I wanted the plow, I had to take theold loader that was beside a different shed in his back yard. It fits and A-C "CA" model tractor (I think). I is in good shape, but the hoses are really bad. I told him I'd drop by on Saturday (23rd) with the trailer and get it. He stopped me at Grandma's funeral and told me he didn't want ANYTHING for them! I thanked him profusely and was glad to have them! I ended up bringing the plow, the loader, and PART of the corn picker home. My BIL will bring the rest later. The plow is a 2-14 unit made for the AC "single point" hitch. It seems to be a later model of the "snap" hitch AC made. I am thinking that, since I need to modify it for use on a 3 point, that I MAY try and trade it for a 3 point 2-14. My theory behind this is that, in it's original, unmodified state, a collector might want it. I would hate to modify something that someone would want original. Still need to find info on it, though!

As for the corn picker, I couldn't see it very well in the man's shed, and was going on the information he gave me. Now that I have seen it in the light of day, I have found out that it is a "Farm Rite" Corn Picker, not a David Bradley as I first thought. Now I need to find info on Farm Rite!

It's good to be home! My brother from Kansas was by today, also. He had a get-together yesterday at his daughter's house in Lincoln, NE. My sister was there and made a BUNCH of her World Famous Apple Strudel. Brother Bob, stopped by here with a LARGE Strudel she had made for us. I had to make the frosting, but it was EXCELLENT! I'm sure glad she made the special effort to make us one and to find a way to get it here - she went out of her way to do it - thanks!