I Finded Them, I Did.....

Earlier this summer - the last week of June, to be exact - I did some horse trading for a "new" front end (bolster and rims) for my Farmall F-12.

The deal was, the man I bought them from would haul it to Albert Lea, Minnesota to the annual "Red Power Roundup" - a yearly event which gathers all kinds of International Harvestor fanatics from all over the country (it's held in a different location each year....). Once he got them to RPRU, then ANOTHER friend would haul it back to my place (since I couldn't go).

Well, I was waiting with "baited breath" (which means it smelled like chum....) for my bolster to arrive. FINALLY, here comes Kirk down the drive and pulls to a stop next to my truck.

The first thing he does is hand me SOMETHING - I'm not real sure what it was. My excitement and attention was on the bolster. At any rate, it takes us two, a gorilla, and a couple of midgets to wrestle that thing into the loader bucket of the tractor. We figured it weighed about 3 tons. I dumped it on the ground in front of the F-12, where it would wait for another day when I could take it apart, clean, and paint it.

That day came about two weeks later. I pulled up my "barn chair" (and old, salvaged kitchen chair...), and proceeded to take the thing apart.

THAT'S when I discovered there were supposed to be 20 clamps - I had only 18.

After making a fool of myself by posting on a forum about needing the other two, the man I bought it from posted that he sent two with Kirk - and Kirk informed me that he handed them to me the first thing.

Yeah, RIGHT.....

I tore apart the truck, I tore apart the car, the barn, the HOUSE, the shop, even the chicken coop. I had all the birds lined up, and threatened them with a hatchet, but nobody knew where those two clamps went.

Today, over two months later, I decide to go out and do a little "something" to the F-12, so I go ahead and untarp her. As I'm looking around for a small item or two to take loose and clean up, I notice a couple of small "lumps" in the tool box of the tractor.

Yup. There those clamps sat...



So I got them all cleaned up and painted this afternoon.

I dunno. Maybe Kirk was just messing with my mind and stuck them there....

It's one of those cases where you say "I'll put them RIGHT HERE, so they won't get lost......."

Either that, or it was those darn cats - nothing is sacred to them.