Classic John Deere

The John Deere is getting some much needed work, before we tackle the big job of the year: mowing pastures. Our local welder (Dave's new best friend) just fixed a broken mower deck on the riding lawn mower; now he's fixing the damaged front brush guard for the tractor, and straightening and reinforcing the brush guards for the big Ford rotary mower.

My work is less critical but oh so satisfying: giving the JD its first bath since we bought it in 1986, then cleaning the oxidation off the paint to make it shine. Who knows... I might even give it a coat of wax.

Since Dave had the tractor out of the shed, it seemed a good time to check it over and make a list of what needs to be done. And I got out my paint cleaner and did a few test spots on the paint, to see if the paint will clean up like I hope it will. Then I used the compressor to blow off debris. And when I leaned over to clean off the engine mounts, look what I found... this huge twig and moss nest. It's actually a pretty clever place to build... accessible from two sides, completely out of the weather, and practically invisible.