The Collector

Things Rich collected....

Here is a 1966 Chrysler Outboard motor in our little Red Shed. Apparently he purchased this at some auction with the intent of cleaning it up and reselling it.

As already established, I do not know a thing about motors or engine things. Here is a gem or piece of junk that was hidden in the 'junk' in the tiny shed.

Here is another motor. What was the obsession with old boat motors?

The closest I can figure on this engine is an outboard motor that was made sometime between the years of 1920 to 1940's.

Is it worth anything? Who knows? It will go in an auction, but I'll clean it up  first.

I searched through 'stuff' on the floor of the crushed garage and found this item.

What on earth is it?

A Vintage Kerosene Cowl Lamp from the early 1910 to??? [or tail lamp?]. Inside this lamp is a the  wick set up. The front light would be clear white and the side light would be red.

Odd, but cool, right? I think it is a great find for the following....I'm keeping it. If I put a light in it, it really works!

Dr. Cog and his dog Gear really like it!

Below is a photo of a vehicle in the shed. It is a 1992 4X4 Toyota with a clean engine. It is filthy from sitting in the dusty shed for years. 

The young man that was with the guys picking up the old Buick has offered me 4 times what we paid for it.😎😯

He sees something I really don't. It is filthy from sitting in the shed. The interior is in pretty good shape and the engine looks pristine for some reason. Restored it is worth a whole gob of money. I'd never even entertain the idea of restoration but had another guy comment that he wished he could have a stab at it.

I already promised Matt that is was his.

The Scrap Dudes piled tools on it so I have to clean that off this week.

After all this thing has an engine and we know how good I am with mechanical stuff.

Rich always meant to clean things up and get them running. He saved things for doing later which never came for him. He was good with old engines and could fix almost anything. He could weld and create almost any tool he needed or construct and repair anything else. 

I wish I'd been able to see him work on things in his younger days.

The kid that is buying the Toyota is very excited. He called it A Barn Find. Apparently there is a show where guys search old barns for classic cars to restore.

My grandson and his father are interested in our Allis Chalmer D17. They'd like to have it to restore. That would be an intriguing project to see. I think part of the engine is missing so it would be more likely to be sold as a parts tractor.

Oh the world of a collector....

😀

Visit

My youngest son and his fiancé came for a visit this weekend. I don't know if 'youngest' is really appropriate for someone in his mid 40's, but there you are.

They didn't bring the kids so it was a much more different experience than I've had before with them. I got to sit down and actually converse rather than have them dealing with all the kids.

I finally found out how they met, why they met, and how Jer's life has changed since they met. Jer is the kid that wore his heart on his sleeve. 

An Angelic child? Nope. Funny? Sometimes. A Pain? Yes. Hyper? Yes. 
Obnoxious? Sometimes. Big Heart? Mostly. Organized? Nope. Impulsive? OHHHH yes.

I could add more regarding my 'kid'. But I've settled on not trying to tell him on how I think HE should live his life. 

I'm the parent and I always want to see my sons do their absolute best.

Jer's relationship with Em seems to have pointed him in a different direction. He told me he was no longer going to be mad at the world. [Truly, I don't know what for.]

Sunday morning I took them to breakfast [they'd taken me to supper!]. Then I asked him if he'd like to visit Readstown's indoor Flea Markets. They were game.

Crazy Frank's has two stores in this small town. Two stores that are basically huge Garage Sales by Vendors. You can find baby shoes to antique glassware, toys, clothes, and absolute junk in both locations.

While we were in the first one, Jer said we should play a game next time he visits. The game would involve going into to these Crazy stores and purchasing an outfit from head to toe from the items we could find.

He put this hat on and modeled it for us. 

The crazy thing was, we walked around and found the most ridiculous clothes we could find. Future planning for the 'contest'. 

Jer had his eye on white and rainbow white jumpsuit. I started looking at some of the odd and crazy weird hats. Em picked up a pair of rubber cowboy boots that had daisies on them. We laughed and giggled as we went through all the booths and items.

I did find a 'monster toy' for a $1 along with a nice bud vase to add to my collection for $3, and a $1 old metal tractor.

We actually spent hours in both stores, enjoying wondering about who collected these things and how junky some stuff was and how nice other pieces were. I found a rocking chair that I fell in love with. Dangit! Sold!

The weather outside was rather horrid. The temps were below zero and the windchills pretty nasty. Plus it started snowing again while we were in the stores.

But we had a blast. 

The stores got seriously busy while we were there. It seems to be a place that anyone can go on a crappy day to browse through other folk's stuff on a subzero snowy day.

Thing is, my weekend would have been a bit lonely. I do get lonely once in a while so there is that.

So my weekend was full of laughter and chit chat catching up with one son who had been so distant for so long. [actually it was a mutual distance thing, I hadn't liked his attitude or what he was doing and he didn't care if I cared or not]