Boy it's been a while since I've been here,I spent all of last week in PA helping an old friend that's behind with his planting because of weather,a hurried schedule and long days don't leave much time for the internet so I'm trying to catch up a little.I was going to do this a week or so ago and didn't get around to it,when I was at the auction in PA a couple weeks ago there was an implement there that I had never seen except in pictures.This is an ice plow,actually there are 2 of them in the picture,the poles in the center are for a basketball hoop.The one in the foreground has a guide on it the one in the rear doesn't.Here is a picture from a book that I have about harvesting ice at Mountain Spring Lake in PA from the early 1900s that show an ice plow in use.Mountain Spring Lake was built by Albert Lewis,a lumberman,for the purpose of harvesting ice for cold storage.It was located on one of the highest mountains in PA,pretty far north and in one of the coldest parts of PA.It's an interesting story and another really cool lesson of life in a much simpler time.

I was in a part of PA that I had never seen before this past Saturday,there aren't many parts of PA that I haven't visited.If your ever traveling through PA and run across one of these,pay attentionI can think of quite a few places arond PA where you will find these,this was one that the sign doesn't do the hill justice.Most of the time you'll find them on 2 lane state roads,there are trucks that use these roads,most of them are doing local pickups and deliveries,i.e.milk tankers,log trucks and the like.So you may ask,what does this have to do with the title of this blog?Well,whenever I see one it reminds me of a couple old songs,one was by C.W.McCall called Wolf Creek Pass,the other was by Harry Chapin and was called 30,000 Pounds of Bananas,both are comical songs and I can assure you,if you ever had to take a truck down on of these hills,it's not a laughin matter but it's a way of life if you drive trucks in PA.The story of the Harry Chapin song is about a hill in Scranton,PA,that I've been on a few times,and a new driver hauling a load of bananas down that hill.If you get a chance,listen to the song and if you ever run across one of these signs,it'll give you a chuckle also.

Well it's been a while since I've updated my quest for a Maytag gas engine.I did stop in Conesus a couple of weekends ago to see a lady that said she had one,when I arrived at her place,she took me out to the shed where it was suppose to be,but it was missing,there were a few other old engines there,but no Maytag.As you can see from my last blog,the auction that I attended this past Saturday had a few,I checked them over pretty good,a few of them had pretty paint,but I was leary of the internals,the prices were pretty high,and it came down to the last 2,model 92 engines,the one was on a long base frame and I could see that it had been run and it looked like it was pretty sound,when the bidding ended,I was the owner.I tried a little bit to get it running this afternoon,but I could tell from the way the tank smelled,it hadn't been run recently,so I'm probably going to have to pull they carb and do some cleaning before I can put up any video but here are a couple of pictures.

It been an interesting weekend,I really wasn't going to go to PA again this weekend,with the price of gas and all,I had my mind made up not to go,that is until the middle of last week when I saw the add for this auction,this was a serious collection,there must have been forty hit-n-miss engines and no less than 12 Maytags but I was still on the fence.Then I got an email on Thursday from a fellow out at Fort Drum who had seen an add that I have on Craigs List for some '57 Chevy pickup parts,so there it was the SIGN that I was looking for,5:00 Saturday morning,I was on the road again.But I'm sure glad that I didn't miss this auction,it was just like Walmart for collectors of old engines.I probably won't put all the pictures here,there are quite a few,but they'll be in my albums and on Flickr.

Well,if you've looked around here a bit you'll get the impression that I like old things,I'm just a sucker for things old and mechanical.I always see this machine when I haul stone out of the quarry across the road,it's an impessive piece,not huge by todays standards but for the day it was working in,I'm sure it was huge.I've been wanting to get pictures of it for a while now,I was in the area yesterday,the weather was overcast but the pictures came out ok.For size reference,figure it's about as big as a small ranch style house.I have an update on this old beast,it's been IDed as a model 100 Marion railroad shovel built in the early 1900s.It originally rode around on a rail car which limited it's use to within a few ft of railroad tracks,eventually they made conversion kits to install the tracks and this one was retrofitted and that was probably when it went to work in the quarries.

I woke up a little after 6:00 yesterday morning,took the dogs out for their morning ritual,the sun was shining nice,but the river valley was full of fog,it's an interesting phenomonon,it has to do with the temperature of the water in the Susquehanna and the difference of elevation,throw in some steam from a nuclear power plant and wala,smokey mountains in PA.

Well it's official,the state of Pennsylvania has a new teacher educated and looking for a classroom,meet my second oldest Jeremy.He'll probably shoot me if he sees this but I can't help it.

Well we're off to PA again this weekend,surprise,surprise,this time there is a very good reason though,my middle son Jeremy,is graduating from The Pennsylvania State University with a BS in Secondary Education with a concentration in Social Studies on Saturday evening at 6:00.I'm proud of all my kids,but this will be one of those special times,I'm sure I'll have some pictures when I get back.If your ever in State College,PA and hungry for ice cream,ask anyone for directions to the creamery on campus,they make some of the best ice cream that you'll find anywhere.No auction plans for this weekend,I couldn't find anything interesting,there is an antique engine show in Bangor,PA,out in the Poconos,that I'd like to hit while we're down there,have to see how late it is when we get home Saturday evening.

I had an hour to kill yesterday afternoon,the sun was shining,it was a beautiful spring day,so I stopped at Mt Albion and went for a walk.There are more pictures with descrptions a Fliker with a link at the top of the page,it is a beautiful place and about the hillyest part of Orleans county.The tower above,center picture,I didn't take a shot of the top but it's about 50ft high and sits at the highest part of the cemetary,from the top you can see Lake Ontario about 5mi away.The lighting was terrible,it was 3:30 in the afternoon,but I wanted to get some of the blossoms before they were gone.

So today was Mothers Day,Chars son called a couple days ago and wanted her to go along with him,his wife and 2 children to a train station/museum about 20 miles west of here in Medina,NY,so of course I got to tag along.Now the big event for the day was Thomas the Tank Engine,at least for the little ones,but while everyone else went on the train ride,I relaxed among the displays of items from railroadings heyday,and of course I took pictures.They have an amazing display of old tools,lanterns,and paperwork from a couple of my favorite lines,the DL&W/Erie and the PRR.The center of the whole building is a huge,very detailed,HO scale layout,it isn't complete so I guess that's good reason to visit again.

It's Saturday,today I decided to go to an auction that I had never been to,this one in Gratz,PA.Gratz is in a valley just North of the Lykens valley,the most distinguishing thing about it is that it meets the Susquehanna River at Millersburg,Millersurg is one of the few places on the river with a ferry,and it still runs,although I think it's mainly tourists that use it nowdays.The valley is also home to one of the largest Amish communities in PA and they were out in force todayIt was a gray,chilly day but it didn't affect the crowd,most of the auctioneers are Amish.There was modern machinery and lawn tractors,along side of horsedrawn implements,there were even new buggies.A couple of the pictures show horses pulling sulkies,a lot of retired trotters go on to a new career as driving horses for the Amish,these guys were trying them out to see how they handled.I spent about 10yrs hauling hay mostly to the Amish around Lancaster,PA in the 1980s,they are interesting people,making a decent living with very few modern conveniences.

This time of year we usually only make the trip to PA about every other weekend,this would be a regular weekend to go but Char has a wedding shower for an old friends daughter to go to on Saturday afternoon,so I was going to skip out of going by myself.That is until Mom reminded me that I had told her we'd be down to take care of Zeke because her,her brother,his wife and another aunt are going to Virginia for her Aunts 91st birthday.Now Zeke is a big lovable,lazy cuss and he gets worried if somebody isn't around to fill his food and water dish at the right times.So I'm going by myself,it looks like there are a couple of good auctions,and it also looks like rain most of the weekend,so I guess I won't be missing much around here.

Here are a few pictures I took of the engines at the auction on 4/19 And a couple of restored washing machines.

I just got a call from a lady in Conesus that says she has a Maytag engine she wants to sell,hopefully I can get to see it on the weekend.

This is always a sure sign of spring.I love the smell of fresh turned dirt.It takes me back to my younger days,we didn't plow with equipment like this,but I always loved that smell.

Alright,so I'm an auction junkie,most weeks I attend at least 3,sometimes as many as 5.I'm in Nescopeck for the annual Fire Co consignment sale,it's the first one i've been to in about 8 or 10 yrs.My Dad got it started back in the 80s,I think,it's a much smaller version of the annual auction in Kempton,PA,Dad and I did a lot of work for this auction for quite a few years.After Dad died,my cousin ran it until he passed away in March of 2007.It's a lot different than it was 20yrs ago,but I know I'll run into some old friends and hopefully come away with a few bargains.

The sun is shining,the birds are singing,the grass is turning green,spring is finally here.