The 1,300 Mile Tractor

This past Friday and Saturday I spent on the road with my dad, grandpa, and great uncle. We were in search of a Grand Haven tractor located in Chattanooga, Tenn. The tractor is the same kind as my grandpa's first tractor. It was made back in 1953 or 1954. There was an article in a magazine a while ago that told that there were less than 1,000 of these tractors ever made, and the writer only knew where 15 of them were left. This makes number 16. My great uncle found it advertised in a magazine and got some pictures to see what it looked like. It was in good shape, so we decided to take a road trip. We left Friday afternoon and got to Nashville by midnight, then got up first thing Saturday, drove to Chattanooga, loaded up the tractor and some other good finds, and made it back to Michigan by 12:30am, putting me back in South Bend by about 2:00 Sunday morning. It was very draining, but a blast. I got to hear all sorts of stories. I realized the next day that the entire ride down and back that radio had not been on once, a good indication of many stories being told. We ended up driving through 5 states on the trip, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia (only for 4 miles, but it counts).

Here is a picture of the tractor.


I fit on the tractor, but not sure if I could drive it for hours on end.


Here is the crew, my dad, great uncle, grandpa, and me.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHIL!!!

Kim (Phil's wife) had the great idea of going to a Piston's game for Phil's birthday last Friday. So Erin and I went up to Kalamazoo and met up with them after dropping the dogs off at my parents (thanks again for watching the monsters). We carpooled over to Jess' apartment and then met up with Phil's brother Robbie at the game. It was Erin's and my first Pistons game, which was very fun. They lost at the end, but it was a pretty close game. It took us a while to get back home because of the snow and icy roads, but we made it safe and sound.

Here are the girls with their FREE hats.


The guys with our FREE hats.


Erin and me by our seats.


On Saturday night I went looking through boxes of my old stuff and found this sweet soccer ball nose.

Happy New Year!

Our new year celebration was quite eventful. We traveled to Indianapolis to see some of my cousins in the afternoon and then went to the Harberts for new years eve. We played all sorts of games with a large group of people. We came home in the afternoon on New Years Day to this....



thats right, TWELVE INCHES of snow had fallen, and we got another 4 inches over the next two days.

Erin went up to Kalamazoo the next weekend, and I since I was bored, I decided to make a snowman in the front yard. I didn't have much to use, so I used some 2x4's I found and some shingle scraps. He didn't last very long because we had 60 degree weather.



Another thing I like to do while Erin is away is to start large construction projects. I pulled up the carpet in the dining room and started installing "fake" wood flooring. My mom and dad came down one day and my dad helped me on the flooring installation while Erin and my mom went shopping.