the horse rancher is a retired corpsman from the US Navy, spending most of his career aboard one nuclear sub or another as the top medical officer. Now he is some bigshot at the Veterans Hospital in Mount Vernon. the barn goddess is a stay at home Grandmom, raising their beautiful 11 year old granddaughter while her Mom attends college.
Several years back, while building their ranch, they were living in a fifth wheel camper. They had parked it next to this big metal building they had built, thinking if a tornado came, the building would protect the trailer. Well, as it turns out, a tornado did come and blew away the metal building but the trailer was, basically, uninjured. I was talking to Tom a little later and told him I was sorry he lost his stuff. He told me, "John, I didn't lose it, it's just scattered over 30 acres." Gotta love a sense of humor in a time like that.
They now have a tornado shelter.
Now over the years, Tom, like the rest of us, has had some pretty cool stuff.
Like this old 65 Ford F150
This image I got off the net somewhere. Tom's was like this but didn't have the "treasure chest" below the bed.
And these two.
Actually, the blue 51 F-1 started life on Haven Lee Farm in Halltown, as the JJEandD. Jim, John, Ed and Dad. It was an old truck Dad acquired from a neighbor, Roy Weaver. I don't know any more than that about that transaction, but knowing Dad, I am sure they are some juicy details. Maybe someone knows and will share.
Anyway, it originally had a flathead six cylinder in it. Once, when we had it apart, an old family friend, Hap Henley, was out to the farm and told me to file the head down in some places. Now Hap was an older gentleman and a general all around fixer upper handyman kind of guy. He owned a 55 Chrysler New Yorker,
Tom later acquired it when Hap upgraded to a 66 New Yorker.
He was a big guy and smoked a pipe. When I had finished, he told me "You did a jam up job". I wasn't sure if that was good or not. We went into eat and I asked Mrs. Henley if that was good. She was surprised. She told me I must have done a great job because Hap hardly ever gives that compliment. It's amazing the things you remember from 35 years ago.
Later, Tom had a bus similar to the image I swiped off the net below.
I don't remember it having a reflection of a Volvo on it though. This was back when CB's were hot and he had a honking big CB antenna on the roof of that thing and the range was incredible.
He also owned a Mercury Comet, similar to the appropriated image below. It had mag wheels with a locking lug nut.
While single and stationed in San Diego, he picked up some chickadee and she stole that car. Tom came home a short time later and tossed the key to those wheels in the trash. Well, surprise, surprise, the cops found the car. We had a hell of a time looking for that key in the dump. We found it though.
Nowadays, Tom prefers tractors and wagons.
Yep, the horses rancher and the barn goddess raise minature horses. They love it. Tom commissioned these wagons to built for them to pull in parades and such. They are a big hit, resulting in many prizes and blue ribbons. It is pretty cool.
Today, the horse farmer sent me an email with What I Saw Today as the caption. The email contained the following image.
It was neat to see this rockin' garden and that old merry go round horse that used to belong to my Dad.
It jogged my memory of the image below.
This is an old photo of my daughter Jessica, me and Dad taken outside his outbuilding at their old home in Republic. I hope you can make out the joyous expression on Jessica's face.
horse rancher, thanks for reminding me of this photo and motivating me to find it.
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