This is a video of my restored 1947 John Deere A pulling a wagon loaded with 3×3 straw bales (1/2 ton alfalfa sized).  Although we have newer and more appropriate tractors for such a task, it is fun to see the A that I worked so hard on over the past year doing some real work.  Not to mention that it sounds good too!  I can’t begin to describe how much work, time, and effort has gone into getting it where it is now.  Even though she isn’t painted nor the most pretty tractor, it is much further ahead then I thought it would be at this point.  When I pulled it out from its resting place (where it had been as long as I can remember) a year ago I told myself that I would work on it ‘a little here, and a little there’ and that it would take about ten years to complete.  I never would have imagined that I would have it to the point where it is currently at only a year later.  The list of things that were wrong with it include a locked-up motor, seized up brakes, rotted rims, missing carburator, no front tires, rotted/leaking water return pipe, rotten/gone mag, rusted valves, completely-filled with debris cooling system (hadn’t had a cap on the radiator in years), and on and on!  It also had a mouse nest in one of the cylinders!  It had been sitting out for as long as I can remember–so when I brought it home I looked at it and asked myself, “what have I done getting myself into such a project!”.  Needless to say, now that it is starting to bear some fruit from my labors, it makes it all worth it.  Plus it’s been fun, too!