Another guy from Mass

[DeerMeadowFarm]

Hello –

I am a Cub Cadet fan from way back. I have been involved with other Cub Cadet sites in the past. I restored a model 86 about 10 years ago that my father-in-law had purchased brand new. I used to show this machine along with a Haban sickle bar mower that was also restored. I had a lot of free time on my hands then, my wife and I apparently were not going to have kids so we sold our small home and built our dream home on 24+ acres of mostly hay field. Of course, as soon as I started the house build, my wife became pregnant right away! You take children when God decides to give them to you so we didn’t complain but it sure changed things fast!
Having a small “farm” I needed something a little bigger than the Cub Cadets I loved for so long so I currently use a Massey Ferguson 1552 for most of my work. I still have the model 86 I restored so many years ago but I added a beat up 36” deck to it and it now serves as a mowing machine for keeping my 400+ Christmas trees from being overgrown with weeds.
I also have a 1250 that I bought after building the house. It was a smoker but I had a freshly rebuilt 14 horse motor I got in a deal with Hydro Harry (a friend from one of the old sites I used to hang around). I had bought a basket case 1450 from him when he moved from CT to out west. I had a lot of the parts from that basket case restored/refurbished so the 1250 got a transplant, some paint on the frame and all the repainted sheet metal from the 1450 project. I bought a 782 from a local dealer that just wanted to get rid of it…it came with two 50” decks. I refurbished the better of the two (although both were in nice condition) and now my 12/1450 wears it and is my lawn mowing machine.
The 782 sits out on the edge of a field…I always wanted a red Cub Cadet to restore but with work, keeping up the property, and raising a daughter, I just have not found the time to do any more with it. I did try to start it once shortly after I got it. The oil was very clean on the dipstick and when I removed the air cleaner a date of 2005 was written on the carb; this jived with the approximate date the dealer had told me that the original owner had replaced the motor. She turned over fine, but didn’t catch… I think I have a nice motor sitting there and at some point I will probably do something with the tractor…it’s a shame to see it going to waste as it is.
My resurgence in the Cub Cadet world comes by way of my 6 year old daughter actually. We went to a local fair and watched the garden tractor pulls. We watched the “bone stock” class and the kids in it and my daughter said “I can do that Daddy!” and I thought, well of course you can! People may argue about their brand of tractor being better than others, but everyone knows that Cub Cadets are THE best tractors for pulling! So…I’m back to look around…gather some hints on pulling and to talk Cub Cadets now and then. In my 15 or so years of messing around with them, I may even have some good advice on occasion!