Waldon Loader gets a new battery , Don Campbell from Gaylord prepares for winter., originally uploaded by Don Campbell Models.

Waldon Loader- Todays picture shows me just finishing up replacing the old battery with a new one in one of my Waldon Loaders. I figure it would be nicer to do it now than in the middle of a snowstorm, ha,ha.
HITACHI EX-8000 MINING SHOVEL PROGRESS- Today I welded the stick together and worked on the hinge brackets. Tomorrow I should get going on welding the clam bucket parts together. Still doesn’t look like anything yet but by this weekend it should start to get the first shapes .
GMC Shortbox Truck- We had more sun today and another 50 degree day so I crawled under my truck and painted black paint on the frame to keep the salt from getting to it . I didn’t get it all done so tomorrow afternoon i will crawl under and paint more of the frame .
RUNNING AND WALKING – Today I only ran two miles and walked the rest of the 5K with Deb . She ran part of the course too. Only running two miles is my idea of resting , ha,ha.
Leftovers for supper (:<).
Christmas Shopping at Macy’s – I am calling in sick on Thurs. and heading to Traverse City with Deb to Macy’s to do some Christmas Shopping .
Macy’s is one of Nicole’s favorite D.C. stores she shops in.
So we like shopping at Macy’s too for her.
DEER HUNTING – Bill has had a good start to Deer Hunting season so far. He is busy filling up his freezer .
Have a Great Tues. !!

Don Campbell gets the snowblower painted today ., originally uploaded by Don Campbell Models.

84″ Snowblower – Here is a picture Deb took of me this afternoon after I finished painting my 11 year old Erskine 84″ Snowblower. Most 11 year old commercial snowblowerslook like a pile of rust. Every year I get the paint out and get it looking good too before winter. Trust me, even these snowblowers aren’t cheap so it pays to take care if it too.
HITACHI MINING SHOVEL PROGRESS- This morning I worked on the shovel boom and got it welded together . I also built the first two cylinders and mounting brackets. Tomorrow I will work on the stick and get it welded together.
STEAK ON THE GRILL FOR SUPPER !! YUM !! Today we thawed out the last beef tenderloin out of the freezer . We bought six whole ones in the spring when they were half price and they lasted until Nov. They were yummy all summer and yummy tonight . You can cut them with a fork they are so tender !!
Runners World – I have been squatting the last three days painting and my legs are sore so this morning I only ran 2 miles just so i didn’t hurt my knees. It was very windy so the extra work running against the wind was a good workout too. Deb and I did run /walk the complete 5K course though .
CHRISTMAS SHOPPING – It’s Nov and that means officially we can start our Christmas Shopping. Our best memories with Nicole were all those Christmas Mornings of her growing up , we used to love seeing her excitement two or three weeks before Christmas Morning . One year we decided to open our gifts on Christmas Eve. It was ok, but we Never did it again. In fact Nicole never even wanted to open even one small gift on Christmas Eve after that.
Have a Great Monday !!

John Deere 5400 Tractor Paint being touched up in Otsego County by Don Campbell Preparing for another winter., originally uploaded by Don Campbell Models.

John Deere Tractor- Todays picture shows me outside enjoying a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon with 50 degrees.
I just couldn’t resist doing a little touchup painting on the tractor rims before the winter salt begins.
This tractor has less than 1000 hours on it and is 11 years old and is still in excellent condition. Everything I own is always kept inside summer and winter. To me everything vehicle is a big investment and should be taken care of. You can also see one of the Waldons outside as I had to move it to get the tractor out of the shed.
DAY OFF FROM RUNNING- Yesterday I painted the snowblower and I was squatting for a couple hours and I figured I better rest my legs today and not run. I still love running and will be back out in the morning enjoying my next run.
HEY DEB ! What’s for supper?- Pan seared scallops , garlic mashed potatos , cole slaw , and pumpkin cookies for dessert, yum!
Hitachi EX-8000- I puttered in the shop a little today and got a few more patterns made.
Dyersville National Farm Toy Show 2009- People are saying they had another fun visit to Iowa at the National Farm Toy Show. This time of year sure makes us think about all the years we set up a table in the hallway of the School and camped in our motorhome behind the school. We always enjoyed eating at the Country Junction and we always made the trip to Waterloo and toured the John Deere Assembly Plant. Some years we spent the night in Independence , Iowa in our motorhome and other years we stayed at the Waterloo State Park. We always had fun .
Have a Great Sunday !!

Hitachi EX-8000 Mining Shovel parts being built by Gaylord Resident Don Campbell., originally uploaded by Don Campbell Models.

Hitachi EX-8000- Todays picture shows over 250 parts now laying on my workbench that will end up being a 1/12th scale Hitachi Ex-8000 Mining Shovel. You can see it still looks like nothing at this early stage. But I have enough of a imagination that I know very well what it is going to look like a month from now. It is that process of starting with a flat piece of metal and creating every part with my own hands and welding and drilling every part and watching it transform from nothing to a awesome monster model that keeps me excited everytime I build a new model. I cannot force myself to build more than one of anything it is just to boring for me. I have over 100 machines I want to build someday . It will be fun someday to publish two books of all the models I have built over the years. One book will be the dozens of farm machinery I have built and of course the other will be heavy equipment and the dozens of those monster machines I have built .
Somtimes I think about putting a live cam in my shop and run it a couple hours a day . People would be surprised how slow the process really is to hand shape and build hundreds of pieces out of metal to get one model.
Today I am designing more parts and cutting them out.
By Monday night the boom and the stick parts should be welded together . Those will be the very first three demensional parts I will assemble.
Hey Deb ! What’s on the Menu ? – Deb just pulled a meatloaf out of the oven, she has fresh mushroom / beef soup on the burner and she’s sampling a warm pumkin/ molasses cookie, yum !!
WEIGHT LOSS PROGRESS- Deb and I were up early as usual getting our hour exercise done and starting the day off right . We now realize running is not good if you want to lose weight on the scales.
Sure the first 25 lbs. came off easy, but now the muscles a person gets running everyday make it look like you stay the same week after week. As we continue to fit in smaller clothes we see it is not just about what the scales say , instead it is more about getting smaller and we are certainly doing that. This morning was warmer at 40 degrees as we headed out running.
NATIONAL FARM TOY SHOW 2009- We get e-mails from people going to Dyersville and it makes us think each day what we used to do at the show. When we first went we could not get over the thousands and thousands of people who attended the show. The hallways were packed with people elbow to elbow from morning until night. But each year we saw the numbers slowly fall . We saw the locations people set up in all over town slowly close . Our last trip to Dyersville a few years ago we figured the show had shrunk in half from years past when we were there.
But we were glad we got to be a part of the show for 10 years during the highest attendence times. It was very exciting . The last couple years everyone talked about the low turnout and talked about not coming anymore as they were not making enough to pay their expenses. We here each year things are much slower at Dyersville and that was before the economy even crashed. But regardless if it has become a much smaller show , if we didn’t live so far away, we would still like to go back one more time just to visit with the folks that still do go.
Have a Great Sat. !!!!!