Rex's Recalling odd stuff

[Rex in OTZ]

I was out doing tractor work, NW Alaska wind is cold and I rememberd that back in my youth they had a cover for tractors that helped and took me most the day to recall what they were named, Comfort Cover or Heat Houser.


I remember useing a H model Farmall that had a Factory made cab and finally found out Tokheim Farm Equipment made it heres a model M with a different version of the Cab from all those Year's ago.


I came across this Allis Chalmers military vehicle that was a modified tractor Chassis.

Neigbor had a lil ford just like the one pictured with a dozer blade for pushing snow.

[Land_Owner]

If I understand correctly, the Heat Houser channels the engine's heat to the driver's cab.  Great idea!  Exhaust leaks could be problematic and cause a headache, at least.

The Ford w/half track has 6 WHEELS!  I suppose the two forward wheels are just for tension of the tracks.  I would like to see how they did that to make it work.

Tractoring the frozen tundra of the Alaskan Arctic.  Now that is a first in my mind.  Are you planting icicles?  Raising a crop of snow?  

Just kidding.  I have seen photographs of  HUGE vegetable that were taken from places the sun shines more than 20 hours per day.  Short season, but very good ground to nourish plant growth.  

Your "handle" says "OTZ".  I can think of only one definition for that acronym:  Oz Time Zone - "We get up at 12 and start to work at 1.  Take an hour for lunch and then by 2 we're done."

[Rex in OTZ]

The Comfort Cover & windshield were a comfort when pulling a haystack laden underslung seven miles by farmall 460 to hay cows at -17F in the windswept sandhill's in Feburary, my morning chores before driveing into town for highschool.
The farmall 460 the muffler was above the hood, the heathouser/comfort cover was great going into the wind not so fun with the wind Longhandles and ear flopper hat were by best buddy's.
Grapple fork equiped F10 farmhand loader tractor was used to shake out priarie hay for stock cow's in winter.
We put up our own prairie hay by slide stacker and hay sweep, moved to stack yards via underslung hay wagon (winch on/winch off the 5-7 ton hay stacks) hay stockpiled in hay yards in groups of 30-70 hay stacks for winter use.

OTZ is the a stripped down method the airlines and post office use to differentiate the villages
ANC=Anchorage AK
FAI=Fairbanks AK
SEA=Seattle WA
OME=Nome AK
BRW=Barrow AK
OTZ= Kotzebue, named for the prussian contract explorer Otto Von Kotzebue in service of the Russian Czar
Villages round here are coastal or on rivers DRG=Deering named for the 1902 lighter Anna Belle Deering a 70ton sloop that dumped goldmining supplies there on the beach,BKC=Buckland located on the Buckland river **,CDL=Candle on Candle creek(gold mining boom town that Charles Lindburg once own'd a road house in),KVL=Kivilina one the few whaleing villages along the coast,WTK=Noatak located on the Noatak river,PHO=Point Hope big waleing village up to the north,ORV=Noorvik on bluffs above the Kobuk river,IAN+ Kiana on bluffs above the Kobuk not far from the Squirrel river valley,WLK= Selawik aka the Vennice of the Arctic on the Selawik river,ABL=Ambler also on Kobuk river,SHG=Shungnak on the Kobuk river,OBU=Kobuk named for the river its along.

** Elephant point is located on Eschscholiz Bay one the richest deposits of mammoth ivory in Alaska, Charis peninsula and Chammisso Island plaid a part in the rescue attempt of Sir John Franklin's faild/fatal quest of the northwest passage see non fiction book "Ice Blink".
In June 1865 Chammisso Island was also the scene of one the last actions of the Civil War when the CSS Shannondoua a confederate commerce raider burned a whaleing sloop caught on shoals not far off the island.

Up coast between kivilina and Point Hope is Chariot creek the sight site of Project Chariot which was part of Operation Plow Share the peacefull use of 5 Atomic bombs to blow out chunk of Arctic coast to create a deep water port see non fiction book "The Fire Cracker Boy's")

[Land_Owner]

Now that's an education!  Perhaps you can use my version of OTZ up there for a laugh and a smile.  Make a big sign of it, post around town on power poles, adopt it by the City Council for all official Government meetings.

[Rex in OTZ]

The 6wheel Ford tractor kit was just one of a whole series of makes and models that was marketed, they are kind of like a early version of present day atv track kits.
The M-7 was made by Allis Chalmers for the military.

Farm tractors as a rule had rear differental brakes, they had a simple tab that flipped over and locked both peddals together so if down hilling both brakes could be actuated, on level ground is in a muddy environment if the tractor was pulling to one side or if a tight turn was required a fella could just stand on one break that would stop the wheel on that side, pulling round the front end round (at times skidding the front tires side ways in the breaking direction)

There are cat trails all over Alaska Bush, In the 1970's and early 1980's they used to run Catipillar's with heat housers pulling 5th wheel trailers across frozzen tundra/rivers/swamps to position fuel/supplies and heavy equipment in mining camps if the rivers were too shallow to barge in supplies in the spring, Roger Noordlum used to pull 10K diesel trailers by D-9 cat across Kobuk Lake (he related he could stand up on the operators platform rest his legs against the drive levers and he would be eye level with the surface the ice) on to claims up the Squirrel River valley.
Of interest is Jade mountain up the Kobuk river a whole mountain made of green Alaskan Jade, there 1K pound jade boulders laying round town, I have a 40# chunk as a door stop.
The transfer of State lands to federal status cut out allot the wildcatting (mining and well drilling)that had happened round here, this country was a hotbed of prospecting from the 1890's through the 1970's
My co worker found laying on a hill top a home made gold pan made from a 55gallong drum head that was cut and shaped by a axe.
As late as the 1980's they (Northwestern Aviation)used to fly Cessna 188 Ag-wagon plane laden with Diesel fuel into Candle AK.