[SEL] Economy Buzzrig Birthday Present

Luke Tonneberger flywheelin at hotmail.com
Wed Jul 28 11:55:41 PDT 2004


Hi Everybody,

I picked up two new engines a couple weeks ago at an auction near Battle 
Creek, Michigan. About a week before the auction I showed the listing to my 
wife Shirley. They happened to have an Economy 7hp on a drop frame cart with 
a buzz rig listed. One of Shirley's favorite engines is an Economy.  She 
made a comment on how it would be nice to have a bigger Economy than the 5hp 
that we already have. I informed her of the auctioneers web site that has a 
picture of the buzz rig. Once she saw the picture of it she said that it 
really looked pretty and she wanted me to take a couple pictures of the buzz 
rig while I was at the auction. For the next several days, prior to the 
auction, I heard several times a day that the engine was a pretty engine, 
how much she liked Economy's, it would be neat to have a bigger one, and on 
and on. Every day I heard this. Not really having the room to store it and 
the extra money to buy it I just wrote it off and figured I'd take some 
pictures for her.

Our tandem axle trailer that I usually haul stuff on is loaded for shows 
this year with a couple engines belted to a couple big blowers already all 
bolted down. So I just took the truck to the auction. Well, on the way to 
the auction I remembered her birthday was coming up in a few weeks and 
didn't know what to get her. The buzz rig would make a great birthday gift I 
figured. But no where to put it and no way to haul it home. I ended up 
bidding on the buzz rig and was the high bidder. I also picked up a Galloway 
5hp with a round connecting rod. I had the Galloway loaded up into the truck 
and asked the owners about storing the Economy and buzz rig for a couple 
weeks until I could come back down and get it. They said they would push it 
into the fence row and I could cover it up. During the drive home that 
didn't set well with me so when I got back in town I stopped and rented a 
Uhaul trailer.

I wanted to surprise Shirley with the buzz rig sitting in the front yard 
when she got home from work on her birthday, but it was a few weeks away and 
she would have the bank statement by then, nowhere to hide the buzz rig, and 
I would have to take time off of work to pick it up without her knowing. So 
I thought some more and this is what I did.

I got home and told Shirley about the Galloway I bought and a bunch of other 
junk that I picked up really cheap (sometimes I do get a bunch of junk to 
haul to the scrapyard for trading material). Told her I got a drag, some 
disks, scrap iron, and a drop frame cart for the Economy (the one we already 
have, but I didn't say that. just a drop frame cart for the Economy). I told 
her that the stuff needed to be removed by this evening and wondered if she 
wanted to go back down there with me.  She decided to go to help me load the 
junk because she had nothing else to do. So my daughter Brooklynn and I 
unloaded the Galloway then all three of us headed back down to the auction 
site. On the way she asked how much the buzz rig sold for and I told her 
that I didn't remember as there were so many engines there. I did tell her I 
took a few pictures though and she could see the pictures later.

When we got there there weren't many people left and the tents that some of 
the stuff was under had the sides all closed in with tarps.  I suggested 
looking in the tents to see what was leftover and she could maybe see a few 
of the nice engines that they had there to sell.  There were a few tractors 
we were looking at and back in the corner of the tent was the buzz rig. I 
said, "oh look, they didn't pick up the buzz rig yet and you can atleast get 
to see it in person." She was so excited. She walked up to it looked it over 
and said, "it is so beautiful and alot better than the picture, someone got 
a nice engine, this is really nice." I said, "yep someone did get a nice 
engine, happy birthday." She paused for a few seconds and said, "WHAT?" So I 
said, "happy birthday."  The look on her face was priceless. Saying that she 
was excited is an understatement. She was certainly surprised. We loaded it 
up and headed home.  The next morning we unloaded it then headed to church. 
After church and lunch I had it running and she was very satisfied. I was 
too, it runs really nice. She doesn't want very many engines that she sees, 
but this is a nice one. Thought some of you would enjoy reading about it. 
Pictures of the engines are here:

http://www.oldengine.org/members/luket/sawrig/sawrig.html
http://www.oldengine.org/members/luket/galloway/galloway.html

Luke Tonneberger
Rockford, Michigan
USA

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