The All Stars.....

Been thinking about this for awhile......notion got started by chance encounters with some truly gifted folks out there. All walks of life and trades.......but people who are exceptionally good at what they do. Some have a patent or two.....or dozens. Some of them well known.....some not so well known inventors.....guys like Jon Kinzenbaw or Dewey Hostetler......others....perhaps took an interest in something and ran with it. Guys like Jon Hardgrove.....who has the Carburetor Shop in Eldon, MO. Jon claims to have kits for over 10,000 different carburetors, etc.

Then there are the relative unknowns......guys like Lloyd, who happens to be a sawed off runt with only one arm.......works alone in the back of a relatively unknown machine shop.....who rebuilds engines. And builds racing engines. And is very good at it.

We probably all know a few of these. Some of them are reading this......and we know who they are.

Seems to me profiling these guys would make for an interesting TV show. Much more interesting than a half naked spoiled/high maintenance housewife dealing with contrived drama. Seen one of those you have seen them all.

Used to be a show on one of the cable channels......"Orange County Choppers". They screwed that show up by focusing on the contrived drama vs. how to build a custom chopper. Would have been interesting 1 hour show to go into their history and document a full build. The engineering, special skills, etc.

And a big part of this, in my mind, is to put the bug in some high school kids ear........let them see some segments of a world they know nothing about. A bit like "Dirty Jobs", but exposure to a whole lot of cool things people do and really talented people that do them.

Meeting with another one tomorrow. Sawed off little runt with a hair lip.......doesn't weigh 100 pounds. There is no ag tire he cannot deal with by himself. Been doing it for 40 years. Like watching a magician do his stuff.

I like watching 'Forged in Fire'..

Sure wish 'Dirty Jobs' would come back. Man some of the 'stuff' he had to put up with......classic was catching snakes on Lake Erie and the cute gal laughing at him as he winces. That show must have opened a few eyes as to what  dirty jobs, a LOT of people have to do....to make a living.

I've read where Dewey Hostetler (DewEze) would see a need for something....sketch it out on a napkin and build it. This all terrain mower was one of them.......

But there are guys (and gals) in all walks of life doing the same. This guy had an interest in firearms and started building air rifles.......big ones!

Just a bunch of brilliant folks doing exceptional things. Many.....if not most.....lurking in the shadows and outside of their circle of influence, nobody has ever heard of them.

Another guy I can think of......wanted a new combine, but didn't like the price, so decided to build his own and he did. Took him several years, but built his own rotary combine. Collection of off the shelf and fabricated parts and did the design and engineering himself.

I think it ran an 8 or 12 row picker head. By the time he got to the heads, he had had enough of building and bought those. Same with the cab.......I think he found a cab and controls salvaged off a Gleaner that had caught fire. But when he hooked it all up it worked.

Nope, it's things you can't learn in school.  You have to have an inquisitive mind and the innate ability to carry through.  Takes common sense and just plain sense.  Something you CAN'T teach.  THEY wrote the books and the kids now-a-days don't know how to read.

A sad state of affairs.  It's now become a throw away society.  It it doesn't work, buy a new one.  Instead of WHY?  Let's tear it apart and see if we can fix it.

I taught my son, if it's broke, you can't hurt it, it's broke.  Take it apart to see what's wrong and what makes it tick.