RESTORING A SINGLE - HORSE MOWER

Sammy Epps never imagined he would take up the hobby of restoring and collecting vintage farm equipment. However, when knee surgery took him off the tennis court and the pandemic converted him into a homebody, Sammy decided it was time to take up a new hobby.

“I didn’t know anything about old farm equipment,” he says. “I just thought it would be rewarding to find and restore something that was 100 years old.” In April 2020, he found his first project: a John Deere 1-1/2hp stationary engine languishing in a nearby barn.

The seller said the engine was not in running condition. Undaunted by the engine’s condition, Sammy negotiated a purchase price and took the relic home. “After I cleaned it up and fixed it, the engine ran like a top,” he says. With that first victory, he was bit. “When