Well, I didn't get a lick of work done in the shop. Almost out of clean sox, I did laundry. While the clothes were washing I went online to buy more of the sox I bought last summer. The Walmart website where I bought them in July showed the same ones, and I ordered some. But as soon as I clicked SUBMIT to complete the order the picture changed from black sox to white sox. I got a Walmart representative on the phone and he confirmed that the sox were white, so I cancelled the order. Then I Googled the sox I wanted, which were Hanes, and found them on the Hanes website. The delicious part of this is that the Walmart price for half a dozen is $13.20 and the Hanes price is $8.24, so in the end I'm glad Walmart failed to have what I wanted and prompted me to go looking elsewhere. In the afternoon I dealt with the dead motion light outside the shop. I determined that the problem wasn't the light, but the outlet where it was plugged in. There was no power. So I went up in the attic, opened up the box where the line to that outlet is wired in, and cleaned and soldered all the connections. It took a lot longer to fix the problem than it does to tell it. By the time I went to town and brought home groceries, the day was spent. Time flies when you're having fun.


Tuesday, March 2, 2021

The best laid plans... This was going to be the day when I installed the hogshead. I vacuumed it and cleaned it, and fortunately I thought to practice putting it on before  slathering on sealant and laying on gaskets. The first attempt to put it in place revealed a problem with the magneto ring. In placing the contact I used a machine screw instead of a rivet, and the nut on the end of the machine screw stuck out in back of the ring enough to keep the hogshead from sliding into place. The nut was soldered on, so I had to cut it off along with the end of the machine screw. With that done I could get the hogshead into place, and that revealed the next problem. The contact point was about a half inch too far forward for the mag post to contact it. When I went to town for more pills I picked up another machine screw to replace the one I had to cut, and that's where things stand now. I have to reposition the contact point about a half inch rearward of where it was. I hope to get that done and the hogshead installed tomorrow.


Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Change of plan due to good weather. The south road in the woodlot looked pretty solid, so I put tire chains on the truck for traction in case of slick spots and hauled a load of cedar branches for kindling up to the house. I have a pile of chains (I haven't counted) from auction plunder, but all are for smaller wheels, so I had to wire them on. I think there's now enough kindling in the pile by the house to last the rest of the  burning season, which will be intermittent. Today was one of those days when the outdoors warms up more than the inside of the house, and I open the doors and windows to let the warmer air in. At chow time the kitchen was up to 60º. That's a little cool, but I just put on my shop coat and didn't bother to light a fire. Through March and into April there will still be evenings when I want a fire, but they will become fewer and fewer.


Thursday, March 4, 2021

Another nice day for outdoor work meant more firewood. I brought up a pile of hedge wood that I cut two or three years ago, split that, and stacked it in the garage. Then I cut up some smaller branches left from road clearing two years ago. Those filled three boxes which I brought into the house. It was another one of those days to leave the doors and windows open. At chow time the thermometer in the kitchen read 65º. I was glad to get today's wood cut, split, and under cover, because tomorrow will be wet. It will also be cool enough for evening fires.


Friday, March 5, 2021

This was a Wichita day. I was off the the cardiologist's office for a stress test. The treadmill was supposed to get my pulse up to at least 119, but it wouldn't go over 112. After the test the doc told me to keep taking the blood pressure pills and live long, and see him next March. Apparently I'm not at death's door. The medical fun used up the morning, and the afternoon was for shopping. The stops were for a couple of gallon jars of sliced cabbage 김치 which should take me into May, a couple of new batteries for my film cameras, returning  a Harbor Freight engine cleaning gun that didn't work, a stop at the Big Tool Store to buy one that does (I hope), and finally a stop at the Arkansas City Walmart to buy jalapeño cheese and get a blood pressure check. I used to buy the cheese one package at a time, but today I got three. In recent months it has been selling out occasionally, so I want to keep a couple of extras as a backup when the store shelf is bare. The BP test showed an acceptable 119/68. I got home with just enough time to lay the evening fires and light the one in the kitchen before chow time.


Saturday, March 6, 2021

On Thursday I put my last couple of gallons of yard gas into the truck, so this morning I took six empty cans down to the gasino and brought home thirty gallons. Yard gas is for the mowers, splitter, chain saw, truck, tractor, etc. The thirty gallons should take me into summer. This afternoon I went down to the wood lot and cut up enough small and medium branches to fill three boxes. Those, plus what I have stacked in the garage, may be enough to last into April. Coming back the truck almost got stuck in a couple of places, even with tire chains, so I'd better wait until the ground dries out more before I drive there again. For Saturday treat night it was tostadas, two with sardines and three with frijoles refritos and cheese, and chopped onion with jalapeño slices on all. Yummy.


Sunday, March 7, 2021

A couple of weeks ago when I went up to my bedroom to turn on the electric blankets before bedtime it was 25º in there. Tonight it was 60º. I still warm up the bed, but I shut them off after I'm in. Shorty still comes running when I go in, and sleeps on top of my bed, but soon the nights will be warm enough for her to stay out and I'll be using less bedding. Spring starts in thirteen days. Today's outside work was more firewood. I cut and split more of the pile behind the shop, and brought a couple of boxes into the the house.


Monday, March 8, 2021

Job One this morning was about an hour and a half in my office filing receipts that have been piling up for about a month. I try to keep a detailed record of all my expenses. Among other reasons, I sometimes want to recall where I got an item or how much I paid for it. The main job of the day was installing the hogshead on the 1915 engine/transmission. I hope I used enough sealant to keep it from leaking oil. Installing the pedals took much longer than I like, with lots of work prying the springs into place. I need to make some kind of spring compressor for that job.

Tuesday, March 9, 2021 More engine/transmission work today included installing the valve covers, lock washers with all the pan nuts and bolts, and the ball cap (fourth main) on the rear of the transmission. I also cleaned up a dozen magneto headlamp bulbs and applied a bead of glue along the seam between the metal base and the glass so they won't twist apart when they're turned in the socket. A box of the bulbs will go in the car as spares. There are different brands and styles of mag bulbs, but all of them have even pins and double contacts. For the second evening in a row I didn't need a fire. The forecast says don't get too used to that, as the more typical chilly weather of early March will soon return. Spring will be here in eleven days, but that doesn't mean the cold will stop. The warm days will increase and there will be fewer cold days, but the warm/cold roller coaster will keep running into April. Tomorrow it will be two weeks since I got the second dose of Moderna, so I am as safe from the Covid as I'm likely to get. The last time I ate in a restaurant was March 14 last year. My next restaurant meal will be next Thursday when I'm in Chickasha for the pre-war swap meet. I need to get busy loading the Suburban with the stuff I'll take to sell. Some it will be things I wasn't able to get rid of last time, two years ago, and some will be junk I haven't tried to sell before. If I'm successful I'll sell enough to pay for my space and the cost of the trip.

Wednesday, March 10, 2021 The big ice storm last October 27 broke a large limb on the big oak tree in front of the shop. The limb would scrape the roof whenever there was enough wind to move it. I called Roy's Tree Service, and Roy was so busy with storm damage that it took until today for him to get around to me. This morning he came and took down the broken branch and a couple of others that were in threatening positions. The job was done by noon. Then it was my turn. I started cutting up the remains for next winter's firewood supply. I've been cutting so much hard wood lately that it's dulled my saw, so today I cut only enough to clear the driveway. The rest will wait until I've sharpened the saw. My usual winter routine includes going up to my bedroom a half hour or so before bedtime and turning on the electric blankets so I can get into a warm bed. Recently I've been shutting them off after I'm in bed because the room isn't cold enough for me to need them. For the last couple of nights I haven't even turned them on because the bed wasn't cold enough to need warming. Of course that won't last. There will be more chilly nights.

Thursday, March 11, 2021
This was to be the day of putting the engine back in the runabout. Of course the preliminary for that was putting away tools and other stuff that was in the way. The nice part of that was findng a couple of things I hadn't been able to find lately. Unbolting the engine from the stand, rolling the hoist into position, lowering the engine and maneuvering the pedals past the firewall, and sliding it toward the back was all easy stuff. But lining up the u-joint shaft to fit into the back of the transmission is often a time consuming exercise in exasperation. Sometimes you get lucky and everything slides together easily. Not this time. I was in the midst of fighting that battle when the phone rang. It was my cousin Carol with news about her mom.  My first cousin Mary is 100, and recent health problems put her in the hospital and then in a nursing home. Carol told me all the news about that so I could send it out in an email to all the relatives. By the time I composed the email and began the process of trying to send it, and then made a trip to the market for celery, the day was spent. I should finish getting the engine back in the car tomorrow.


Friday, March 12, 2021

Well, that was disgusting and infuriating. I thought I would turn the engine to line it up with the u-joint, but it is stuck. When I set the mag ring gap and installed the flywheel bolts recently I turned it several times grabbing the flywheel, but now it absolutely will not turn with the hand crank. I posted the problem on the Model T forum and got several suggestions. The ones I checked did not apply. One that might be right was that by just sitting since July the thing may have dried out enough that it can be turned by the flywheel but is too tight for the hand crank to move it. So I put Marvel Mystery Oil in all the cylinders to soak overnight and will try it again tomorrow.


Saturday, March 13, 2021
Well, the mystery is solved and the Mystery Oil played no part in the solution. In the first picture you see me putting nearly all my weight on the hand crank, and it's not about to budge. I won't recount all the things I checked. I'll just go directly to the bottom line, which I found when I removed the transmission cover. When I reassembled the magneto ring I couldn't find the right type of rivet for the terminal insulator, so I used a machine screw. In the second picture the brown thing on the left is one of the magnets on the flywheel. The piece of steel against it is the magnet plate that holds it in place. I didn't countersink the machine screw enough, so it's sticking out where the magnet plate will hit it. With the plate hitting the screw the flywheel won't turn, and the engine won't turn. This will be a relatively simple thing to fix, but it will take awhile because I want to take the time to make a better insulator. I think I will also take the time to make a pedal spring compressor to reduce the level of annoyance in reinstalling the pedals.


Sunday, March 14, 2021

Spring is six days away and signs are all around. The daffodils are up and blooming. Forsythia buds are starting to open. Grass is greening. Elms in town are leafing out, and soon will be here too. Temperatures in town average about 5º warmer than here, so the plants there open a little earlier. Today I went shopping for a new phone charger for the car, as the one I've been using is broken. I had to go to Winfield for it because the "Supercenter" here didn't have it. I got a blood pressure test at the pharmacy and the reading was a very nice 101/67. I've been getting a lot of good results like that lately, and I don't know why. I haven't changed what I eat, and I don't know of anything else I'm doing differently. I stopped at the hardware store for a machine screw, the auto parts for a tube of thread locker, and went down to the gasino to fill up the car. Since I got gas a month ago the price has gone up 40¢ a gallon. My work in the shop was starting a new mag contact insulator to replace the one in the picture above. I thought I was being really careful making the hole for the screw, but I drilled it at a crazy angle. I'll make a better one and use the drill press to get the hole straight.


Monday March 15, 2021

OOoops! Quitting time came, chow time, and I realized I had forgotten to go to town for groceries. OK, no problem. I'll have something out of the freezer. So I put some olive oil in a pan, tossed in some chopped onion and some garlic, sauteed it all, and opened a package of frozen cauliflower. It wasn't the normal creamy white, but sort of a light brownish orange. It looked pretty suspicious, but I put it in the pan and fried it anyway. The first bite was the one and only, and I dumped the rest in the garbage. Somewhere along the line it must have thawed, spoiled, and been refrozen. So did that happen during the power outage last October, or before I bought it? Are the two other packages of cauliflower in the freezer like that? How about the other frozen vegetables? I guess I'll have to start opening them for dinner and tossing them if they're bad. Tonight I opened a can of frijoles refritos and made tostadas. Tomorrow I'll open another package of cauliflower and see if it's edible. And what did I do today? Started getting ready to head for Chickasha on Thursday for the pre-war swap meet. That means getting most of the stuff out of the Suburban and deciding what to load up. I got a start on that today and will have to finish tomorrow.


Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Everything takes longer than you think it will. That applies to loading up the Suburban with stuff I'm taking to Chickasha and hoping to sell. A lot of things have been sitting in the barn for a couple of years and I'm taking the time to clean off the dust and spider webs. I didn't get it all done today, and will have to finish in the morning.


Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Done. I finished loading goods for sale before the rain arrived around noon, and parked the Chebby where it will be on solid ground when I'm ready to leave tomorrow. I'll still need to put in my sleeping bag, foam pad,  chairs,  computer, and other traveling stuff. I'll do that in the morning when it's not raining. Meanwhile, the kitchen adventure continues. Last night I cooked up some frozen Lima beans and they seem to have survived the thawing and refreezing OK. Tonight I opened the two remaining thawed and refrozen packages of cauliflower. Both were spoiled and went right into the garbage pail. I checked both packages of Brussels sprouts, and they had to go too. I think when I get to the black eyed peas they may be alright, but the spinach will probably have to go too.


Thursday, March 18, 2021

I finished loading up and headed south at 10:15 AM. I went by way of Ponca City and stopped there to buy the Round House overalls I can't get at home, a stereo extension cord I can't get at home, and a few small tarps. From there it was clear sailing until traffic bogged down just south of Edmond. It was stop and go, with a lot of stop, as far ahead ass I could see. Apparently there was a wreck blocking at least one lane ahead. So I got off I-35 and went a different way through Oklahoma City. There were no further traffic woes, and I arrived at the Grady County Fairgrounds in Chickasha a few minutes before 4:00 PM. In about an hour I had my goods unloaded and set up in my space, and went to chow. I went to El Temescal for my first restaurant meal since March 14 last year. The enchiladas poblanas were better as a concept than as an actual meal, as the peppers were short on flavor. But it's hard the get frijoles refritos wrong, and those were tasty.


Friday, March 19, 2021

On the main day of the meet I sold a couple of wheels, and couple of split rims, and enough smaller items to pay for my space, travel, and meals, so it was a success for me. My neighbor in the next space sold over eight grand in goods, packed up, and left early. I wasn't about to pass up the chance to sell more, and stayed for a second night. My second restaurant meal was at China Dream. It's a pretty good buffet for a small country town. In the evening I posted a Chickasha Report on the Model T forum.


Saturday, March 20, 2021

In the morning I sold another wheel and some more small items. I started packing up at noon, left the fairgrounds at about 1:15, and arrived home at 4:30. I unloaded a few things and went for my first Saturday night out in over a year. I went to La Fiesta, and the enchiladas blancas did not disappoint. They were delicious as ever, and so filling that when I got home I took a nice nap.


Sunday, March 21, 2021

In the morning I unloaded. I took the time to clean up an area in the barn and stack all the swap meet goods together, then laid a tarp over the lot so I won't have to do so much cleaning next time. In the afternoon I went to get my mowing tractor. The rebuilt engine, new radiator, assorted other parts and labor cost a few dollars over a grand. Most likely it will outlast me, and it cost less than a new mower, so I consider it money well spent. I didn't take it off the trailer, so my evening chore by lantern light was strapping tarps over it to keep it dry through the coming rain.


Monday, March 22, 2021

Chilly and wet are the adjectives for today. I was going to get the tractor off the trailer and put it in the barn, but by the time I got the ramps set up it was starting to rain. So it will stay on the trailer with tarps over it until the weather is more cooperative. The rain was never a downpour but it was steady, and left 1.5" in the gauge. Next week when the weather warms up I expect the plants will take off, and it won't be long before I need to mow. Spending today inside, one of the things I did was search online for photo stitching software which will combine two or more pictures into one. I will need it on my laptop when I update the operating system, and I need it on the desktop iMac which hasn't had it until now. The program I found is called AutoStitch, and I used it to make the picture below, a combination of two photos from September 2019. I'm really looking forward to being able to do more Model T travel.
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