The morning adventure was a visit to the optometrist's office to be tested for new spectacles. I'll be glad to get back to bifocals. I've had more than enough of these $10 readers. Put 'em on, take 'em off, put 'em on, take 'em off...
In the afternoon I sprayed. But first I had to waste an hour or so trying to buy an O ring to fix the sprayer. Naturally, neither the farm supply nor the hardware store had one to fit. I didn't feel like hunting for one online, paying several times the price of the item for shipping, and waiting for it to arrive, so I blew $13.95 on a new sprayer. It represents the culmination of a long term trend. Over the years sprayers have become increasingly plastic, with fewer and fewer metal parts. This one is totally plastic, with not a scrap of metal in it anywhere. I don't know what the sprayer manufacturers will do the next time they want to lower the quality of their product.
Wednesday, June 2, 2021
Spray day. I mixed another ten gallons of weed killer and set about slaughtering vegetation across the road. This is the second spraying. The first one killed everything for several weeks, and now the second crop of grass and weeds is coming up. If there's a third crop I'll kill that too. Eventually nothing will come up, and I'll plant buffalo grass. The new sprayer turned out to be sorry junk. I couldn't get a decent spray pattern out of it. So I went to Orscheln farm supply and paid twice as much for one that works. I got most of the area done today, and will finish it and start on the north side of the road tomorrow or Friday.
Thursday, June 3, 2021
Today's yard work was pulling weeds along the lane to the wood lot. After the recent wet weather the ground was perfect for weed pulling. Why didn't I just spray them? Because I didn't want to risk overspray killing the redbuds among the weeds. I'll get back to spraying tomorrow.
This is the Arkansas City
Municipal Band's 150th year. After a year
off for the pandemic, this evening's concert
in the Wilson Park Rotunda was the first of
the season. They play eight concerts in June
and July. The band includes a married
couple, a father and son, and two pairs of
siblings. Members range from high school
students to retirees. Some are full time
musicians and some play only in this band.
This year the band has a very substantial
sound, with four tubas and a good drummer.
As always, tonight's concert opened with the
Star Spangled Banner. Next after that was
our state song, and I was a little surprised
that the beautiful, familiar old melody
brought a tear to my eye. From across the
park to the east came the sound of a
locomotive bell, rung by kids playing on old
Santa Fe #2542. From another direction came
the shouts of kids playing in the
playground. Neither detracted from the
music. I take a folding chair and Shorty
sits beside me on the grass. Sometimes I
read the paper or do the crossword, and
sometimes I just listen to the music. Later
in the season when the weather is warmer and
the cicadas are singing in the trees, I'll
go across the street after the concert and
have an ice cream cone at Braum's. Life in
rural Kansas has some enjoyable features.
 Concert in Wilson
Park, 2009
|
 #2542 gets a
facelift, 2017.
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Friday, June 4, 2021
Inside: I prepped and painted nuts and washers and put them in the oven to bake. Outside: I finished spraying on the south side of the road until the sprayed stuff dies and I can see what I missed, then started spraying on the north side of the road. That will probably take another twenty or thirty gallons of the magic elixir of death. Off the place: bought some groceries, paid the fertilizer bill, and took Shorty to the vet for her heartworm test.
Saturday, June 5, 2021
Better than I thought. It took less than ten gallons to finish spraying along the north side of the road. I had enough left over to hit some weeds west of the shop and along the way to the north brush piles. I picked up trash along the road, buried some stabilizing bricks against my new clothesline poles, and trimmed some inconvenient branches in the yard. I didn't have time for mowing, so that awaits tomorrow. For treat night I skipped going to town and had tostadas at home. None of the movies currently playing attracted me, so I skipped going to a show too.
Sunday, June 6, 2021
D-Day was mowing day. The Allis tractor with its Woods L-59 mower cuts a wide swath, and I got almost all of it done today. I still need to mow around trees and other places the tractor doesn't reach, and with the ZTR out of order again that will have to be with the push mower. I haven't run it since last fall, and it didn't want to start this afternoon. After chow this evening I got it going, but I didn't do much with it. Being at the end of a long day and full of a big meal, I didn't feel like pushing a mower around for more than a few minutes. Tomorrow for that. I don't normally water the lawn here, as there's usually enough rain to keep it going. But this evening I ran a sprinkler for a couple of hours to settle the recently dug dirt around my new clothesline poles. In a few days I'll run out of clean sox and will need to do a wash, so I'll be installing the wires between the poles.
Inside: I prepped and painted nuts and washers and put them in the oven to bake. Outside: I finished spraying on the south side of the road until the sprayed stuff dies and I can see what I missed, then started spraying on the north side of the road. That will probably take another twenty or thirty gallons of the magic elixir of death. Off the place: bought some groceries, paid the fertilizer bill, and took Shorty to the vet for her heartworm test.
Saturday, June 5, 2021
Better than I thought. It took less than ten gallons to finish spraying along the north side of the road. I had enough left over to hit some weeds west of the shop and along the way to the north brush piles. I picked up trash along the road, buried some stabilizing bricks against my new clothesline poles, and trimmed some inconvenient branches in the yard. I didn't have time for mowing, so that awaits tomorrow. For treat night I skipped going to town and had tostadas at home. None of the movies currently playing attracted me, so I skipped going to a show too.
Sunday, June 6, 2021
D-Day was mowing day. The Allis tractor with its Woods L-59 mower cuts a wide swath, and I got almost all of it done today. I still need to mow around trees and other places the tractor doesn't reach, and with the ZTR out of order again that will have to be with the push mower. I haven't run it since last fall, and it didn't want to start this afternoon. After chow this evening I got it going, but I didn't do much with it. Being at the end of a long day and full of a big meal, I didn't feel like pushing a mower around for more than a few minutes. Tomorrow for that. I don't normally water the lawn here, as there's usually enough rain to keep it going. But this evening I ran a sprinkler for a couple of hours to settle the recently dug dirt around my new clothesline poles. In a few days I'll run out of clean sox and will need to do a wash, so I'll be installing the wires between the poles.
Monday, June 7, 2021
Dumb, dumb, dumb. I thought I ran that sprinkler for a couple of hours last night, but when I looked out there this morning it was still going as the rain fell. With the sprinkler running all night and a pretty good rain this morning that ground is well soaked, and I expect my water bill will be higher than usual this month. Anyway the weeds will be easy pulling. In the shop I did a little machine work. I'm not a skilled machinist, or even an unskilled machinist, but I did turn down some 3/8" round stock to 7/32" for a pair of rivets to go in the windshield frame of the runabout. I'm replacing the upright that rusted through and broke. I intend to recruit a helper to hold a torch on the rivets and keep them soft while I mash them down. The new battery I ordered for the runabout last week arrived today, so maybe tomorrow I'll install it and see if I can get the car started. I need to finish the windshield and take up some slack in the top, then I should be ready to drive. There are some other things I want to do to the car, but they don't have to be done before I start driving it again. |
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Tuesday, June 8, 2021
More money wasted by senior moments. When I was getting the push mower started Sunday I had the cover off the air filter to check for dirt. The cover was lying on the mower deck when the rain started. As I moved the mower under the roof in front of the shop to keep it out of the rain, I didn't notice that the filter cover fell off in the driveway. Of course I later ran over it with the car and wrecked it. So this morning I used the mower without the cover to hold the foam filter in place. That worked OK for me to get in almost an hour of mowing, until the filter fell off when I wasn't looking and the mower chopped it up. That put an end to my mowing today and for as many days as it takes for a new filter and cover to arrive. The final bill for my blunders, with tax and shipping, came to $17.06. I suppose it could have been worse, but it's still annoying.
This evening after chow, for the first time this year, I took a nice nap on the front porch swing. When I woke up it was getting dark and a few lightning bugs were out. They arrived a little late this year. They usually show up in late May.
Wednesday, June 9, 2021
Never went off the place today. I didn't
need groceries or anything else. It was wash
day, but I got a late start on the laundry
because it took so long to install the wires
between the new clothesline poles. As
planned, the undergound braces kept the
poles from leaning. But they didn't stop
them from bending. Tightening the wires bent
the poles a little, and the weight of wet
laundry bent them considerably more. So it's
back to the drawing board. I think I might
have an idea how to eliminate the bending.
Thursday, June 10, 2021
With gas in the tank, oil in the pan, and coolant in he radiator, I decided to try starting up the runabout after its being apart for more than a year. No go. I did a lot of crank-pulling and got only an occasional chuff. I tested all the spark plugs under compression and they were fine. I laid the plugs out on top of the engine and pulled the crank, and they all fired in proper 1, 2, 4, 3 order the way a Model T is supposed to fire, so the coils and timer are working. I checked and reset the timing. Still nothing. With new valves, seats, and rings the compression is fine. So I have compression, and I have spark. That leaves fuel. I wanted to try another carburetor, but I couldn't find it. It's somewhere in the shop, but not anyplace that makes sense. I guess I'll take apart the one that's on the car and see if I can find anything wrong with it.
Friday, June 11, 2021
So that's what I did. After pulling weeds until the work became too sweaty to suit me, I moved into the shop and got back to work on the runabout. I took off the carburetor and opened it up. I removed all the plugs, stuck little wires in the passages dislodge any possible obstructions, and blew them out with compressed air. I inspected the spray needle and found it OK. The only thing I found slightly amiss was the float setting, a little over ¼". I reset it to what looked like the correct 15/64", reassembled the carb, and put it back on the car. No change. No amount of crank-pulling produced even a hint that the car was inclined to start. I put up a post on the Model T forum describing what I've tried so far. Maybe somebody will suggest something I haven't tried that will solve the puzzle.
Saturday, June 12, 2021
Last night's storm left only .32" in the gauge but it knocked a lot of limbs off of trees. My last spraying has had time to start working enough for me to see what I missed, so today I mixed another almost ten gallons of killer and attacked the survivors. After that has time to work I expect there will be more survivors for me to hit. Today's mail brought the replacement air filter I ordered for the push mower, so the near future will include more mowing.
Sunday, June 13, 2021
Yes, I did get in a little mowing with the push mower today. I mowed around my mailbox, the neighbors' mailboxes on my side of the road, around some trees, and along some edges. I emptied the last of the gas I bought March 6 into the mower, so all thirty gallons are used up or in various tanks (truck, tractor, mower, splitter, etc.). Since thirty gallons lasted only three months, this time I took eight cans down to the gasino and brought home forty gallons. I might have accomplished more today, but feeling drowsy I settled down on the front porch swing this afternoon for a nice siesta. I often enjoy an afternoon nap this time of year.
Friday, June 18, 2021
This afternoon the local Wichita announcer on the radio said it was 102º. I checked the thermometer outside the shop and it said 93º. There's one of the many reasons I'm glad not to live in a city. My morning activity was nailing up new shingles on the front porch. Measuring and cutting each shingle individually makes it slow work. I estimate that when I lost my shade and quit about 10:30 I had finished about a third of the west half. My shady work in the shop was more runabout reassembly. That included installing the timer control lever with a new pin (no more wobble), sanding and painting the spot where I had filled a hole drilled in the firewall by mistake, and bolting the steering column back in place.
Saturday, Juneteenth, 2021
First thing after breakfast I put up the flag for the new patriotic holiday, then got more done on the front porch until about ten. Then I was off to Winfield to check out the Defore auction. It starts at ten, but it's OK to get there a little late because they always start with the stuff you'd have to pay me to haul off. Normally there's nothing of the slightest interest to me for the first hour or two. Today there was one thing I did want. I gambled $100 on a "ran when parked" Dixon Model 3303 mower. It will need a battery, at least two tire repairs, and a key, but I hope it won't take much more than that to get it going. By the time I bought and paid for the mower it was too late in the day to go home and bring back the trailer to haul it home, so I'll go pick it up Monday. One of the tires on my car had a slow leak, so I blew it up with my 12 volt pump enough for driving a few miles, and on the way home I stopped at the Walmart for tire repair. It turned out that the tire had four screws in it and was toast, so I ended up buying a new one. By then it was chow time, so I dined at the Chinese buffet, then went to see Dream Horse. It's a good movie, the story of a group of people in a small Welsh village who pooled their money to buy a race horse. It's well-written, well-directed, and well-played by the actors.
Sunday, June 20, 2021
First up today was nailing up more shingles. By the time I lost my shade and quit I had more than half the top row on the west half of the porch done. I should finish that up Tuesday morning, move the scaffold, and get started on the east half. Why not tomorrow? The forecast predicts rain in the morning. I put a tarp over the shingles and tools, put the tractor in the barn, and got the push mower under cover. I hooked up the trailer to the Suburban to fetch that mower from Winfield tomorrow afternoon, and parked it in the west drive so it will be on solid ground if there's a lot of rain in the morning. In the shop I finished connecting the steering on the runabout, and set the ignition timing. When I went to town for groceries I stopped at the Pursuant machine for a BP test and got a nice 117/67. Most of my readings lately have been under 120/80, so it seems the pills are doing their job.
Monday, June 21, 2021
My runabout has developed another mysterious affliction. When I flipped on the ignition switch there was no sound of coils buzzing. Something is draining the battery, and I haven't found out what. After charging the battery and getting the coils working, I attempted a start. Nothing. Not even a cough. This really has me stumped. A Model T should start easily, and this one used to, so this non-start situation is mighty perplexing. I suppose I'll figure it out eventually, but for now it's pretty aggravating. The morning rain quit by noon, leaving .41" in the gauge, and I went to Winfield and fetched the Dixon mower I bought Saturday. It has a couple of flat tires, is missing a key, and will need a battery. I hope it won't take much more to get it going. This evening I took another inspection walk down in the wood lot to check the road, and it appears to be drying out nicely in spite of an occasional rain. I think I will be driving on it in July.
Tuesday, June 22, 2021
This morning I finished nailing up shingles on the west half of the porch, moved the scaffold to the east side, and took down all the old shingles there. I replaced a couple of broken boards, then started nailing up new shingles. In this new position my shade lasted until 1:30. In the afternoon I went to town for a replacement rear wheel lug for the Suburban, as one is broken. But it turned out there are two kinds, so I'll have to check and see which one I need. I worked on the runabout more today, but still couldn't get it running. I'll go back to the forum and study the suggestions there and see if I missed something. After that I don't know.
Friday, June 25, 2021
Auction day. The story and photo are here.
Saturday, June 26, 2019
Overnight rain of almost a half inch (.48") softened the ground, and I pulled weeds until after noon. I finished about half of the large patch behind the shop, and will tackle the rest when we get another dry morning. The forecast says that may be a few days away, but it seems to change daily. I unloaded some of yesterday's auction plunder and straightened some of the garden stakes. Most of the thirty were OK, but half a dozen needed straightening. I cleaned and oiled the machinist's vise and installed it on my drill press. Looking online I found that a similar vise retails for about $86, so the $17.50 I paid looks pretty good.
Sunday, June 27, 2021
Apparently my short term memory is getting shorter. I'm catching up here on Tuesday morning, and not remembering all I did on Sunday. I do remember grocery shopping, and I worked on the runabout a bit, charging up the battery and trying to find what's been draining it. I did disconnect a couple of battery-powered accessories, and that stopped the drain, but I haven't investigated to see why.
Monday, June 28, 2021
Happy Birthday to me, and how terribly strange to be eighty. I've never been this old before, because it's later now than it's ever been in the whole history of the world. Be that as it may, and I'm sure it will, I spent the morning in town. First I saw my doc about my sore neck and shoulders. The soreness some of the time is minor enough that I forget about it. At other times it escalates into pain. He diagnosed muscle spasms, had the nurse give me a steroid shot, and prescribed some pills with the warning that they might make me drowsy. So far I haven't noticed any drowsiness, and the soreness/pain level seems to be less. In the afternoon I started a welding/fabricating project that's been awaiting my attention for awhile. That is making improvements to my engine stand before I use it again. Today's part was fixing the swivel so the holes will stay aligned for the pin that keeps it from turning.
Tuesday, June 29,
2021
The project of the day was finishing up for now the improvements to my engine stand. I added a screw-on stop that keeps the holes aligned for the pin, and put the pin on a chain so it won't get lost. I welded on a receiver for a long handle of one inch square tubing to make rotating easier, and put a holder for the handle on the side of the stand. Originally I designed the stand in a way that allows adjustment of the pivot to keep the weight of the engine and transmission balanced. But the adjustment has to be made without the weight of the engine on the stand. My next alteration will be to make it possible to change the pivot point with a load on the stand. The center of gravity for an engine changes considerably when the transmission is installed on it.
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Today's shop work was on the flywheel from the 1923 touring. I separated it from the engine, removed the magnets and all the other magneto parts, cleaned everything, and started figuring out what I can keep and what I need to replace. With one of the triple gear pins being loose in its hole, I assumed I would need to replace the flywheel. But after some reading in the transmission book I'm not so sure. I'll need to study it some more. The forecast shows one more wet day, then I can get some outside work done.
HOME More money wasted by senior moments. When I was getting the push mower started Sunday I had the cover off the air filter to check for dirt. The cover was lying on the mower deck when the rain started. As I moved the mower under the roof in front of the shop to keep it out of the rain, I didn't notice that the filter cover fell off in the driveway. Of course I later ran over it with the car and wrecked it. So this morning I used the mower without the cover to hold the foam filter in place. That worked OK for me to get in almost an hour of mowing, until the filter fell off when I wasn't looking and the mower chopped it up. That put an end to my mowing today and for as many days as it takes for a new filter and cover to arrive. The final bill for my blunders, with tax and shipping, came to $17.06. I suppose it could have been worse, but it's still annoying.
This evening after chow, for the first time this year, I took a nice nap on the front porch swing. When I woke up it was getting dark and a few lightning bugs were out. They arrived a little late this year. They usually show up in late May.
Wednesday, June 9, 2021
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Thursday, June 10, 2021
With gas in the tank, oil in the pan, and coolant in he radiator, I decided to try starting up the runabout after its being apart for more than a year. No go. I did a lot of crank-pulling and got only an occasional chuff. I tested all the spark plugs under compression and they were fine. I laid the plugs out on top of the engine and pulled the crank, and they all fired in proper 1, 2, 4, 3 order the way a Model T is supposed to fire, so the coils and timer are working. I checked and reset the timing. Still nothing. With new valves, seats, and rings the compression is fine. So I have compression, and I have spark. That leaves fuel. I wanted to try another carburetor, but I couldn't find it. It's somewhere in the shop, but not anyplace that makes sense. I guess I'll take apart the one that's on the car and see if I can find anything wrong with it.
Friday, June 11, 2021
So that's what I did. After pulling weeds until the work became too sweaty to suit me, I moved into the shop and got back to work on the runabout. I took off the carburetor and opened it up. I removed all the plugs, stuck little wires in the passages dislodge any possible obstructions, and blew them out with compressed air. I inspected the spray needle and found it OK. The only thing I found slightly amiss was the float setting, a little over ¼". I reset it to what looked like the correct 15/64", reassembled the carb, and put it back on the car. No change. No amount of crank-pulling produced even a hint that the car was inclined to start. I put up a post on the Model T forum describing what I've tried so far. Maybe somebody will suggest something I haven't tried that will solve the puzzle.
Saturday, June 12, 2021
Last night's storm left only .32" in the gauge but it knocked a lot of limbs off of trees. My last spraying has had time to start working enough for me to see what I missed, so today I mixed another almost ten gallons of killer and attacked the survivors. After that has time to work I expect there will be more survivors for me to hit. Today's mail brought the replacement air filter I ordered for the push mower, so the near future will include more mowing.
Sunday, June 13, 2021
Yes, I did get in a little mowing with the push mower today. I mowed around my mailbox, the neighbors' mailboxes on my side of the road, around some trees, and along some edges. I emptied the last of the gas I bought March 6 into the mower, so all thirty gallons are used up or in various tanks (truck, tractor, mower, splitter, etc.). Since thirty gallons lasted only three months, this time I took eight cans down to the gasino and brought home forty gallons. I might have accomplished more today, but feeling drowsy I settled down on the front porch swing this afternoon for a nice siesta. I often enjoy an afternoon nap this time of year.
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| Monday, June 14, 2021 I spent most of the morning removing fallen branches from west of the house and in front. I started a couple of big piles out behind the shop. Next winter they will be a ready source of kindling. The blue tarp is keeping weather off the scaffold I'll use when I reshingle the front of the porch. In the evening Phillip came to cut the wheat. Soon I'll be rich. Well, maybe not. The current price is only $6.14 a bushel. Some years the crops pay enough to cover property taxes and insurance. This year? Probably not. They used to haul the wheat to town in pickups and one or two-ton trucks. Now, look. Tuesday, June 15, 2021 Again I started the day moving fallen branches to the piles behind the shop. Some of these were from the ice storm last October, and some were more recent. With the piles of branches out of the way I brought out the tractor and mowed both areas. In the afternoon I got back to work on the runabout. I removed the radiator so I could get to the front cover and replace the cam seal which had come loose, and I found that the timer rotor was both backwards and broken. I reinstalled the seal with some Ultra Black to hold it. I'll install a new rotor, correctly this time, then I'll have to pull the steering column and fix the wobbly timer control lever. It seems the fun never quits. |
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Wednesday,
June 16, 2021 In the
cool of the
morning I
continued yard
work, including
moving more
branches to the
pile behind the
shop and doing
some weeding
around the house.
In the afternoon I
got back to work
on the runabout. I
replaced the
broken timer rotor
with a whole one,
but first I
removed its bronze
brush and
installed one made
from a piece of
carbon generator
brush filed to
fit. The bronze
brushes seem to
wear at an odd
angle.
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Thursday,
June 17, 2021 Today's
cool-of-the-morning work was getting
started on replacing
90-year-old shingles on
the front porch. I'll do
the west half first,
then move the scaffold
and do to east half.
Today I gathered the
tools and removed old
shingles. They were in
surprisingly good
condition. If they
hadn't been covered with
deteriorating paint I
could have left them. In
the shop I went to work
on the runabout's wobbly
timer control arm. The
holes in the arm were
wallowed out, and the
hole in the control rod
was wallowed even worse,
and the "pin" holding
the arm on the rod was a
cut-off nail. So I
filled the hole in the
rod and drilled a new
one slightly undersize,
5/64". I went to the
parts stash and found a
steering column with a
better arm, cleaned it
up, and painted it. I'll
bake it overnight and
install it with a new
pin tomorrow.
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Friday, June 18, 2021
This afternoon the local Wichita announcer on the radio said it was 102º. I checked the thermometer outside the shop and it said 93º. There's one of the many reasons I'm glad not to live in a city. My morning activity was nailing up new shingles on the front porch. Measuring and cutting each shingle individually makes it slow work. I estimate that when I lost my shade and quit about 10:30 I had finished about a third of the west half. My shady work in the shop was more runabout reassembly. That included installing the timer control lever with a new pin (no more wobble), sanding and painting the spot where I had filled a hole drilled in the firewall by mistake, and bolting the steering column back in place.
Saturday, Juneteenth, 2021
First thing after breakfast I put up the flag for the new patriotic holiday, then got more done on the front porch until about ten. Then I was off to Winfield to check out the Defore auction. It starts at ten, but it's OK to get there a little late because they always start with the stuff you'd have to pay me to haul off. Normally there's nothing of the slightest interest to me for the first hour or two. Today there was one thing I did want. I gambled $100 on a "ran when parked" Dixon Model 3303 mower. It will need a battery, at least two tire repairs, and a key, but I hope it won't take much more than that to get it going. By the time I bought and paid for the mower it was too late in the day to go home and bring back the trailer to haul it home, so I'll go pick it up Monday. One of the tires on my car had a slow leak, so I blew it up with my 12 volt pump enough for driving a few miles, and on the way home I stopped at the Walmart for tire repair. It turned out that the tire had four screws in it and was toast, so I ended up buying a new one. By then it was chow time, so I dined at the Chinese buffet, then went to see Dream Horse. It's a good movie, the story of a group of people in a small Welsh village who pooled their money to buy a race horse. It's well-written, well-directed, and well-played by the actors.
Sunday, June 20, 2021
First up today was nailing up more shingles. By the time I lost my shade and quit I had more than half the top row on the west half of the porch done. I should finish that up Tuesday morning, move the scaffold, and get started on the east half. Why not tomorrow? The forecast predicts rain in the morning. I put a tarp over the shingles and tools, put the tractor in the barn, and got the push mower under cover. I hooked up the trailer to the Suburban to fetch that mower from Winfield tomorrow afternoon, and parked it in the west drive so it will be on solid ground if there's a lot of rain in the morning. In the shop I finished connecting the steering on the runabout, and set the ignition timing. When I went to town for groceries I stopped at the Pursuant machine for a BP test and got a nice 117/67. Most of my readings lately have been under 120/80, so it seems the pills are doing their job.
Monday, June 21, 2021
My runabout has developed another mysterious affliction. When I flipped on the ignition switch there was no sound of coils buzzing. Something is draining the battery, and I haven't found out what. After charging the battery and getting the coils working, I attempted a start. Nothing. Not even a cough. This really has me stumped. A Model T should start easily, and this one used to, so this non-start situation is mighty perplexing. I suppose I'll figure it out eventually, but for now it's pretty aggravating. The morning rain quit by noon, leaving .41" in the gauge, and I went to Winfield and fetched the Dixon mower I bought Saturday. It has a couple of flat tires, is missing a key, and will need a battery. I hope it won't take much more to get it going. This evening I took another inspection walk down in the wood lot to check the road, and it appears to be drying out nicely in spite of an occasional rain. I think I will be driving on it in July.
Tuesday, June 22, 2021
This morning I finished nailing up shingles on the west half of the porch, moved the scaffold to the east side, and took down all the old shingles there. I replaced a couple of broken boards, then started nailing up new shingles. In this new position my shade lasted until 1:30. In the afternoon I went to town for a replacement rear wheel lug for the Suburban, as one is broken. But it turned out there are two kinds, so I'll have to check and see which one I need. I worked on the runabout more today, but still couldn't get it running. I'll go back to the forum and study the suggestions there and see if I missed something. After that I don't know.
| Wednesday, June 23,
2021 The bad news is
that I thought I had enough
shingles for this job, but
didn't. The good news is
that more shingles were in
stock at the local lumber
yard and I didn't have to
drive to Ponca City or
Wichita. The bad news is
that one bundle cost me
$135.57. (I believe the
first time I bought wood
shingles the bundle price
was $6. I was much younger
then.) The good news is that
I will probably have enough
left over for another
project. Today I got a lot
done on the east half, and
may finish it up tomorrow.
This afternoon I took the
two rear wheels off that
mower I bought Saturday to
the tire shop for repair.
One tire was OK and just
needed to be aired up. The
other was toast, so I left
the wheel and will pick it
up with a new tire on it
tomorrow.
Thursday, June 24, 2021 As Red Skelton used to say, "I dood it." At 12:42 PM I drove the last nail in the last shingle. In the afternoon Chris Hasty came to help me rivet the windshield frame for the runabout. He held the torch to keep the rivets red, and I mashed them flat. After that I went to town and fetched that new mower tire. Tomorrow I'll see if I can get the machine to run. |
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Friday, June 25, 2021
Auction day. The story and photo are here.
Saturday, June 26, 2019
Overnight rain of almost a half inch (.48") softened the ground, and I pulled weeds until after noon. I finished about half of the large patch behind the shop, and will tackle the rest when we get another dry morning. The forecast says that may be a few days away, but it seems to change daily. I unloaded some of yesterday's auction plunder and straightened some of the garden stakes. Most of the thirty were OK, but half a dozen needed straightening. I cleaned and oiled the machinist's vise and installed it on my drill press. Looking online I found that a similar vise retails for about $86, so the $17.50 I paid looks pretty good.
Sunday, June 27, 2021
Apparently my short term memory is getting shorter. I'm catching up here on Tuesday morning, and not remembering all I did on Sunday. I do remember grocery shopping, and I worked on the runabout a bit, charging up the battery and trying to find what's been draining it. I did disconnect a couple of battery-powered accessories, and that stopped the drain, but I haven't investigated to see why.
Monday, June 28, 2021
Happy Birthday to me, and how terribly strange to be eighty. I've never been this old before, because it's later now than it's ever been in the whole history of the world. Be that as it may, and I'm sure it will, I spent the morning in town. First I saw my doc about my sore neck and shoulders. The soreness some of the time is minor enough that I forget about it. At other times it escalates into pain. He diagnosed muscle spasms, had the nurse give me a steroid shot, and prescribed some pills with the warning that they might make me drowsy. So far I haven't noticed any drowsiness, and the soreness/pain level seems to be less. In the afternoon I started a welding/fabricating project that's been awaiting my attention for awhile. That is making improvements to my engine stand before I use it again. Today's part was fixing the swivel so the holes will stay aligned for the pin that keeps it from turning.
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The project of the day was finishing up for now the improvements to my engine stand. I added a screw-on stop that keeps the holes aligned for the pin, and put the pin on a chain so it won't get lost. I welded on a receiver for a long handle of one inch square tubing to make rotating easier, and put a holder for the handle on the side of the stand. Originally I designed the stand in a way that allows adjustment of the pivot to keep the weight of the engine and transmission balanced. But the adjustment has to be made without the weight of the engine on the stand. My next alteration will be to make it possible to change the pivot point with a load on the stand. The center of gravity for an engine changes considerably when the transmission is installed on it.
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Today's shop work was on the flywheel from the 1923 touring. I separated it from the engine, removed the magnets and all the other magneto parts, cleaned everything, and started figuring out what I can keep and what I need to replace. With one of the triple gear pins being loose in its hole, I assumed I would need to replace the flywheel. But after some reading in the transmission book I'm not so sure. I'll need to study it some more. The forecast shows one more wet day, then I can get some outside work done.
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