Most of the day was devoted to an appointment with the eye doc in Wichita. She found that pressures were OK and excellent (14 left, 10 right). On the way home I stopped at the Big Tool Store in Derby and bought a tubing bender. The one I had from Harbor Freight was made of cast metal, and broke. So today's replacement is forged steel, and likely to outlast me. When I got back to town I stopped at the pharmacy for some eye drops, and bought another memory card for my digital camera. The two ONN cards I tried inspired the camera to say MEMORY CARD ERROR, so I tried a SanDisk. Same thing. I hoped that these 128 GB cards for "most cameras" would work, but apparently my camera won't take SDXC cards and I will have to go with SDHC cards that don't have nearly as much memory.
Saturday, October 2, 2021
The dry spell of recent weeks may not have been long enough to qualify officially as a drought, but some of the trees and bushes were starting to wilt. This morning's rain left an inch in the gauge, which should be enough to revive them for awhile. I don't cook a lot, and don't normally have a lot of dish washing to do, but today I spent a couple of hours washing flatware, pans, and containers used for the family reunion last week, and cleaning up in the kitchen. Today's shopping trip was for cat and dog food, and a 32 GB SDHC memory card for my camera. I bought an extra card to keep in the car in case I ever fill one and need to start another. I have long resisted going down the smart phone route because I dislike touch screens, but my recent unhappy traveling experiences are causing me to reconsider. Being unable to get on the internet due to obsolete browsers on my laptop, and losing my home made atlas of county maps, make the prospect of internet access, including GPS and maps, right in the car with me very attractive. I don't have time to get an iPhone before this year's trip to Hershey, but I may shop for one when I get back.
Sunday, October 3, 2021
Another break in the blog begins tomorrow. I am off to Hershey to scrounge for parts and goodies, and to hobnob with my fellow aficionados of obsolete transportation. You may recall that none of the websites will accept the ancient browsers on my laptop anymore, and I can no longer post from the road until I seriously update my technology. Much of my activity today had to do with preparing to go. I bought dog and cat food so the varmints won't run out while I'm gone, and arranged for cousin Pete to dish it out. I also bought two more in-car phone chargers. Those things don't seem to last long, but maybe having two of them will at least keep my phone charged for a week. Yesterday I posted the last of my Old Car festival trip on the Model T forum. I'll have to post the pictures of this Hershey trip when I get back.
Sunday, October 10, 2021
"My, my, my, my, my! What a mess!"
~ Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive
Weather on the Hershey trip was good to great until I got back to Kansas. As I approached Coffeyville from the east, a huge bank of clouds loomed to the west. Somewhere west of there I was into the rain, and by the time I got to Caney it was coming down hard. West of Niotaze it came down even harder. I reduced my speed to 55 mph, then 45, then 40, and I was using the white lines along the side of the road to navigate. A hard rain like that doesn't usually last long, but this time I was in it for about sixty miles. I was surprised when I checked the rain gauge and found only .6" in it. The rain here must not have been as heavy as farther east.
Monday, October 11, 2021
Much of today's activity was unloading and putting away traveling stuff. I also cut a 3/8-24 die into four pieces. My friend Chris the blacksmith/welder will use them to make a copy of the Stevens 181 hub thread repair tool, which is rare and always expensive when you can find it. I also did some research on Model T oil filler caps. I lost the one on my 1915 runabout, and want to be sure I get the right replacement. When I find one I'll attach it to the car with chain so it won't get lost.
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
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Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Sunday evening's rain and more rain in the wee hours this morning really softened the ground, and I spent a couple of hours removing weeds from the lane to the wood lot. Most of them were dead from spraying, and could just be picked up with no pulling. Others still had enough life in them to need a pull, but among the many dozens I removed there was only one so stubborn that it had to be dug out with a spading fork. After weeding I got back to work on the battery carrier for the 1915 runabout. A wood block under the carrier will support it, but I need to buy more screws to install the block.
Thursday, October 14, 2021
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Friday, October 15, 2021
Work on rewiring the runabout continued. I removed the 6-12 volt converter I won't need with a 12 volt battery, took out the defunct phone charger socket, removed the temporary tail light switch, and installed new ground and power lines from the battery. I bought a six circuit terminal block that will go under the seat, and worked on a mounting bracket for it. The mounting bracket is painted and in the oven. It will bake overnight and should be ready to install tomorrow. It will be held in place by a single wing nut, so removing it to work on it will be very simple.
Saturday, October 16, 2021
First up this morning was picking up bottles along the road. Those went into the recycle collection, and I took glass, plastic, and aluminum to the recycle center north of town. Not having been to an auction in a coon's age, I drove over to Wellington to see what was offer there. Not only was there nothing I wanted, but most of the stuff was junk. So I came home and did a little yard work. That was removing the few big weeds that were too stubborn to pull in the lane to the wood lot. A little work with a spading fork got them out and they went into the piles of dead weeds that are awaiting their ride to the brush pile. That will have to wait until I clear fallen branches out of the way. My Saturday night dinner in town was at the Chinese buffet, which is a pretty good one for a small town. The after-dinner movie was The Last Duel. Ridley Scott is one of those directors whose pictures I will go to see even if I don't know anything about them. His depiction of medieval life in the fourteenth century is well done. It's a long movie, 2½ hours, but it doesn't drag. I'm not an expert on the period, but I think Scott captures the look of it very well. Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer and the rest of the large cast are very good, and the battle scenes are well staged.
Sunday, October 17, 2021
Drat! The bracket I made for a terminal block in the runabout came out of the oven with a fairly large area of blistered paint on one side. It wasn't from being cooked at too high a temperature, so it must have been from too much time between coats of paint. I just wire brushed the whole side clean and painted over, making sure I applied the second coat before the first coat dried, and put the thing in the oven to bake. I took some time for an inspection walk of the wood lot roads to see how much clearing I need to do, and concluded that I'll need to spend at least a couple of days at it. There are not only fallen dead trees and branches, but also some live branches that will take a ladder to reach, plus some vegetation that will need to be cut off with the clippers and the stumps poisoned. In the afternoon I retrieved the bracket from the oven, bolted the terminal block on it, and made three jumpers that will make four live terminals. Those will be for ignition, phone charger and GPS, tail lights and turn signals, and brake lights
Monday, October 18, 2021
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Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Yard work was the order of the day. I took the clippers and a bottle of stump killer and attacked little volunteer trees and bushes in the wood lot roads. I don't bother with wild rose unless it's reaching out into the road with those aggressive thorns that want to grab you when you pass by. Then it has to go. I was going to mow in the lane to the wood lot, but the mower was indisposed. I put a charger on the battery and will try again tomorrow. I forgot all about that bedroom door latch. Maybe I'll remember it tomorrow.
Wednesday,
October 20, 2021 Yard work,
especially mowing, is like farming. You
have to stop and fix the equipment.
Today's fixing chore was the Dixon
mower. Its first problem was that the
battery was kaput, and I had to go to
town and buy a new one. Then came
installing a new deck belt. That's
easier to say than it is to do. I think
it took most of an hour. With the mower
back in running condition, I mowed the
lane to the wood lot. Tomorrow I'll
tackle the fallen branches that are
blocking the wood lot roads. One other
thing I did today was remember to fix
that other downstairs bedroom door, so
now both doors work.
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Thursday, October
21, 2021 Never went
off the place today. I went to the
north brush pile and emptied the truck,
then drove down the lane to the wood lot
and cleared the road of fallen branches.
I spent over half an hour clearing away
an infestation of smilax. None of it had
grown into big vines yet. There were
clumps of small vines, over a dozen of
them, that I had to cut off and poison
the tiny stumps. I hope I got all of it.
With the road cleared, I hauled three
and a half truckloads of pulled weeds
and cut branches to the south brush
pile.
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 The saw is temperamental. Sometimes it starts easily, and sometimes I have to give up and let it sit, then try again. |
 In summer and fall the brush pile grows taller and taller, but over the winter it settles and rots and gets smaller and smaller. |
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Friday, October
22, 2021 Today I finished up the terminal block with fuses for the runabout. The four circuits will be for ignition coils, tail lights, turn & brake lights, and phone/GPS charger. The bracket will be held in place under the seat by a single wing nut, so it will be easy to take out and replace a fuse if I have to. I also took the magneto battery charger out of the car for repair which was harder to do than it should have been. The carriage bolt holding it was in a wallowed-out hole, and I had to cut the bolt to get it out. That hole and some other defects in the firewall tell me that I need to make a new firewall. The present one is not original, so I don't know how correct it is. I'll consult with a firewall expert and see if I can get a drawing or pattern. If I find that the one I have is correct I can use it for a pattern to make the new one. Saturday, October 23, 2021 Auction day. I went to a farm sale about halfway between here and Winfield, and stayed until almost 3:00 PM. My biggest expense was $9 for three packages of welding rod. Other goodies that came home with me included an electric grinder for $5, six wedges for $1, a dog bone wheel puller and some other pullers for $1, and an oil change pan containing miscellaneous junk for $1. After spending $17 there I drove on up to Winfield to check out the Defore auction, where they don't get to the good stuff until afternoon. This time there was no good stuff. I didn't see one thing that tempted me to stay. Later when I was having dinner at La Fiesta the younger Mr. Defore saw me and commented that he hadn't seen me at the auction. I told him that I had checked it out and didn't see anything I wanted, and he acknowledged that it was a pretty dismal lot of stuff, and there was so much of it that they will have to get rid of it at the next auction. |
Sunday, October 24, 2021
Well, I did get some shopping done. But I wasted way too much time online. Offline I worked on the website, and spent too much time on that too. I had to go into HTML to make some of the changes, and I am HTML challenged.
Monday, October 25, 2021 When my
grandfather died in May, 1941, upkeep of
the place fell to Grandma and Mom's
sisters Mary, Jereldine, and Ernestine,
and Jerry's husband, Charles Miller.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor a few
months later, Charles was off to join
the navy, and soon Jereldine joined him
where he was stationed in California.
That left Grandma, Mary, and Ernestine
to maintain the place. After the war
Jerry and Charles returned and took up
dairying. That continued until Charles
died in 1960. The cows and the dairy
equipment were auctioned off and it was
up to "The Gals", as they were called,
to maintain the place. By then Grandma was in
her late eighties, and
Jereldine was in poor
health, so it was Mary
and Ernestine in
charge of upkeep. In
1977 Mary turned eighty,
and Ernestine insisted
that she retire from
climbing on roofs. By
1986, when Ernestine
turned eighty, I had
moved to the farm and I
inherited a lot of the
upkeep. Now it's 35
years later. All the
gals are long gone and
it's just me. All of
that history is a long
introduction to this
afternoon's activity.
With wood burning season
about to begin, it
occurred to me that I
had better be sure the
chimney was clear. So I
assembled the chimney
brush and went to the
roof and did the job.
Actually it wasn't much
of a job, because the
brush didn't meet much
resistance. What I got
out of the exercise was
the realization that at
eighty years of age I
understand at first hand
why Ernestine called on
Mary to retire from roof
climbing. I'm noticeably
less nimble than I was
just a few years ago,
and need to move slowly
and carefully. I don't
like it, but there's
nothing I can do about
it except be careful.
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 Charles & Patch, late fifties
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 Ernestine at work, 1962
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Tuesday, October 26, 2021
Back to work on the runabout. I've decided to replace the wood firewall, which is damaged in several places, so I set about removing it. That requires removing a lot of parts to get the firewall out, so I spent all morning and part of the afternoon on that. I took the starter from the Suburban to town and had it tested, and it's OK. So I suspect it wasn't working in the vehicle because of a corroded cable. After the starter test I drove down to the Ponca City Lowes store and bought a piece of 3/4" plywood for the new firewall, and a 3/32" pin punch I needed to remove the timer control arm so I could get the steering column out of the car. It was nice to find the road construction between Chilocco and Ponca City finished. For several months I've been using one of the dirt township roads to get around the construction delay, but now the highway is finished with a new surface and nice, wide shoulders.
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Wednesday,
October 27, 2021
The day wasn't windy enough to be called blustery, but it was chilly and damp. It wasn't terribly cold, in the fifties, but chilly enough for me to light the first fires of the season in the kitchen stove and the living room fireplace. In the shop I finished removing the firewall from the runabout, then set about separating the metal hood former from the plywood part of the firewall. It took a lot longer to do it than it does to tell it. I did a Google search trying to find what kind of fasteners are supposed to hold the mounting brackets to the firewall. The brackets have countersunk holes, so I suspect the square nuts on mine are not correct. Thursday, October 28, 2021 Well, you can learn something new every day if you're paying attention. Today I learned that the firewall bracket in the picture is the wrong one for my car. It's for 1909-1911 Fords, not my 1915. As soon as I learned that, I went to the MTFCA classified ads, posted a photo of both brackets, and offered to trade for the correct 1911-1916 ones. This evening when I checked email I found three responses. I contacted the first guy and if he doesn't back out we'll trade and I'll have the correct brackets early next week. While that deal is working out, I'll continue making the new firewall. This afternoon I cut it out and got started on drilling and cutting holes for the steering column, coil box terminals, light switch, etc. I won't make the holes for the bracket bolts until I have the "new" brackets to be sure I get them in the right places. Meanwhile, the forecast tells me I need to get busy cutting and splitting firewood. |
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Friday, October 29, 2021
Today's trip to town was to the co-op to sell the soy beans harvested last weekend, and then deposit the dough in the bank. It was enough to almost cover this year's house insurance. The wheat harvested in June paid enough to cover the rest and also pay the property taxes, so I am a happy farmer. Actually, of course, I'm not the farmer. I leave that to a pro who knows what he's doing, and I get a share of the crops. Meanwhile, here at home I never did get around to cutting firewood. But I did drive the truck down to the woodlot and bring up a load of cedar kindling. On the Model T front, it turned out that the first guy who answered my wanted ad didn't have the brackets I need, so I contacted the second guy. Yes, he does have the right ones. So we will be trading. He's coming out ahead on the deal, because the 1909-1910 brackets I'm sending him are worth more than the 1911-1916 brackets he's sending me. The earlier the Ford, the scarcer the parts are and the more they're worth. In 1909 Ford made 10,667 Model T's. In the peak production year of 1923 they made 2,090,995. Some parts from the twenties are so plentiful that they're hard to give away.
Saturday, October 30, 2021
Taking advantage of what may be the last 70º day for quite a while, I fired up the chain saw and attacked big fallen branches in the yard. I filled a 44 pound cat food bag with small pieces and put it in the kitchen ready to feed the stove, and piled a lot of big pieces in the truck, ready to go to the splitter. I'll get to the splitting tomorrow. I also filled half a dozen paper bags with kindling and put them in the garage to stay dry. I'll use them when the outdoor kindling is wet with rain or snow. Saturday night dinner in town was a good stuffing at the Pizza Ranch buffet, and the movie was Last Night in Soho. That was a good one, with good performances by dual leads Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy, and nice work in supporting roles by Dianna Rigg, Michael Ajao, and the suitably creepy Matt Smith. A lot of familiar music from the sixties didn't hurt.
Sunday, October 31, 2021
Today was later. Last spring and summer when I trimmed the branches off little trees and stacked them in a pile, and when I found fallen trees, I planned to cut them up for firewood later. That's what I did today. I finished cutting up the fallen tree I started on yesterday, then another one, then two piles of small trees and large branches. I spent so much time on that, and gathering up the small pieces, that I didn't get around to splitting the big pieces. Maybe I can get that done tomorrow.
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