blog1122

First thing after breakfast was a drive down to Ponca City to buy some sheet metal clamps at the Harbor Freight store. At home I spent a couple of hours clearing another 160 square feet of weeds, then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening reassembling my bad muffler. It's not a pretty sight, and nobody will ever accuse me of being a good welder, but I expect it will stay together for awhile.

Thursday, November 3, 2022

First on today's agenda was installing that reinforced muffler in the runabout. Then Shorty and I went to town. I picked up a paper with auction ads at the farm supply, eye drops at the pharmacy, and bananas and butter at the market. I should have waited a day for the butter. This afternoon's mail brought some coupons, and one of them is for a discount on butter. Oh, well. At home I cleared weeds between the next two fence posts, another 160 square feet. The weather forecast says tomorrow will be too wet for outdoor work, with rain likely most of the day. That's OK. We need the moisture, and I have plenty to do inside.

Friday, November 4, 2022

The predicted rain arrived late, starting in earnest about 10:30 AM. It was never a heavy downpour, but kept on then off, then on, etc., into the evening. I worked in the shop, installing the speedometer swivel and cable in the runabout. Everything seems to work OK with the right front jacked up and the wheel spinning, but an actual test drive will have to wait for a break in the weather. Maybe tomorrow, maybe Sunday. The rain came in with a cold front, and the temperature declined all day. By late afternoon we were at 39º F, and for the first time in over a week I had fires in the kitchen stove and the living room fireplace. This evening I got back to downloading North Dakota county maps for my digital atlas. There are a lot more maps than counties, as it takes two or three maps to cover the largest counties.

Saturday, November 5, 2022

Yesterday's and last night's rain left a respectable .75" in the gauge, so it was worthwhile. It didn't end the drought, but it was helpful. As on many Saturdays, first up this morning was a drive to Winfield to check out the Defore auction. There were a few things I would have wanted if I didn't already have them, but nothing else to keep me there. At home I changed the oil and cleaned the transmission oil screen in the runabout. Now that I have a working odometer in the car I can follow a regular lube schedule and record the miles. I'll also be able to keep a fuel log and figure my mileage. This week's Saturday night out was another Wichita trip. On the way I stopped at a Dillons store in Derby and picked up enough diet Squirt to last several weeks. That's a case of get it while you can, because it's often out of stock. Dinner was carnitas at Mexico Viejo, and the movie was Till again. Seeing Danielle Deadwyler's performance a second time was even more impressive than the first. She is excellent, and her scenes with Jalyn Hall, who actually looks like Emmet Till, sparkle. When a movie is as good all around as this one, you have to credit the director, Chinonye Chukwu, who was also one of the writers.

Sunday, November 6, 2022

The ten day forecast tells me I need to get serious about firewood. Later this week we will go from highs in the seventies and lows in the fifties to highs in the forties and lows in the twenties. So today I fired up the splitter and filled three boxes with mulberry wood and brought them into the house. There's a lot more to split, and I'll stack that in the garage to keep it dry. This evening I finished making a Model T lube chart to keep track of maintenance. It's designed to be printed on 5½ x 8½ cards (one 8½ x 11 cut in two). It has a checklist of things to be done at 200, 500, 1000, and 5000 miles, and places to record the date and miles. The problem is that the Kodak "Easy Share" printer I've had for many years has become a "hard share". It's become increasingly temperamental and unreliable in recent years. This evening I made several attempts at printing and ended up with just two decent cards. I hate to spend the money, but I think it's time to get a printer that works.

Monday, November 7, 2022

Today I applied the maintenance checklist to the runabout — oiling, greasing, airing up tires, adding water, etc. Then I drove it to town for groceries and to try out the "new" speedometer.The first leg, about five miles, was fine. It showed about one mph faster than the GPS, which I consider close enough. At 30 mph GPS the speedometer showed 31. Close enough for me. After shopping at the first store I backed out of my parking spot and headed for the second. Now the speedometer was erratic. It stayed at zero, then the drum would suddenly spin up to 40 or 50, then fall back to the actual speed, or even back to zero. It did this repeatedly all the way to the second store, a distance of about two miles. After shopping at the second store, again I backed out of my parking space and headed for my next stop, which was home. Again, the speedometer function was erratic, suddenly spinning up to 40 or 50, then falling back to the actual speed or to zero. I've posted the sad tale on the Model T forum. Maybe somebody there has had the same experience and will know what's wrong and what to do about it.

Tuesday, November 8, 2022

My first job of the day was to walk over to the city building and vote. I voted for some Republicans, some Democrats, and a Libertarian. I don't care for one candidate who was running unopposed, so I skipped him. The main activity of the day was splitting and bringing in firewood. I brought five more boxes of wood into the house. Then I piled a lot of the unsplit wood together and put a tarp over it to keep it dry. There's more I need to cover, so I'll have to get a couple more tarps tomorrow.

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

On the last full day of warm weather, I drove the runabout down to the Gasino to fill up. I was only a mile from home when that old familiar sputtering told me to pull off and pour one of the running board cans into the tank. I take the old highway to Chilocco to avoid high speed traffic. My dad told me that when he came to the big town of Arkansas City (about 1921, I think) his first job, or one of the first, was pouring concrete for the new highway to Winfield. A few years later, when the national highway numbering system was introduced, the new road became part of US 77. I think this Oklahoma part of the highway was also poured in the early twenties. The old highway has become a dumping ground, lined with piles of trash, old furniture, electronics, all sorts of debris. This evening I sent an email to the Kay County sheriff suggesting a couple of hidden cameras to nail some of the low life trashy bastards. Fines for littering would quickly pay for the cameras. Maybe some of the miscreants could be arrested and put to work cleaning up the mess. After filling the car and refilling the running board can, I went shopping for apples, bananas, and a couple of tarps, and when we got home I put one tarp over the splitter and a pile of wood beside it, and the other over another pile of wood in front of the shop.

Thursday, November 10, 2022

Today's shopping trip was in the morning, before the good weather went south. It was cloudy all day, but when I went in the market to buy celery the wind was from the south and warm. When I came out of the store it was from the north and already cooling down. The forecast predicts freezing by morning. I spent the afternoon and evening in the shop, installing a new outlet on a 100' extension cord, putting a bead of glue on the seams of magneto bulbs, and doing some sorting and putting away. I could probably make that last item a full time job for a week and not be finished.

Friday, November 11, 2022

Never went off the place today. I did remember to put up the flag for Veterans Day, which was Armistice Day when I was in grade school. In my office I finished downloading all 77 of the Oklahoma county maps. I now have all the county maps for nine states in my flash drive atlas. Looking at other states' websites I find some with county road maps and some without. I think Colorado has them, but they're in some odd format I can't open. It seems that Montana has two kinds — one that shows all the roads but labels none of them, and another that shows only the major roads. What were they thinking? In the shop I continued cleaning up and putting away. While doing that I found some brass valve stem covers I didn't realize I had. They're correct for my 1915, and not having to buy them saves me $19 each.

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

It will soon be three years since the Covid pandemic hit, and the supply chain is still hurting. The house brand wheat crackers have been out of stock at all the Walmarts since August. Today I wanted oyster crackers for my soup, and the Walmart and the Dillons market were both out. Dillons mails me savings coupons and I never can use the one for Kroger frijoles refritos because the shelf is always empty. All kinds of products are out of stock at different times. Instead of buying more of something when I run out, I've started keeping three or four of some items so when the store runs out I'll have enough to last until they restock. Today it was beans and oyster crackers, next week probably something else. While I was in town for shopping I made an appointment with my dentist to have him check out a sore spot I suspect may be an abscess. It's not terribly painful yet, but I do have to be careful how I chew, especially crunchy stuff. Oh, in the shop today I finished those two timers and boxed them to go under the seat in the runabout. That leaves only about a jillion other things I need to do to that car.

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Today's work was a little more cleaning up, organizing, and putting away in the shop. A new speedometer repair book arrived in yesterday's mail, so another project pretty soon will be fixing the Stewart speedometer in the runabout.
On the health front, the blood pressure pills continue to do their job. This evening's reading was 108/60, which is very good for a person of the elderly persuasion. The cold continues, with today barely getting up to freezing, 32º at 5:00 PM. Beginning Monday we're supposed to get a string of warmer days, with highs in the low fifties. I need to take advantage of that and get some outside work done, especially building up the firewood supply.

Thursday, November 17, 2022

This morning in the shop I noticed that the 1915 runabout was listing to port. The reason turned out to be that the left rear tire was as flat as it could be. I jacked the wheel off the floor and rotated it to see if there was a nail or other unauthorized hardware stuck in it. Nope. I'll pull the tire off the wheel and check it out, but not today. I had to go to town for dog food, and while I was there I noticed Canon printers marked down from $49 to $39, so I bought one. The old Kodak printer I've had for many years has gotten increasingly balky and hard to use. The last time I tried to print anything I got one pretty good copy and several that were trash. I'll see if the new one does better. The Canon cameras I've used for fifty-plus years are quality products, so maybe their printer will be good too. When I got home I set about splitting firewood. I didn't do as much as I had planned because it took a half hour to get the splitter to start and keep running. I did fill a couple of boxes, enough for two or three evenings. The forecast is for tomorrow to never get above freezing, then a high of 44º on Saturday and 50º on Sunday, so Sunday will be a good day for outdoor work.

Friday, November 18, 2022

Never went off the place today. It was a good day to stay inside. The forecast of warming up to freezing was a bit optimistic. At 4:00 PM the thermometer outside the kitchen window read 26º. In the shop I got started on fixing the runabout's rear axle oil leak. That means removing the wheel, taking out the bearing and the sleeve, and fishing out the old inner seal with a hook of ³⁄₃₂" welding rod. Doing all that on the left side was as far as I got today. Next will be washing out the grease and oil to get the tube thoroughly clean, installing a new seal with gear-oil-resistant sealer, and replacing the sleeve, bearing and wheel. Then I need to do all that on the right side. While I have the wheels off I'll wash them to remove the oil that leaked all over them and collected lots of dirt. My project of downloading county maps to my digital atlas continues. So far I have all the counties of Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Illinois, Nevada, and half of Oregon.

Saturday, November 19, 2022

Do I prefer summer, or winter? Let's see now—numb fingers and toes, runny nose, watery eyes, shivering, teeth chattering—I'd rather sweat. And it's not even winter yet. My Model T work today was cleaning oil and dirt off the left rear wheel from the runabout. That's the one that got thoroughly oiled by the leaking axle seal. I took it into the house, put it into the shower, sprayed engine degreaser all over it and let it sit awhile for the degreaser to work, then hosed it off with hot water. That removed a lot of the oil and dirt, but left enough for me to repeat the process. That removed more, but still left some. I'll use gasoline and paper towels to wipe off what remains. My Saturday night out was dinner at the Chinese buffet followed by a viewing of Wakanda Forever. It's a well-made movie. The actors play their parts well, the action scenes are very well staged, and the cinematography is first rate. But the basic exaggerated unreality of comic book movies keeps me from having any emotional response. Some movies have moved me to tears, even a couple of animated ones, and many have made me relate to the characters, but comic book movies fail me on that score.

Sunday, November 20, 2022

Saturday must have worn me out. I didn't get out of the sack until after nine. I took my time, and by the time I had breakfast and a shower and was into some clean duds it was 11:00 AM. A lot of being old is no bother to me, but one feature of age is a minor inconvenience: thick toe nails. A regular nail clipper isn't up to the job, as some of the nails are too thick to fit into it. This morning I figured out what I can use to get the job done. Wire cutters. My last pair of clean sox made this laundry day. Fortunately it was a dry day well above freezing, in the forties, so the clothes got dry hanging on the lines. There was a south breeze to help. In the late afternoon I had a little phone visit from Jesus, the university student in Nebraska. He is fascinated by my ancient Dodge truck, so I'll shoot a bit of video for his entertainment when I haul wood with it this week. The forecast shows some good days for outside work, so I intend to get serious about firewood.

Monday, November 21, 2022

Because of long-ago root canal surgery, there were no nerves in the tooth to warn me it was going bad. That bad tooth infected the tooth next to it, which did hurt, so this morning my dentist extracted both of them. So that makes three teeth pulled this year. I hope there are no more dental time bombs ticking away in my 75-year-old teeth. My instructions were to avoid vigorous exertion that might raise my blood pressure and cause bleeding, so I sat in my office and played on the internet until about three. But I was nearly out of firewood in the house, so I split enough to fill four boxes and took them into the house. That doesn't qualify as vigorous activity because the splitter does the work. Part of my post-op regimen is soft foods, so dinner was two cups of mashed potatoes with fried onions mixed in, and mushroom soup. Normally I have some crunchy stuff like celery and peanuts, but that will have to wait until the crater in my gums heals up a bit. Back in my office this evening I finished downloading all the Oregon county maps. There aren't a lot of counties, but the larger ones have from two to ten maps to cover them, so there are well over a hundred maps. I now have county maps covering all of eleven states.

Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Life is all the stuff that happens to you while you're making other plans. Today's plan was to drive the truck to the brush pile and empty it, then haul firewood with it. When it has sat without running for more than a day or two, gasoline in the carburetor gets low, and it takes a squirt of starting fluid to get it going. That requires removing the air filter. So today I removed the filter, squirted in the ether, set the air filter back in place, and went around to start the truck. It started as usual, and I went back around to the right side to put the wing nut on the air filter. I found gas flowing out of the glass bowl fuel filter and pouring onto the manifolds. That is not good. I quickly shut off the engine, removed the filter, and took it into the shop to make a new gasket for it. This time I used cork instead of thick gasket paper. The needle valve screws into the side of this carburetor and the filter is screwed onto that. When I unscrewed the filter the needle valve came with it, so I had to make a new gasket for that too. When I reinstalled the needle valve with its new gasket, then the filter with its new gasket, I started the truck and was happy to see I had fixed the leak. By now I had used enough time that I decided to leave unloading the truck for tomorrow. I used the dolly to bring nearby wood to the splitter, split enough to fill four boxes, and dollied them to the house. So now I have six full boxes in the house, plus two that are nearly full. There's one more box to fill, and that will go in the house. After that all I split will be stacked in the garage. I have several dead trees to cut up, plus a couple of piles already cut, and I expect I'll be doing this from time to time all through the winter. Speaking of winter, it's just four weeks away. Then I'll start the countdown to spring.

Thursday, November 24, 2022

Do I like all the traditional Thanksgiving foods? Sure. Do I like them so much that I'm willing to put in all the time required to prepare them? Not when there are easier tings I like just as much. So this evening's tasty treat was tostadas. The only preparation there was opening a can of frijoles refritos, putting them in a pan and heating them on the stove, opening a can of tuna and squeezing the juice onto the cats' evening meal, and chopping up half an onion. The other "preparation" was just taking things out of the fridge. The first two tostadas: mix chopped onions into the tuna with a bit of mayo as a binder, spread the mix onto two tosdadas, cover them with jalapeño slices, and enjoy. The last two: spread chopped onion on both tostadas, use a large spoon to plop on the hot beans, grate the queso jalapeño on top, cover with jalapeño slices, and enjoy. The next tostada treat night, whenever it is, will be the same except I'll use sardines in place of tuna. I like both kinds of fish, so I alternate. My project in the shop today was installing the new rear axle inner seals. The preparation for that is removing the wheels, bearings, bearing sleeves, and old seals, then washing out all traces of grease and oil with lacquer thinner. I finished all that this afternoon, and left it all to thoroughly dry during dinner. This evening I smeared Permatex gear oil gasket maker on the inner sides of the seals and shoved them in against the tubes, hoping I used enough of the stuff to make a good seal all around. The sealant is supposed to take 24 hours to set fully, so I'll wait until the weekend to install the sleeves, bearings, brakes, and wheels.

Friday, November 25, 2022

Best laid plans. The plan was to take the truck and a chain saw down the wood lot, cut up some fallen trees, and bring the wood up to the splitter. I picked up all the Heineken bottles where I would turn off the road so I wouldn't run over them, drove the truck to the north brush pile east of the barn and unloaded the branches that were in it, and drove back up by the shop to put some gas in the tank. It was at this point that the plans went out the window. My supply of gasoline for the yard equipment — truck, chain saw, splitter, mowers — was down to only three gallons. So I put six cans in the Camry, made a detour to the pharmacy for some pills, and drove down to the gasino across the state line for the least expensive local gas. The price was down below $3, to $2.949. If the price keeps going down the guys who put the Brandon stickers on the pumps will have to take them down, or he'll be pointing at low prices and saying "I did that." So I brought home thirty gallons and put five in the truck. By then it was time to lay the evening fires, feed the precious adorable kitties, and feed myself.

Saturday, November 26, 2022

Very light rain with occasional short breaks went on all day and into the evening. My work in the shop was reassembly and cleaning. Reassembly was installing the sleeves, bearings, felts, caps, and brake shoes, left side and right side, on the runabout. Cleaning was the left rear wheel, covered with oil and dirt. I set it in the shower, sprayed it with engine degreaser, let it sit and soak awhile, and hosed it off with hot water. That got rid of some of the oily dirt, but left a lot. So I hit it again: degreaser, let it soak, hose it off with hot water. That got most of the grime, but still left some. For the final cleaning I took the wheel back to the shop, set it on an oil change pan to catch the drips, and washed off the remaining oily dirt with gasoline and a brush. Saturday night in own was dinner at La Fiesta and Devotion at the local theater. I was a little dubious about Devotion because some war movies in recent years have featured a lot of obvious CGI and looked like video games. But that was not the case here. The credits confirmed that there was CGI (after all, large formations of WWII planes don't still exist), but the flying scenes look quite real and the movements of the planes are believable. The story is about navy pilots flying WWII fighters at the begining of the Korean war. Director J.D. Dillard has not done a lot of feature films, but that's certainly not from lack of talent. He has a good eye for the right shot, and some of his choices here are downright impressive. One shot in particular caught my attention. It opens with a fairly close view of Lieutenant Tom Hudner (Glen Powell) in the cockpit of his fighter, then the camera pulls back and pans left to show the other planes beside him. The leading actors, Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell, are very good, and so is the rest of the cast. I've said this before, because it's true: When the whole cast is good I believe the director has something to do with that.

Sunday, November 27, 2022

Today's work was mostly cleaning the right rear wheel. It wasn't carrying the same load of oily dirt as the left one, so I gave it only one degreaser/hot rinse treatment and left it to dry while I went to town for shopping. That was to the pharmacy for pills and to the market for groceries. When I got home and put the groceries away, I finished that right wheel with a gasoline and brush cleaning. By then it was time to lay the evening fires and get dinner. This morning in a discussion of the unique Model T clutch, I posted this story on the forum:

Because of the clutch drag inherent in the Model T transmission I chock a couple of wheels when starting cold. On one occasion I forgot this, and it led to an exciting adventure.

I back the car into my shop and park it headed out. It's about two feet from the door. Outside the door is a slight decline down to ground level. On this occasion I not only forgot to chock the wheels, but also left the brake lever straight up, parking brakes off. Naturally, when I started the engine the car rolled forward. I tried to hold it back and get out of the way, but I stepped on the ramp and fell over backwards, landing on my back. Of course the car followed me down the ramp. It was stopped by my left leg. Well, here's another fine mess I've gotten myself into. I'm on the ground, on my back, with the running car's right front wheel not only pressing against my leg but more importantly with part of my pants leg under it so I can't get up. I was completely unhurt, but stuck. With clutch drag pressing the car forward, and gravity pulling it down the ramp, I was really stuck. So what to do? I got on the phone and called for a sheriff's deputy to come and shut off the engine. I stressed that I was not hurt, and in no danger, and didn't need anything but somebody to shut down the car. So of course the deputy came with an ambulance, a fire truck and about a dozen people. He turned off the ignition, and we rolled the car back into the shop.

If I hadn't had my phone? I suppose I would have been there until the engine died of overheating from running fully retarded.

I probably won't forget to chock the wheels for a cold start anytime soon.

Monday, November 28, 2022

Taking advantage of warm weather, almost 50º F, I set out to do some road clearing and firewood cutting in the woodlot. I took the truck and the chain saw to the first group of three or four fallen trees. Then I remembered that I wanted to take some pictures, and headed back up to the shop to get my camera. As I was walking up the road I noticed the weed-filled lane, and wondered how the pulling would be after the recent rains. I tried it and found the ground soft and the pulling easy. In two hours I cleared a large area, and found only a few big weeds that were so stubborn I'll have to bring out the puller. Most were easy to super-easy. Two or three have unfriendly stickers that call for gloves. Returning to the woodlot with my camera, I shot some video of cutting up one of the downed trees. I cut enough pieces to fill one box, and half a dozen larger ones that will go to the spitter. I was making good progress until my saw fell apart. The nut holding the bar, cover, and adjuster in place worked loose and disappeared into the leaves on the ground, never to be seen again. I have a drawer full of nuts of various sizes in the shop but they're all NC or ASE, and it appears the lost nut was metric. I'll have to go to town for a replacement and some spares in the morning.

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Oh, my aching back! It's not an injury, just sore from "rassling" big chunks and boxes full of firewood. The roller-coaster forecast shows temperatures from the low twenties to the low seventies over the next ten days, so today I skipped road clearing and weed removal and prepared for the cold days. I split and boxed wood in the back yard that I cut last summer. Most of it was mulberry, with a couple of chunks of cottonwood. I ended up with five full boxes in the living room and six in the kitchen. I also made up half a dozen kindling bags. I put kindling in paper grocery bags and store them in the garage, and use them on rainy and snowy days when everything outside is wet. I crumple newspaper in the stove or fireplace, set the kindling bag on it, and stack some wood on top of the bag. Another seasonal job I did today was taking the screen out of the back porch door and installing the window. Occasionally during the winter we get a day when it gets warmer outside the house than inside. On those days I open the front doors and prop open the back door, and let the breeze, invariably from the south, warm up the inside.

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

42º was not bad, out in the sunshine with no wind, so I attacked the weeds in the lane again. Some of the big ones called for the puller, but most were easily pulled by hand. By the time I quit at 4:30 to lay the evening fires and rustle some grub, I had cleared the whole area between the next two fence posts. Two more sessions like today's should finish the entire lane. With the coming of December it's time to get busy on a Christmas letter for the friends and relatives. I guess I had better unpack the new printer I bought recently and be sure it works. If it will address envelopes that's great, but if it just prints pages with no hassle that will be a big improvement.

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