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This morning I did one more coil ring test, checking all the poles with a compass to be sure they alternate north, south, north, south, north, south, etc., all the way around. They do, so the ring is good to go. This photo also serves as a warning of what can happen if you're careless and crank an old car or tractor in a stupid manner. The broken wrist happened years ago, but the hand has been slightly numb ever since. The other picture shows a pressed tin sample that was delivered today. I sent for it because I'm thinking of using that for a ceiling in at least one room of the house, and maybe more than one. The sample is one quarter of a full panel, which would be two feet by two feet. Today's work was sharpening the chain saw, attacking the tree remains behind the shop, and bringing three boxes of wood into the house. The forecast predicts two more days of highs in the fifties before the next spell of arctic entertainment blows in from the north, so I plan to do firewood tomorrow and Thursday also. With winter half over, I've used very little of the firewood stacked in the garage because I want to use up the tree remains piled behind and west of the shop.

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Wood, wood, and more wood. First, I noticed that some of the firewood stacked in the garage was too big to suit me. So I put it in the truck, took it out back, and put it through the splitter and boxed it. Next was one of the three big chunks of a stump I cut up the other day. It was almost too heavy for me to carry it to the splitter. It was heavy because it was wet inside. I wanted to split it so the smaller pieces would get air and dry faster. I set the two boxes of damp wood in the south door of the garage where they will be out of the rain if there is any but will get afternoon sun to help them dry. The other boxes of wood went into the house. Finally I set up a pair of sawhorses, got out the electric saw, and cut up most of the scrap boards that were in the old wood box behind the house. I had to leave a few that need nails pulled before I cut them. I ended up with a pile that looks like it will easily fill two boxes, and maybe three or four. It's good the be getting all this wood in now, as the forecast shows a string of freezing days with highs in the twenties beginning Monday.

Thursday, February 4, 2021

That estimate of maybe three or four boxes was way too conservative. At four I ran out of boxes, so when I went to town I stopped at McDonald's and raided the trash for more. The final count was seven full boxes, with a little leftover pile that went directly into the stove and the fireplace for this evening's fires. I intend to continue laying in wood tomorrow, as the ten day forecast shows five days next week with highs in the low twenties, a couple of 10º lows, and a couple of single digit mornings. I don't want to be outdoors gathering firewood in that.

Friday, February 5, 2021

Taking a walk in the woodlot this morning to check conditions, I found the east road under water in the bottom of the draw. I won't be driving there any time soon. Parts of the south road are borderline slick/muddy, so I'll be staying away from there too until the ground dries out some more. Fortunately there's plenty of wood on higher ground near the house. I didn't get to put as much time into firewood as I had planned today. Yesterday I noticed a clearance sale on flannel shirts at Walmart. It's been several years since I bought any, and the ones I've been wearing are getting frayed and developing holes at the elbows. I bought a medium size and brought it home and tried it on. It was a good fit, so today I went back and bought all the mediums that were left. $9.95 shirts were $6, and $14.95 shirts were $7. With one shirt yesterday and eleven today I have a dozen new flannel shirts. Those should last me a good many winters. When I got home I took care of that job that's been waiting, caulking the porch roof leak above the south door of the shop. Hunting up the tools, loosening the shop roofing panels that overlap the porch panels, squirting in the caulk, and screwing the roof panels back down took more than an hour. Everything takes longer than you think it will. Next time it rains I'll find out how good a job I did.

Saturday, February 6, 2021

Apparently another day of not much worth remembering. I do recall going to town for cheese and apples, and lots of internet time wasting, but not much actually accomplished. I did think about some projects, but didn't do anything about them. Maybe tomorrow.

Sunday, February 7, 2021

And so it begins. The thermometer outside the kitchen window showed 20ºF this morning, and the forecast shows highs below freezing for at least the next ten days, with four days of single digit lows later in the week. If it really happens it will be the longest spell of freezing weather here in many years. I don't expect to be doing much outdoors. I put my time to better use today. With increasing age and feebleness, I resort more and more to machinery instead of muscle to move things around. Today's project was making a holder for lifting a Model T flywheel and transmission with a lift. Installing the Ford magneto usually requires bolting the coil ring on the block, setting the flywheel/transmission in place, measuring the gap between the magnets and coils, and removing the flywheel and coil ring to add or remove shims that will result in a uniform gap of .025" to .040". This often has to be done several times to get the right gap. I can lift the weight, but it will be a lot easier using tools instead. Today I got the three arms of the holder made, and tomorrow will make the center piece that holds them.

Monday, February 8, 2021

Drat! Ice! I don't mind a little snow, but I hate driving and walking on ice. It isn't very thick, but it's enough to be a problem. I had to go to town for groceries, and I kept my speed down to 30 mph on the highway and 20 mph in town. Even with that, making a right turn onto Vine Avenue I slid into a slow 180º spin out. Fortunately there was no other traffic nearby. I made it across the parking lot and back to the car without falling down, and made it home without any more slides. The ten day forecast claims we won't get above freezing until Thursday next week. Meanwhile, in the shop I finished my flywheel/transmission lifter and in my office I got back to scanning slides. It seems that when I was fourteen I was very much into sky pictures. In 1956 when I took these two sunset shots from the roof of the old barn in Lomita there were no home computers, but now I'm able to combine them in a single view.

Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Never went off the place today, and it was one of those "What did I do?" days. I did paint part of my pressed tin ceiling sample, with and without metal prep, to test how well paint will stick to it. If I use it in the kitchen I'll probably leave it bare tin, but if I install it in a bedroom I think white or cream would be good. I think white would be good with blue walls, and cream with light green. Any of that work I do will wait until spring or summer.

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Escape from freezing continues to recede into the future. A couple of days ago the forecast was showing the next temperatures above 32º next Thursday. This morning it had moved to next Friday, with a predicted high of 35º. Before we get to that, we're predicted to get a couple of mornings below zero. Seeing what was coming, Monday afternoon I put a second electric blanket on my bed. Last night it was 25º upstairs, but I slept nice and warm. We'll see how it goes next week when it gets really cold. Noting that I was about to run out of clean sox, I did a partial wash today. The washer is stored on the west porch, where there's no water. To use it, I roll it into the bathroom and hook up a hose to the shower. So I washed a load of sox. Instead of putting them out on the line to freeze dry, I hung them in the heated shop where warm air would blow on them. After putting away the washer I went down in the cellar and shut off the water to the shower, then opened the valve in the bathroom to avoid any bursting pipes when the real cold arrives. I have a little electric heater on 24 hour duty, keeping the bathroom and kitchen up to refrigerator temperatures (35º to 40º), but I'm not sure it will do that when below zero weather arrives. I have the veggies (celery, cucumbers, tomatoes) sitting out on the counter because if they were in the fridge they'd freeze. This afternoon I took a walk down in the wood lot and brought up some kindling, cedar trimmings that were sheltered by overhanging branches and had no snow on them. I plan to bring up a lot more tomorrow and put them in the kindling pile east of the house with a tarp to keep off the snow.

Thursday, February 11, 2021

Good grief! Will it ever end? Monday's forecast showed the next day above freezing as ten days away. Tuesday's forecast showed the next day above freezing as ten days away. Yesterday's forecast showed the next day above freezing as ten days away. Today's forecast shows the next day above freezing as ten days away. I do not like this. In the shop I added a feature to my new transmission/magneto lifter, welding on little pegs to hold small chains that will keep the arms from slipping loose. At three I figured the 15º on the thermometer outside the window was as warm as we were likely to get today, so I bundled up and walked to the woodlot to fetch more cedar branch kindling. I gathered up a bunch and headed for the house. About halfway I decided I was working too hard, dropped it all, picked up half of it, and brought it the rest of the way to the house. That made half an hour outdoors, and I was ready to come in the heated shop to warm up and thaw out my hands. After about twenty minutes I went and fetched the rest, brought enough pieces in the house for this evening's fires, and tarped the pile to keep off any snow that may fall. Ordinarily what I have stacked out there would be enough for a couple of weeks, but I'm afraid this long freezing spell may have me burning up more wood than usual. I think I'd better bring more.

Friday, February 12, 2021

As I write this it's 11:00 PM. The thermometer outside the shop reads 6º, and when I went to turn on the electric blankets the thermometer in my bedroom said it was 23º in there. So far I'm sleeping nice and warm. We'll see what happens when the real cold arrives. Same for the kitchen and bathroom. So far the little electric heater is still keeping them above freezing. In the normal course of things I would be going grocery shopping Monday. But the storm predicted for Sunday may be big enough that I'll want to stay home for a few days. It seems a lot of other folks had the same idea, because the parking lots were full and the stores were crowded with people stocking up. At Walmart I got the last of the jalapeño cheese and the last two jars of Clausen pickle halves. At the market I got the last six of the least expensive apples. Things that I normally keep in the refrigerator (celery, cucumbers, apples, etc.) are sitting out on the counter because if they were in the fridge they would freeze. I think I have enough of everything to last the duration, but I believe I'll fill up the car tomorrow to have a full tank just in case I have to go somewhere. Most of Monday's ice has evaporated off the roads, but it looks like they will be slick again after tomorrow.

Saturday, February 13, 2021

At eight this morning it was 2º and in the afternoon it warmed up to 12º. There are 35 days to spring, and it can't come too soon. I made my town trip in the morning, first to the farm supply to pick up several sizes of bolts to have in stock in the shop, then to the Walmart for a blood pressure check, then a stop at the co-op for a bale of straw, and finally down to the gasino to fill up the car. At home I put the straw over the water valves in the tool shed to provide some insulation. The pipes are buried about two feet deep. That's normally plenty, but this current weather isn't normal. I'm a little worried about this prolonged siege of freezing with several dips below zero. For the next few days I'll leave the faucet in the kitchen turned on a little bit to keep water moving in the pipes. The next chore was bringing cedar branches into the shop one at a time, breaking and cutting them up for kindling, and putting it all into paper bags. One cedar branch with all its little twigs is good for starting a fire and makes one bag. I did six, and put them in a box in the kitchen. During the day and evening when I'm dressed I can bring in kindling from the pile beside the house, but when I first get up in the morning I want those bags ready to get a fire started right away. Normally I don't light a fire until evening, but in the current situation I'm afraid the little electric heater will need some help keeping the room above freezing.

It's enough snow to make a nice picture. The forecast suggests that it will be around longer than usual.

When I come in or before I go out my gloves sit on the stove for a couple of minutes to become good hand warmers.

Sunday, February 14, 2021

As planned the first thing I did in the morning was get a fire going in the kitchen. The inside temperature, even with the little electric heater running 24 hours a day, was right at 32º. The thermometer outside the window read 4º. For breakfast I was warm and toasty, but after I left and the fire burned out, how long would the room stay above freezing? At two in the afternoon I went back to the house and checked, and it was OK — 35º. At that time the thermometer outside the north window of the shop read 2º and was shaking in the wind. The snow started in the wee hours of the morning and quit in the early afternoon. I think it amounted to about three or four inches. By four the kitchen was down to 32º, so I started the evening fire a little early. I'm burning up firewood at a pretty fast pace, so I think I'll skip TV for a few days so I don't have to heat the living room I don't want to use up all the wood stacked in the garage while all the wood outside is buried in snow, and I really don't want to be out gathering more while the temperatures are in single digits.

Puff likes to be near the stove...

...and so do I.

Monday, February 15, 2021

This is not fun. At eight in the morning the thermometer outside the kitchen window read -9º, with 25º inside. A fire in the stove soon had the room comfortable, and after breakfast I put more wood in the stove before I went out to the shop. At noon I went back to check the room temperature and found it almost freezing, 33º. It was obvious I would need to light a fire earlier than yesterday. By two it was freezing in the kitchen and I got a fire going in the stove. I fed it hourly and at chow time, five PM, stoked it enough to get the room up to 75º. Outside it was 1º. In the shop I made up another half dozen bags of kindling. Before all this started I thought I had plenty of wood in the garage, but I'm beginning to wonder if I'll run out before the thaw next weekend.

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

After a morning start at -11º the temperature climbed over twenty degrees to +12º at two in the afternoon. The influence of the morning fire for breakfast kept the kitchen above freezing all the way to 4:30 PM when I lit the evening fire. At that rate I should have enough wood to last into next week when the weather will be more amenable to cutting and splitting more. But I dislike the wood supply getting this low. I intend by next winter to have at least three times as much under cover as I did this year. An extreme cold wave like this two years in a row is extremely unlikely, but better safe than sorry. My work today was housekeeping, putting things away and cleaning up in the shop.

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

That's better. After a low of +5º the day heated up to the high teens. A fire in the stove during breakfast kept the kitchen above freezing all day so I didn't need to light another one before evening. In the shop I got started on the process of reinstalling the magneto/transmission on the runabout's engine. It takes a lot longer to do it than to say it. You have to adjust the mag coil ring so that all 16 poles are .025" to .040" from the magnets on the flywheel, equally distanced all the way around. This is done by adding or removing shims of various thicknesses under the ring. You measure the gap all around to see where it's too much or too little, lift off the flywheel/transmission, add or remove shims at the four mounting bolts, drop the flywheel/transmission in place, and measure again. I don't have a lot of experience at this, and it's taking me a long time. I hope I can finish it tomorrow.

Thursday, February 18, 2021

For the first time since Saturday I went off the place today. The occasion was shopping for groceries, and getting some eye drops at the pharmacy. The highway and the main streets were clear, but some of the secondary roads and streets still have snow on them. The forecast shows tomorrow with the last single digit morning, so tomorrow afternoon I'll turn the trickle in the kitchen sink down to a drip, and turn it off completely on Saturday. In the shop I finished setting the magneto gap, so tomorrow I can safety wire the bolts and proceed with the rest of engine assembly.

Friday, February 19, 2021

The plan was to finish installing the magneto/flywheel/transmission today, but I hit a snag. The only safety wire I have is .020", too thin and easily broken. Of course no local stores sell safety wire of any size these days, so tomorrow I'll drive down to Ponca City and buy some .041" that's better suited for the job.

Saturday, February 20, 2021

After I explained to the guys in the store what safety wire is and how it's used they were able to find it and I bought a roll. While I was out I got cat food and an 11/16" socket for flywheel bolts. When I got home I wasted an infuriating fifteen minutes trying to install wire with a fancy twisting tool. There was absolutely no way to make it grip .041" wire. I finally gave up on that and resorted to vise grips. They do grab the wire. Twisting vise grips by hand is slower than spinning the special tool, but they work when it doesn't.

Sunday, February 21, 2021

Bye bye, snow. It melted amazingly fast. There is still some left on the north-facing bank along the road, and some patches in shaded places, but most of it is gone already and I expect the rest will go tomorrow. Today I finished safety wiring the mag ring, installed the flywheel/magneto/transmission on the engine, made new valve cover gaskets, and started cleaning old gasket material and sealant off the oil pan. I can do all this drive train reassembly and installation now, but getting the windshield back on the car will wait until there's friendlier weather for sandblasting. That's an outdoor job for me, and would be for large items like this even if I had a blasting cabinet set up inside the building. I plan to have that eventually for things that will fit in a cabinet, but it won't be soon. I'll have to make room for it by moving a lot of stuff over to the barn, and that will wait until warmer weather too.

Monday, February 22, 2021

Grocery shopping day. In the shop I finished cleaning old gasket and sealant off the oil pan.

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

In the morning I was off to Ponca City for an appointment with a cardiologist. He thinks I seem pretty healthy, but wants me to see him in Wichita next week for a stress test and an ultrasound. After the appointment I stopped at Harbor Freight and bought an engine cleaner. When I got home I tried to use it on that oil pan, and found it would only blow air. It wouldn't spray solvent. When I'm in Wichita next week I'll take it to the HF store there for a refund. On the oil pan I resorted to cleaning with a brush and a cup of lacquer thinner, then applied a coat of Rustoleum. I spent the rest of the afternoon installing a new LED under-cabinet light over the kitchen sink and a new motion light outside the shop. The old sink light was getting temperamental and dim after sixty years, and the motion light I replaced on the shop was dead after a few months. One other repair was a safety razor like the one Dad always used, patented January 13, 1920. A few years ago a tiny crack in the handle made the head fall off, so last night I soldered it back together. Maybe it will be good for another hundred years.

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

This was the day for Moderna shot #2. The only side effect I had from #1 last month was a slight sore spot that came a couple of days later. It was so slight I didn't notice it unless I thought about it. In a day or two it was over. As I write this nine hours after today's shot, I feel nothing. Apparently some people get headaches or other annoyances, so I guess I'm lucky. My work today was firewood. An inspection walk in the woodlot confirmed that I don't want to try driving the truck there until the ground dries out, so I harvested wood from the pile of tree debris behind the shop. I sawed up several big pieces and split enough to fill one box and part of another. Spring is only 24 days away, and we will be having some evenings when I don't need a fire, but there will still be some chilly days and nights into April.

Thursday, February 25, 2021

Short & sweet: Safety wired flywheel bolts, touched up oil pan paint, derusted inspection cover; spent a couple of hours splitting and hauling in firewood.

Friday, February 26, 2021

Today's indoor work: installing the inspection cover on the bottom of the oil pan; researching tools online. Outside: fetching a couple of armloads of kindling (cedar branches) from the wood lot. The road is slowly getting closer to driveability. Someday soon I may put tire chains on the truck for traction and give it a go. Meanwhile there's still plenty of wood behind the shop to cut and split.

Saturday, February 27, 2021

The indoor job today was installing the oil pan on the engine/transmission. The only glitch was having to chase the threads on the nuts and bolts, which I should have done ahead of time. I had to go to town for gasket sealant, and while I was in the store I stopped at the test machine for a blood pressure check. I was pleased to see the reading of 111/73, and even more pleased that it was the fourth "normal" reading in a row. I wish I knew if there was anything I did to make it happen. The only outside work today was boxing up and bringing in the rest of the wood I split Thursday.

Sunday, February 28, 2021

When I stepped into the shop this morning it felt kind of cool. I checked the thermometer on the wall and it showed 60º. I have the thermostat set at 68º, so obviously the heater wasn't working. I flipped the switch off and back on and the fan blew for a few seconds and shut off without the burner lighting. This has happened before, so I had an idea of what to do. I pulled off a little vacuum hose and stuck a wire into the tube where it attaches, removing the little bit of dirt or spider web or whatever was blocking it. I reattached the hose, turned on the heater, and it fired right up. With any luck I won't have to do that again until next year. My work in the shop today was installing the transmission bands and tying them in position for putting on the hogshead. The hogshead (transmission cover) has the low pedal shaft in it, so I had to compress the spring on the shaft so it will fit between the low band ears when I set the hogshead in place. I should get that done tomorrow.