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Tuesday, February 1, 2022

48 days to spring

The only outside job I did today was tarp the pile of wood behind the shop to keep the rain and snow off. Inside I did some catching up on filing January receipts. When I went to town Shorty rode along and we stopped at the vet's office for her to get her booster shot. At the grocery store the parking lot was nearly full, and the store was crowded with people stocking up ahead of the storm. I had planned to have celery with peanut butter this evening, but the store was out of celery. So I got eggs, and tonight's main course was scrambled eggs mixed with fried onion, garlic, and jalapeño slices. It was so tasty I may have the same thing again tomorrow night.  



Wednesday, February 2, 2022
47 days to spring

When I got up this morning there was about two inches of snow on the ground. It snowed off and on all day, sometimes just a few flakes and sometimes a flurry. By evening it looked to be over four inches. In the shop I straightened a warped exhaust manifold. When I went to town in the afternoon snow off the west field had drifted across the road as usual, but it wasn't deep enough to be a problem. By tomorrow it may be, so if I go anywhere I'll leave going east instead of west. There's less drifting that way. I don't do a lot of cooking, but in the evening the cold weather inspired me to make corn bread. That's an old favorite from when I was a kiddo.



Thursday, January 3, 2022
46 days to spring


This morning we achieved one of those rare single digit lows. The thermometer outside the kitchen window read 7ºF at nine this morning. I think we warmed up to 17º today, and the forecast is for 3º tomorrow morning followed by a thirty degree warm-up. My only outside work today was shoveling snow off the back porch steps and the walk in front of the shop. I spent the day here in my office above the shop, getting some work done (filing receipts) and wasting time (more schmoozing on Facebook). I did take time to fire off a letter to the editor in response to a story in yesterday's paper about doing away with single use plastic bags:

The story on grocery bags in the February 2 CT reminded me that at Country Mart I was always asked, “Paper or plastic?” At Dillons you have to ask them for paper, or they automatically use plastic. Yes, they do have paper.

I always get paper. I use the paper bags as liners in wastebaskets for burnable waste. When they’re full they go into the fireplace in winter or the incinerator in summer.

During wood burning season I keep a supply of the paper bags with kindling in them to use when everything outdoors is wet. Just crumple some newspaper in the stove, put the bag of kindling on it, stack some wood on top of that, and your fire is laid, awaiting a match to set it off.

Of course other uses for a paper bag arise from time to to time.

I find paper bags in place of plastic absolutely no inconvenience whatsoever. And while we’re on the subject of paper and plastic, there’s no reason we shouldn’t go back to the paper drinking straws we used for over a hundred years.


Friday, January 4, 2022
45 days to spring

Well, good for me. Today I pulled myself away from the computer and got some work done. Namely, rearranging and cleaning up in the shop to make way for a 240 volt 50 amp outlet where I can plug in an electric welder. There's a lot of stuff to clean and move, so it won't all be done in a day or two. This evening I got started on a job that's been waiting for months and growing larger — indexing photos. I need an index so I can look up a subject and find all my pictures of it. Tonight I did November and December 2020 and January 2021. At that rate I should be caught up on indexing in a few evenings.


Saturday, January 5, 2022
44 days to spring

Well, that was a nice surprise. I assumed that when installing the new outlet in my shop I would spend considerable time tracking down which circuits in the building are controlled by the various breakers in the box. But when I removed the cover I found that when I wired this building about twenty years ago I wrote on the Romex to identify each circuit. I suppose I intended to label all the breakers later but forgot all about it until now. Being retired now, I intend to do the labeling so I won't have to take the cover off to figure out what goes where. This was not my usual Saturday movie night. There was nothing I wanted to see, so I stayed home and indexed more photos. I got through five months, February through June of last year. That leaves seven months to do. At the rate I'm going, that shouldn't take long.


Sunday, February 6, 2022
43 days to spring

Today I got the 250 volt 50 amp outlet mounted on a low shelf where I can plug in a welder, and ran the wire up into the breaker box. I'll hook it up tomorrow. I'll shut off the power to the shop building when I do that, so I'll need to run some extension cords out from the garage so I can have a light to see what I'm doing. Tonight I continued indexing photos. I've finished up through last September, which leaves four months and a week to go. That should take no more than a couple of sessions. A few minutes ago when I stepped out of the shop to go in the house and turn on the electric blankets, somewhere off to the north the coyotes were singing. They were answered by a couple of neighbor dogs barking. Shorty was in the shop, so she missed the fun.


Monday, February 7, 2022
42 days to spring

I'm happy to report that I actually got something done today.  I finished up the welding outlet project, installing the 250 volt 50 amp breaker in the box and putting the cover back on. I even made a list of breakers and what they control and taped it at the top of the panel. When I went to town to pick up a prescription and buy bananas I stopped at the electric supply and returned the 250/50 outlet I bought last week because I found one in the shop that I had forgotten I had. That saved me $15.50 I can use for something else. Tonight I finished indexing all the 2021 digital photos. That leaves just last month to do, and I'll be up to date. I need to make a monthly habit of indexing so I won't end up having to do several months at a time.


Tuesday, February 8, 2022

41 days to spring


Two weeks to the day after I took my chain saw to Ponca City for repair, today I went back to fetch it. Apparently the reason it wouldn't start was a clogged air filter. It seems blowing it out with compressed air isn't good enough. You have to replace it with a new one.  I believe I'll buy a spare filter to have on hand when the need arises so I won't be without a saw for two weeks. On the way home I stopped at the Prairie Chapel Cemetery to visit a couple of cousins. Alice was born in 1892 and died in 1996. Almeda was born in 1900 and also died in 1996, just a couple of weeks after Alice. Their dad was my great grandma's brother. While I was out I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up more pills. When I got home I was about to get started on cutting firewood when I remembered the broken pipe fitting in the shower. I would have to fix that before I could bathe again. By the time I made a trip to town for a new fitting and a tube of pipe compound and came home and installed said fitting, it was time to build the evening fires and get dinner. Maybe I'll get to that firewood tomorrow. This evening I finished indexing photos, so I won't need to do that again until next month.

 


Wednesday, February 9, 2022
40 days to spring


After a session with the dental hygienist, I came home and set about cutting firewood. The newly repaired saw started easily, the way it's supposed to, and I cut one piece. About halfway through the second piece the saw bogged down. The bar was so hot at the front end that it was smoking, and there was smoke coming from the clutch. I need a working saw, and I'm  not going to wait another two weeks for one. I'll buy a second saw so I'll always have a working one to use while the other is being repaired. Meanwhile, the cracked tee I replaced in the shower wasn't the only leak. There was also a faucet with a small crack in the side. This evening I tried brazing it, but the wall was so thin that another crack developed. So one of tomorrow's chores will be buying a new faucet.

Thursday, February 10, 2022
39 days to spring


Well, the new faucet will have to be tomorrow. I never made it off the place today. Most days it takes me just a few minutes to check email and delete all the crap, but today I had messages from four people I actually know, and spent an hour corresponding. I also took about an hour to make a meme and post it on Facebook. I don't delude myself that it will change hearts and minds, but it's gratifying occasionally to express an opinion in support of Truth, Justice, and the American Way. I'm still using a laptop for email, as the mail program on my desktop computer continues to be worthless trash. It did work one day last week for no apparent reason, and a slew of messages since last month suddenly showed up. After that it went back into non-functioning mode and has stayed there. I ordered a spare chain saw this morning, and it's supposed to be here by Tuesday. I also examined my dead saw and determined that it will need a new bar and a new clutch cover assembly. My current credit card cycle ends tomorrow, so I'll order those parts Saturday. That will put them on the following bill. I'm what insiders call a deadbeat. I pay off the credit card every month so there's no interest charge. I also auto-pay, so I'll never forget and have to pay a late fee. I try to keep the total each month well under a grand, but that spare saw will put this month's total a little over. ~~~~~ Happy Birthday to my little brother, who is 76 today.



Friday, February 11, 2022
38 days to spring


On the road again. I was off to Wichita for a checkup by the eye doc. She found the pressure in my right eye down to 8, so I'll quit the eye drops on that side and see if I can get along without them. The left eye, which has been a steady 13 or 14, was at 16.  So I'll continue both medicines on that side. In four months we'll check again and see if today's higher pressure was a fluke. While in the big city I stopped at Grace Market to restock with a couple more gallons of 김치. What I bought in November is almost gone. Another stop in Wichita was to stock up on Diet Squirt. It's a favorite drink I can't always get. It's not sold down here in Podunk, and in Wichita it's often out of stock. In Winfield I stopped at the big bank, where the doors have reopened, and stocked up on $2 bills, then at the Walmart for some toffee popcorn. Finally back in Arkansas City, another stop at the market for celery, then home. After a check of email and laying the evening fires, the day was spent and it was time to feed the precious adorable kitties and then myself. The fluctuating cat population is currently down to three, a couple of young tabbies and a big old yellow cat I call Grandpa.



Saturday, February 12, 2022
37 days to spring

 
First up was a drive to Winfield to check out the Defore auction. Not one thing tempted me to stay, so I came home and spent much of the day shopping online for chain saw parts. That doesn't sound like it should take long, does it? Well, when you're having the fun of comparing part numbers so you have a chance of getting the right thing, comparing prices at various sites with and without free shipping, and reading the fine print, time flies. It ended up with the right parts ordered (I hope) and scheduled for delivery next week. For Saturday treat night dinner was tostadas — two with sardines and three with frijoles refritos and all, of course, with onions and  jalapeño slices. With a Covid surge currently raging locally and barefaced foolishness all the rage in these parts, I'm skipping restaurant meals again until the infection rate here declines substantially. I am still going to movies when there's something I care to see. The crowds are small and I'm able to keep my distance. Tonight's show was Death on the Nile. Kenneth Branagh is good, both as director and actor, the other actors play their parts well, and the cinematography is beautiful. I would call it good entertainment.



Sunday, February 13, 2022
36 days to spring


In one of the online Model T groups the subject of fuel gauges came up. The usual gauge, of course, was a wooden stick. I started off looking up information, and ended up spending most of the day making a new web page on Gas Tank Sticks. I spent so much time on that project that I never went to town for groceries, and dined on stuff I had on hand. I cut up an onion and a bunch of garlic, which I fried with jalapeño slices, then mixed in mashed potatoes. That was a tasty treat.



Monday, February 14, 2022

35 days to spring


The poor old Suburban has been sitting dead in the yard, waiting for me to get around to working on it, and Ive been waiting for a mild day. Today was the day. The affliction is failure to start. You turn the key and hear a solenoid click, but no starter turning. Weeks ago I pulled the starter out and took it to town and had it tested. It tested OK. So I theorized that a badly corroded cable wasn't supplying enough current to turn the starter motor, and today I removed the cable. That's a seemingly simple job that should have taken a few minutes, but I spent over an hour on it. The people who design things should have to work on them. Anyway, I finally got the cable out, and as far as I could tell there was nothing wrong with it. When I went to town for groceries I took the starter and the cable to the parts store and had the test done with power going through the cable. The starter still tested OK. So why wasn't the starter working in the vehicle? Has the relatively new battery gone bad? Tomorrow I'll take the battery to town and have it tested under load.

Tuesday, February 15, 2022
 34 days to spring
It was a good day for laundry. Even with sunlight filtered through a thin layer of clouds, a strong south wind had the clothes dry PDQ. When I went to town in the afternoon I took the battery out of the Suburban to the parts store for a test. As I expected (it's only a year old) it tested perfectly fine. So the battery tests OK, the starter tests OK, and the cable seems fine. That leaves the question of why turning the key in the ignition produced only a solenoid click but no starter action. I suspect it may have been the loose cable stud on the starter. The nut holding that stud was tightened down before the starter was tested, so maybe the problem is fixed. I'll put the starter back in the vehicle and find out. While I was out I went up to Winfield and bought a piece of square tubing for a stand to hold my MIG welder. We used to have a store here that sold steel and welding supplies, but since it closed several years ago I have to go to Winfield. Also in Winfield I stopped at the Walmart and picked up a five pound bag of yellow corn meal for about $3, something else not sold here.



Wednesday, February 16, 2022
33 days to spring


Curses! Foiled again! The new bar for my saw arrived today, but I couldn't use it. The "replacement" clutch drum that came yesterday doesn't fit, so I had to order an OEM drum costing more than twice as much. It won't arrive until next week, so I can't use that saw. But what about the spare saw I bought last week? It was supposed to be here yesterday, and wasn't. I phoned the dealer and found that they forgot to ship it, so it won't be here until next week either. Meanwhile, the weather is about to go south and I'm getting low on wood. All things being equal, you lose.    



Thursday, February 17, 2022
32 days to spring

 When I stepped out of the shop about 2:30 it had been snowing, mostly gently, since before daylight, and a few flakes were still falling. It was about over, so I shoveled the walk and the back porch steps. My project of the day was making a new page for my website. One of the guys in the Model T Ford club of Facebook asked a question about brakes, and my answer got longer and longer, so I decided to be ready for the question to come up again, and expanded on my answer to make a new page. In my email was a message from Amazon saying the chain saw clutch drum I bought yesterday will arrive Friday. I thought, "Wow! That's fast!" Then I realized it meant Friday the 25th, eight days away. Not so fast after all. This evening, with the return of the cold, I felt like having something warm for dinner. That was tomato soup. The Great Value soup (Walmart house brand) was edible, but I didn't much care for it. Next time I'll try a different make.

Friday, February18, 2022
 31 days to spring
Today I got started on that MIG welder stand. I drilled the holes for mounting casters in one bottom cross piece, but didn't have the material for the other cross piece. That meant a drive to Winfield to buy another piece of square tubing. The Camry's air pressure warning light was on, so I stopped at the Winfield Walmart auto shop for air. That reminded me of driving to Michigan in my 1915 Ford. I stopped at the Walmart auto shop in Jacksonville IL to have the tires checked and aired up if they needed it. The guy at the counter asked what kind of car it was, and when I told him he didn't bat an eye. It was as if 106-year-old cars showed up there all the time. I told him the key was in the car and he went out to get it. After about five minutes the car hadn't rolled into the shop, and I looked out at the lot. Three of the shop guys were standing around the car, looking at it, and obviously without a clue how to start it or drive it. So I had mercy and went out and drove it into the shop for them. I wonder how long they would have stared at that car before coming to fetch me.



Saturday, February 19, 2022
30 days to spring


Fridge day. My refrigerator's freezer died last November and I had to toss most of the thawed contents. Since then I've been watching the auction ads for a replacement, and the auction today at the fairgrounds included a Frigidaire. So I went to take a look. It was a little smaller than my old one, but adequate. It also had mechanical controls. When the repair guy came out last fall and pronounced my freezer dead, he warned me against getting a fridge with electronic controls. He said they sometimes go bad and are very expensive to replace. My Suburban isn't fixed yet so I phoned cousin Pete to see if she and her truck would be available to help me get it home. The answer was yes, so I hung around and read a magazine until the furniture and appliances came up for sale. (Auctions always start with the junk you'd have to pay me to haul away.) I got the Frigidaire for $160. By the time we came and got the ramps, dolly, pad, and straps, drove back to Winfield and loaded up the fridge, brought it home, unloaded it and got it in the front door, the day was spent. Being low on firewood and without  a saw to cut any, I decided to skip heating the kitchen and go to town for dinner. That was enchiladas blancas and frijoles refritos at La Fiesta, one of my favorite meals at one of my favorite restaurants.



Sunday, February 20, 2022

29 days to spring


This morning I did some catching up on computer work, and this afternoon I got a little done on the welder stand, making the holes for mounting the casters. I couldn't just drill the top holes, as the largest bit I have is 1". I had to enlarge them with a die grinder so a socket for the caster nuts will fit in them. Next will be cutting and welding pieces together for the actual stand. This project is continuing the tradition of everything taking longer than you think it will.



Monday, February 21, 23022
28 days to spring


It was a warm day for February, in the high sixties. But tomorrow is forecast to begin a cold spell, with a high in the twenties. When I went to town for groceries the parking lots were full and the checkout lines were long. I stocked up on black pepper, buying three large cans of the stuff, planning ahead for the next time the store runs out. I keep two extra packages of jalapeño cheese in the fridge in addition to the one I'm using, for the same reason. Certain products seem to be out of stock fairly often since the pandemic came along.



Tuesday, February 22, 2022

27 days to spring


I remembered to get down to the cellar this morning and shut off the waterlines to the shower, and left a faucet open. Sometimes when we get these arctic episodes the bathroom gets down to freezing temperatures overnight. This one probably won't last long enough for that, but better safe than sorry. One of my activities today was making a little video greeting for a cousin who is eight. Four years ago he was in a bad wreck that almost killed him, and it was doubtful whether he would survive. Recently he's been sad because his dad isn't man enough to be a real dad. So his mom is putting together a video with family and friends to let him know we love him. I will never understand these guys who have beautiful kids and throw them away like trash. Today's mail brought the OEM clutch drum for my chain saw, so this evening I installed it and reassembled the saw. I fought the brake for over an hour, and it absolutely will not work. So I finally removed  the spring and will run the saw without a brake. I've used the saw without a working brake before, and it has been no problem.



Wednesday, February 23, 2022
26 days to spring


When I looked out the shop window this morning the thermometer outside read 5º F. Chances are this was the last single digit low of the year. By the end of next week we're supposed to be having lows above freezing and highs in the seventies. There will still be cold spells in march and April, but not that cold. Today warmed up to almost 20º F. I had planned to bundle up and do a little wood cutting, but I wimped out and stayed inside. An unplanned activity turned out to be the main project of the day. I was answering a question on the Model T forum, and the answer turned out so long that I decided to make a web page of it so I won't have to repeat it.



Thursday, February 24, 2022
25 days to spring


Unaccountably, after taking a vacation for a couple of weeks, the email on my desktop computer suddenly started working, and posted all the messages it has kept waiting during that time. It was a convenient turn of events. It happened just as my hosting company's website would not let me log on to my control panel and post web pages. Having the email working made it a little easier to change my password and see if that would let me log on. It didn't. I spent over an hour on the phone with a hosting company agent, but it turned out the problem was a malfunction on their end, not mine. So I won't be posting anything on my website until the engineers figure out how their equipment is screwing up. Meanwhile, the chill continues, with today's high being about 21º F. This happened to be the evening for a Model T club meeting in Hesston, over an hour and a half north, so not being home I didn't have to burn any of my depleted firewood supply. I don't get to a lot of meetings. I'm in both Kansas Model T clubs, and they both meet halfway across the state. It would be nice if we had a club closer to home, but there aren't enough folks in these parts with the interest to do it.



Friday, February 25, 2022
24 days to spring


The snow that drifted down very lightly yesterday left maybe an inch on the ground, and today almost all of it was gone by noon. I was on the phone for another hour today trying to deal with the no-control-panel problem, and the final conclusion was that the engineers are working on it and will fix it as soon as they can. The wait time was pretty long before an agent answered, so I assume a lot of people are having the same problem. I'll keep adding to the blog as usual, so when I am finally able to post I won't have a lot of catching up to do. One good thing did come from my long time on the phone today. I learned how to turn the phone onto speaker mode. I couldn't find anything about that in the manual, but I just happened to push the right button. I hope I'll be able to remember which one it was.



Saturday, February 26, 2022
23 days to spring


Today's lengthy and futile high tech waste of time was by chat with hosting company agents. The final outcome was that this particular problem is not with their website, but with the latest version Firefox browser I'm using. So tomorrow I'll try to get some help from Mozilla. In the afternoon I fired up my repaired chain saw and enjoyed harvesting some wood. One of life's pleasures is cutting firewood with a really sharp saw. But I couldn't get the splitter started to split it. I couldn't detect any spark, so when I went to town for the evening I stopped at a parts store and picked up a new plug. Treat night dinner was the buffet at Pizza Ranch. There's lots of tasty stuff, and I've been there enough times to know what I can skip in favor of something I like better. This week's movie was Uncharted, with Mark Wahlberg and Tom Holland. I had my doubts when I read that it was based on a video game, but I enjoyed it. It's a well-made action adventure flick with much mayhem and falling out of planes in pursuit of Ferdinand Magellan's gold. It's not an instant classic or great cinematic art, but I found it entertaining. Some clips after the credits tell us that there will be a sequel.



Sunday, February 27, 2022
22 days to spring


Well, the splitter is still dead, dead, dead. The new plug did nothing for it. So I got the saw and cut up some branches that were small enough to not need splitting. Fortunately the forecast shows a few evenings coming up when I won't need a fire. I'll keep cutting small stuff and hope I get the splitter working again before I really need it. Meanwhile, the online misadventures continue. The Firefox, Chrome, and Safari browsers all continue to refuse to upload HTML files to my website. They refuse in different ways. Variety is the spice of life. And then there's email. After functioning for two days, it's gone on strike again and I have to use the email on my laptop. I could really do without so many things failing to work all at the same time.



Monday, February 28, 2022
21 days to spring


You win some and you lose some. The email worked again today, for the second day in a row. Whoopee! But the web host malfunction continued, and for the fourth day out of the last five I was unable to log in to my control panel and upload HTML files to my website. I'm beginning to think of moving my site to another hosting company if they don't get this mess straightened out soon. I brought the last of the firewood from the garage into the house this afternoon, and after tonight's fires I think there's about enough for one more evening. That won't be right away. The forecast shows a few days warm enough that I won't need a fire, and during that time I want to cut and lay in enough wood to last me a couple of weeks. There will be more cold days during March, but I expect there will also be some warm spells when I don't need a fire. 

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