Thursday, March 3, 2022
18 days to spring

Well, I actually accomplished something today. With the Suburban still sidelined, I enlisted my cousin Wally to bring his truck and we towed the splitter to Dave the small engine repair guy. About an hour after I got home Dave called and said the splitter was ready to go. It turned out that the plug wire was grounding where a mouse or other critter had chewed the insulation. All it needed was a bit of electrical tape wrapped around the wire. With the splitter back in action I replenished my fuel supply. I filled three boxes with wood scraps and chips off the ground around the splitter, then split enough wood to fill  six more boxes. All nine boxes are now in the house, ready for the next cold weather. We have warm days coming again tomorrow and Saturday, then we'll get back to evenings chilly enough to light a fire. The heater in my shop took a couple of days off, so it was a bit of luck for that to happen when I could do without it. It has quit heating before, so I knew what to do. There's vacuum hose that's part of the controls. When the line gets clogged by a bug or spider you just pull off the hose and clear the opening with a piece of wire. So the burner works again now and the shop is ready for the return of chilly weather too.

Friday, March 4, 2022 17 days to spring     Much of the morning I slaved away over a hot computer, moving my website from one hosting company to another that costs much less and is, I hope, more reliable. Actually I've been working on this since Tuesday. My computer expertise is mighty low, so this kind of work is a tough slog. Today's chore was arranging the transfer of my domain from the old company to the new. I think eventually I got the ball rolling in the right direction. My next little chore was phoning the outfit that was supposed to send me a spare chain saw three weeks ago. The day I placed the order I received an emailed receipt. A week later the saw hadn't arrived, so I called and asked about it. I was told that somehow they had missed shipping it, and they would get it out right away. A week later, still no saw. So I called again. This time the story was that a computer glitch had cancelled my order. So I ordered again, by phone. Today, eight days later, still no saw. So I called again. Today the guy didn't know why the saw hadn't been shipped, but he would get it out right away. This afternoon I received an email saying it has been shipped, so maybe this time it's really on the way. It's a good thing this saw is a spare to use when the other one is indisposed, so I didn't need it right away. Next I got onto a job that's been waiting for several years. When I rebuilt the front of the house I found that some ceiling joists in the southeast bedroom were broken and sagging. So I installed a house jack to hold up the sagging south end of the ceiling. Today I got started in earnest on removing the old ceiling, putting in new joists, and installing a new ceiling. When my grandfather was building the house in the twenties and thirties the materials that were current at the time were lath and plaster. He got all the lath put up in the upstairs bedrooms, but died before he could get to the plastering. When I was a kid in the forties the walls and ceilings were still in bare wood lath. About sixty years ago my aunts put sheet rock on the walls and Celotex on the ceilings. So this ceiling I'm replacing is wood lath with a layer of Celotex nailed over it. Complicating the job is a three inch layer of loose fiberglass insulation on top of the lath. I prefer not taking an itchy shower of falling insulation, so I'm using a shop vac with a 2¼ inch hose to remove the insulation on top of each lath before I take it down. The vacuum is one I bought at an auction years ago and never needed to use until now. That big hose is just the thing to suck up that loose insulation without clogging. I spent a couple of hours on that job this afternoon, then another hour after chow this evening.

Saturday, March 5, 2022
16 days to spring

First up today was a drive to Winfield to check out the Defore auction. Spotting a clock I wouldn't mind having, I determined to return in the afternoon about the time I estimated they would get around to it. At home I tried to put the starter back in the Suburban. Most of being old doesn't bother me, but getting so damned feeble and clumsy does. It wasn't really all that long, but it seemed forever that I was under that vehicle trying to bench press that 100 pound starter into position so I could get the bolts in it. It doesn't really weigh a hundred pounds, of course, but it might as well. I finally accepted defeat and decided to try again another day. I'll figure out a way to lift the thing from above with a strap instead of trying to muscle it up from below. I returned to my ceiling replacement project, vacuuming out old insulation and taking down wood lath. I set the vacuum up on saw horses to better reach the scene of the action. I returned to the auction in time to bid on the clock. I dropped out at my predetermined limit of $25, and a couple of other people fought it out until the clock went to one of them for $35. That's the way it is with auctions. Sometimes the people who would want the same item you do don't show up, and you get it cheap. Other times they do, and you don't. Saturday being my town night, I went to La Fiesta for dinner. The place was so crammed, and there were so many people waiting to get in, that I went on up the street to the Chinese buffet. It has more good choices than I can eat one evening, so I did not go hungry. Tonight's movie was The Batman. It's a very well-made show, and Mr. Pattinson is a first-rate Bruce Wayne/Batman. I'm one of those odd characters who watches the credits, so I can tell you yes, there will be a sequel.


Sunday, March 6, 2022
15 days to spring

Today's main event was the ceiling project. I was making fair progress vacuuming out old insulation and taking down lath when it occurred to me that it could go faster if I worked from a step ladder with the vacuum down on the floor. I went to town for groceries and shopped for attachments for connecting vacuum hoses together. I'm sure such things exist, but not around here. So when I got home I connected three hoses together with Gorilla tape. That works surprisingly well, and I can reach everywhere I need to reach. The work went much faster, and I removed much more old insulation and lath today than I expected. Outside, yesterday's 70º gave way to today's 37º. Inside, it was 50º upstairs, and I worked wearing a coat.


Monday, March 7, 2022
14 days to spring

More work on that southeast bedroom. I vacuumed out more old insulation, pulled down more Celotex, and removed more wood lath. I found old plaster on a couple of the lath slats, indicating that it had been used in a previous building. This was not a big surprise. This old house was built with a lot of used materials.  One of the bedroom doors has a 7 on it because it was salvaged from the old Silverdale Hotel that was being torn down in the twenties when my grandfather was building this house. The staircase was salvaged from the 1874 First Ward School, also torn down in the twenties. In rebuilding the front wall I found some boards with square nails in them, indicating that they had been used in structures built before 1890, when round wire nails came in into general use. In working on the house I've been able to reuse some of the old lumber, but there was some that was so far gone it went into the fireplace and the kitchen stove. This old wood lath is too good to burn. It's in great shape, and much better quality than the new lath I bought a few years ago.


Tuesday, March 8, 2022
13 days to spring

First up today was an appointment in Ponca City with the cardiologist. He confirmed that my treadmill test last year found nothing alarming, said I'm doing OK for 80, and said we'll do another treadmill test in six months. In the afternoon I continued work on the bedroom. Starting a little past noon, I vacuumed out all the remaining old insulation that was on top of the ceiling I'm replacing, pulled down almost all the remaining Celotex, and took down most of the lath. I quit at three to change diapers, lay the evening fires, and change fridges. When Pete and I brought the "new" Frigidaire home from the auction last month we brought it in the front doors and let it sit.  The old Kenmore had quit freezing last year, but the refrigerator part was still working until yesterday. So now the time had come for it to go. I moved the new one in, transferred the contents, and finished moving the defunct Kenmore into the front hall a little before 5 PM quitting time.


Wednesday, March 9, 2022
12 days to spring

Laundry day. Tomorrow and Friday will be cloudy and cold, not ideal weather for using the solar clothes dryer. I had everything washed and hanging on the line by 11:30 and went to town to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy and to buy dog food. I got the pills, but the dog food shelf was empty. I phoned the Winfield and Ponca City stores and they were out of it too. A lot of stocking is done at night, so I'll try again tomorrow. Back to work on the bedroom ceiling, I took down the remaining Celotex and wood lath except where the house jack is supporting the whole works. Before I remove the jack I'll have to install a brace to hold everything up when  I remove it.


Thursday, March 10, 2022
11 days to spring

We're back in the freezer. The upstairs rooms are a little over 40º, and as a devout cold weather sissy I'm taking a day or two off from ceiling reconstruction and staying in my heated shop and office. I did do one outdoor job today, dragging a few branches from the lane up to the house for kindling and putting a tarp over the pile to keep off the rain and snow. When I went to town for groceries I was glad to find that the fifty pound bags of dog food I buy were back in stock — two of them. I bought one, but I suppose I should have bought two so I'd already have some if it's out of stock again the next time I have to reload the feeder. I'll sure buy the next one well before I need it. This turned out to be visiting day. Dieter Mitchell stopped this afternoon and we chewed the fat for an hour or so, then this evening my cousin Eric called to let me know he'd received a Facebook friend request from "me". This was one of those days when I seem to fill up the time without getting much done. I was going to work on that welder stand I barely started, but somehow I never touched it. I rewarded myself with a treat anyway. Having milk and eggs to use up, I made cornbread tonight. My recipe makes seven pieces, three for tonight and four for a couple of breakfasts of two each.


Friday, March 11, 2022
10 days to spring

Most likely the overnight snow was the last of the season. It was only about an inch, and by this evening a lot of it was melted. It will all be gone in a couple of days. Today I got back to work on the welder stand, cutting four pieces of angle iron and making them into the frame where the welder will sit. That leaves adding the four legs and the two bottom cross pieces with casters. I should be able to finish it up tomorrow. The only auction happening tomorrow is farm equipment, which I don't need, so I should have plenty of time for this project.


Saturday, March 12, 2022
9 days to spring

This morning's 17º F may have been the last freeze until fall. The forecast shows lows all above 32º for the next ten days, and freezing weather after the middle of March, while it can happen, is pretty uncommon. I never went off the place today. I spent the day demonstrating once again that everything takes longer than you think it will. I worked on the welder stand but didn't finish it up. My cousin Wally stopped for a visit, but I don't blame him for my not finishing. I worked on it some more this evening after chow and it's still not done. Maybe tomorrow.


Sunday, March 13, 2022
8 days to spring

Today at 1:20 PM the email on my desktop computer suddenly delivered all the messages it has been withholding for several days. Why does it sometimes work and sometimes not? I have no clue. That's why I use my laptop for email. This morning I investigated what I'll be able to do online with my obsolete laptop and its obsolete browsers when I'm traveling. It will work for Facebook, and for posting these blog pages, but the Model T forum is a no-go. The ancient browsers can't handle it. That will be good enough for a couple of days in Chickasha, but I'll need to get a more up-to-date laptop before I do any real traveling. This afternoon I fired up the chain saw and the splitter and laid in three boxes of stove-length firewood. Every year I swear I'm going to lay in plenty of wood to last the winter, but somehow I end the winter going out to cut more. Maybe this will be the year I stack enough to last all next winter.


Monday, March 14, 2022
7 days to spring

Today's forecast showed a good chance of showers around 11:00 AM. There were lots of clouds most of the day, but nothing fell out of them. This morning I filled out a request form and mailed it with a check for $7 to the Benson Ford Research Center. I'm getting an engineer's drawing of the 1915-1916 Ford firewall. I want to be sure the new firewall I'm making is right. I could copy the one I'm replacing, but it's not an original and I don't know if all of it is correct. In the afternoon I got back to work on the welder stand. I was making good progress on it until about 4:30 when I ran out of oxygen. It was rather late in the day to go to town for more, so I'll do that in the morning.


Tuesday, the Ides of March, 2022
6 days to spring

First thing was a trip to town to trade an empty oxygen tank for a full one, then a stop at the pharmacy to order blood pressure pills. The main job of the day was finishing up most of the welding on the welder stand. In the afternoon I made another attempt at reinstalling the starter in the Suburban. I've done it before, more than once. But now I'm so old and feeble that I can't bench press the thing into position with one hand and put the bolts in with the other. So I got on the phone in search of an auto repair shop that makes house calls. The second place I called referred me to a third, where I left a message to call me. By then it was late in the day and I had just enough time to make a run to the market for the celery I forgot to buy this morning. I might worry about this forgetfulness being the onset of dementia, but I've always been this way. This evening I did the final welding on the stand adding some hooks for hanging cables. That leaves grinding off some rough spots, sandblasting, painting, and installing the casters.


Wednesday, March  16, 2022
4 days to spring; I miscounted; It's Sunday, not Monday.


Last fall I was headed for town in the 1973 Suburban. At the first stop sign it died. It didn't seem like a big deal. I restarted and drove on. About a mile later the car died in the road and wouldn't restart. A turn of the key in the ignition switch got only a solenoid click. No turning starter motor, not even a Bendix clunk. I had the old beast towed home and it's been sitting dead in the yard since. So a few weeks ago I pulled the starter, cleaned it up, and took it to O'Reilly's for a test, along with the year-old battery. Both tested fine. The guy doing the testing did notice a loose nut on the terminal post, and tightened it up before testing. I suspected that the loose nut may have kept the starter motor from getting enough juice to turn. So today I took advantage of the nice weather and reinstalled the starter and the battery. A turn of the key in the ignition switch got only a solenoid click. No turning starter motor, not even a Bendix clunk.The vehicle dying twice makes me suspect there's something more than starter trouble going on here. Anyway, I'll be taking the Camry to Chickasha. That means I'll be hauling less than I had planned. Maybe I can take a bigger load of stuff to sell next year.


Thursday, March 17, 2022
3 days to spring

Up at the crack of dawn (7:30 AM), after a breakfast of two boiled eggs and a handful of peanuts, a shower, and fresh duds, I loaded some Model T parts in the car to sell in Chickasha.  I left home at 11:50 and arrived here at 2:40. If I sell enough to pay for my space and the fuel for the trip, that will be good enough for me. As usual, I'm  camping in the south building at the fairgrounds. This meet has declined alarmingly in recent years. There are more empty spaces every year, and this time it appears there are more empty ones than those that are occupied. Maybe people will come in the morning to fill some of the empty spots.


Friday, March 18, 2022
2 days to spring

The bottom line today is that I sold enough to pay for my space and my meals.  On the spending side I  bought six antique spark plugs for $18 and a pair of parts book reprints for $8.
The best part of all that is that one of the plugs is an Edison 14. It's not only a pretty scarce item, but $3 for one is dirt cheap. I now have a full set of those, plus a spare or two. I took a few pictures, but I'll have to post them later. We're coming up on bed time and lights out.


Saturday,  March 19, 2022
1 day to spring

I did a little more shopping this morning, paying $2 for a champion X spark plug, and took a few more pictures. I headed home a few minutes before noon. The swap meet report and pictures are here. This evening's dinner was tasty carnitas at La Fiesta. There was no movie, as the only new picture playing here was a slasher flick.

Sunday,  March 20, 2022 Spring arrived at 10:33 AM on this beautiful day. I opened the windows and the front doors to let the warming outside air into the house, and tonight I didn't have to light any fires. But I did prepare the stove and the fireplace for the next chilly weather, which will be here tomorrow and will bring rain with it. Thursday night's rain amounted to almost nothing in Chickasha, but here it left .7" in the gauge. The wild roses, lilacs, and some of the other plants are starting to leaf out, and the forsythias are about to bloom three weeks late. I took advantage of the nice day by taking the truck down to the wood lot and cutting firewood. About one o'clock I had to come up to the house and change from a winter wool cap to a warm weather straw hat. The uniform of the day will be changing from a flannel shirt to lighter weight shirts, but we're not there yet. The yellow wood in the picture is Osage Orange. The pink stuff is Eastern Red Cedar. When I got to splitting what I cut I put the cedar into boxes and brought them into the house. But the hedge wood seemed awfully heavy, maybe damp from lying on the ground, so I stacked it in the garage to dry for next fall and winter. Monday, March 21, 2022 A little sprinkle came at about nine this morning, and around eleven the rain began in earnest and continued until late evening. It was a good soaker, much needed, and when it was all over there were 2.2" in the gauge. In the shop I put away tools I've been using lately. In my office I researched some parts. Specifically, I made a list of Model T chassis bushings and their measurements. I didn't have a steering bracket bushing to measure,  so I'll have to add it later. I enjoyed using the software that renders a fraction like ¹¹⁄₁₆ as a single character. I save all receipts (sometimes I need one later), so I spent some time filing the recent ones.  I also started cleaning up my computer desktop, deleting some files and moving others to the appropriate folders.

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

In the morning I went to town for an appointment with my doc for a checkup, bought a gallon of chain oil, and stopped at the market for celery. At home I did a little more filing of desktop clutter, then got back to work on my article about Model T travel. I spent the rest of the afternoon on that, then came back to it this evening after chow and finished it up. I was also pleased to find that before my camera was stolen last September I had downloaded some of the photos to my traveling laptop.

Wednesday, March 23, 2022 Warmer weather is returning in a few days, but the afternoon high here today was 39º F. I had nothing urgent to do outside, so I spent the day in heated comfort. I proofread and tweaked my Model T travel article and emailed it to an editor. I updated my inventory of non-Champion spark plugs. The Champion X plug was standard Model T equipment, but dozens of other companies also made plugs for Fords. I aim to put together several full working sets (four plugs each) of various brands. So far I have full sets of plugs by Bethlehem, Edison, Firestone, Full Spark,  Splitdorf (white), Trojan, Wards, Wizard, and of course lots of Champion X. I've actually used the Splitdorf plugs, so I know they're good. But I still need to test most of the others.

Thursday, March 24, 2022
In the morning I did some online shopping. When I installed tail/brake and signal lights on my runabout I made the control panel with indicator lights to remind me that my turn signals or emergency lights are flashing so I won't be one of those old guys who drives around with his signals blinking. Last night I got to thinking about forgetting to shut off the tail lights. I don't want to do that, so I'll install another indicator light on the control panel to remind me when the tail lights are on. I went to Amazon and bought a package of six or seven little LED's (you can't buy just one). One will go in the control panel and the rest will be in stock as replacements. My other shopping was for pressed tin panels. They will be the new ceiling in the southeast bedroom. In the afternoon I got back to work on that project. I put up a 2 x 6 with a couple of 2 x 4 uprights to support the loose joists, then took down the house jack and the 2 x 6 that have been supporting that end of the ceiling. With the jack and the board out of the way I was able to take down the remaining old Celotex and lath at that end of the room. I ended today's session removing the last of the long lath pieces at the north end of the room.  The only remaining old ceiling I need to remove is a strip about a foot wide along the west wall. After that I can begin the carpenter work on the joists.


Friday, March 25, 2022

My morning chores were putting away files to reduce desktop clutter, and writing a check to pay for insurance on the Camry, Chebby, and trailer. The trailer was still $13, but the other two combined were up $164 and change from the same time last year. In the afternoon I spent a couple of hours on the southeast bedroom project, taking down nearly all the remaining old ceiling, then making a trip to town to pay the insurance and buy more contractor bags and a broom. It's worth $5.84 to me to have an upstairs broom and a downstairs broom so I don't have to go chase down a broom whenever I need one.



Saturday, March 26, 2022 Daffodils are up, forsythias are blooming (drought-delayed a couple of weeks), redbuds and lilacs are budding, and grass is greening. That means the weeds are starting up too, so I spent part of the day mixing up ten gallons of the magic elixir of death and spraying. Maybe this will be the year I get hold of the weeds situation at the outset and they don't get out of control. In the afternoon I did a little firewood cutting until the chain came off the saw. I hate it when that happens.  For Saturday treat night I dined at home on tostadas — two with sardines, mayo, chopped onions, and jalapeño slices, and three with chopped onion, frijoles refritos, queso, and jalapeño slices. After a two week break, the local theater got a movie worth the price of admission. Sandra Bullock's latest, The Lost City, is a send-up of the action-adventure genre. Channing Tatum plays comedy very nicely, Brad Pitt's take down of multiple bad guys made me laugh, and Daniel Radcliffe is a very good demented billionaire villain. I give this one a thumbs-up.


Sunday, March 27, 2022

The switch on my 9-inch grinder has become increasingly intermittent until it usually fails to work at all. I tried squirting silicone lubricant into it, but that didn't improve it any. So today I took it out and tried to fix it. No go. So I went online in search of replacement switches. Also no go, at least mostly. I did find one on alibaba.com that may fit. I'll take measurements and see if it will. If I order it I'll get a pedal switch to use while I wait for the replacement to come from China. In the afternoon I mixed another ten gallons of MED and sprayed more of the weeds across the road. I have more spraying to do, so I'll continue tomorrow. Then I'll have to take a break for a couple of rainy days.


Monday, March 28, 2022

So I mixed another ten gallons of MED and sprayed. It wasn't all that cold, over 60º F, but a stiff breeze provided enough wind chill to get my congenital snotty nose going. I used up 2½ gallons left over from yesterday, plus 7½ gallons of today's mix, making a total of ten gallons for the day. When mixing the stuff I used to stir it, but I've hit on a more efficient method. I put five gallons of water into a pail, add the salt, dish soap, and weed killer, then pour it all into another five gallon pail, then back. Pouring it between buckets four times takes less than a minute and it's thoroughly mixed. The forecast is showing a pretty good chance of rain tomorrow and Wednesday, so the next spraying will have to wait until Thursday. That's OK. I have plenty of other things to do.


Tuesday, March 29, 2022

On the road again... This morning we were off to Wichita (Shorty likes to ride). The reason was another dermatological session, having spots of keratosis frozen. There were fewer this time, so I guess that's progress. Other stops on the trip were for Diet Squirt (not sold here), a pedal switch, a package of tostadas and some Crunch & Munch. That last item, toffee popcorn, is my dessert for a couple of meals a month. The 6 ounce box has been $1 approximately forever. Today the price was $1.24. I'd say 24% is a pretty serious rate of inflation. When we got home I took the truck down to the wood lot and brought a load of cedar kindling up to the house, and put a tarp over the pile to keep it dry. The final job of the day was splitting enough wood to fill five boxes, and bringing them into the house. It was such a warm day that I didn't need to light any fires this evening, but chilly evenings will return soon enough.


Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Overnight rain left .61" in the gauge. On a chilly day I worked in the shop on just one project — adding brake light and tail light indicators to the control panel for the 1915 runabout. The idea of the brake light indicator is to let me know that the switch is working. The other indicator is to remind me that the tail lights are on so I won't go off and leave them running down the battery. Like just about everything else I do at my very mature age, this was exasperatingly slow work. I quit at five to eat, read the paper, and watch Nature, then got back to work in the evening. It was almost midnight when I got the panel back in the car, hooked up the battery, and tried it out. When I flipped on the tail light switch, both indicators lit up. Drat! I don't know where I went wrong, but I have some rewiring to do.


Thursday, March 31, 2022       
Another day of control panel struggle. This would have been finished by now if I were smarter about electronics, and less clumsy. The way it's supposed to work: The left side switch turns on the two outlets for a phone charger and a Garmin or other navigation device. The bottom left switch turns on the emergency flasher, which flashes the red indicator, both green indicators, and all the turn signals. The bottom right switch flips left for the left turn signals and indicator, and right for the right signals and indicator. The right side switch turns on the tail lights and the blue indicator on the right. The left blue indicator is supposed to light up when I step on the brake pedal. It works fine until I turn on the tail lights. Then both blue indicators go on. Somehow the tail lights are "contaminating" the brake lights. Back in the days of real radio there was a cigarette commercial that referred to the product as "so round, so firm, so fully packed". The photo on the right shows how this panel is "so fully packed" with four switches, two outlets, a terminal board, five indicator lights, and all that wiring.