Turning the handles back lowers the stand to rest on the floor.
Tuesday,
April 2, 2019
This morning I finished that valve extension on the touring car. In the afternoon I planted the two forsythias and the red maple from the Arbor Day Foundation that arrived in yesterday's mail. I also started work on my mowing tractor, getting ready. The mowing season will begin soon.
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
This was the last evening for fires, at least for awhile. Outdoors the temperature got up to the mid sixties and I didn't need a coat. But inside the house was still a little chilly so I lit fires in the kitchen stove and the living room fireplace. The kitchen soon warmed up to 85º and I had to move away from the stove because it was even hotter there where I usually sit to eat. The forecast is showing highs in the upper sixties to upper seventies for the mext week, so I'll be openig the doors and windows in the afternoons to let the inside warm up. Today I worked on the mowing tractor, taking off the carburetor and giving it a good cleaning out. That didn't cure the problem. The tractor will start up and run for less than a minute, then die. It looks like there's debris showing up in the glass bowl, so I'll have to give the tank a good cleaning. I also need to take off the starter and fix the sticking Bendix, but I can start with the hand crank until I get around to that. I almost forgot to go to town for port today. The liquor store has a 15% discount for old people on the first Wednesday of the month, so that's when I buy my supply. Red wine is supposed to be good heart medicine, so I have a cup of port with dinner most evenings.
Thursday, April 4, 2019
I hate this. Once upon a time I could drive to town and buy what I needed and bring it home. No more. I've had to shut off the water to my shower because a union joint broke and was spraying water. When we had a real hardware store I could have bought a new one, but not now. Tomorrow I'll get on the phone and call a couple of plumbing supplies in Winfield. If they can't help I suppose I'll have to order online.
Friday, April 5, 2019
Well, that was a nice surprise. When I cleaned up that union joint I couldn't find any break. I installed new pipes and put the shower hardware back on top using plenty of plumber's putty. I'll let it set up overnight and turn on the water in the morning and hope that I've cured the leaks. My first trip to town today was for plumber's putty, apples and bananas, and fuel. I took six cans in the Suburban and filled them with thirty gallons at the gasino. That's for mowing and other yard work this summer. My second expedition into town was after I found that I had cut one of the pipes for the shower about two inches too short. I had to get a couple of fittngs to make it right.
Saturday, April 6, 2019
This was auction day. I checked out the one in Winfield and didn't see enough of interest to keep me there, so I drove over to Wellington to see what Ken and Rick were selling today. That was a different story. I blew $34 and came home with two big shop vacs and a good extension cord. I want a good vacuum on duty in several places so there's no toting up and down stairs or from building to building. For my weekly movie night I went to Wichita again to see Best of Enemies. Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell heading a solid cast made it worth the drive. It's too bad that movies this good often don't make it to all the theaters.
Sunday, April 7, 2019
It was such a nice day I drove the 1923 touring car when I went to town for groceries. If it had been the 1915 runabout Shorty would have jumped right in, but she's not used to this car yet.
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Red buds are in bloom (a little later
than some years), so I shot pictures featuring a couple of them. I put
the fuel filter back on the mowing tractor, dumped a couple of gallons
of gas in the tank, and started it up. I let it run for about a minute
and shut it off. When I tried to restart it I couldn't even get a
cough. Aarrgh! My other job of the day was putting the Dixon ZTR mower
on the trailer and taking it to a repair shop in town to see if the
engine can be fixed. I feel like a farmer, spending most of my time
fixing equipment.
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Well, I got the mowing tractor running, but it wasn't easy. The running part wasn't bad, but I took the starter off and took it apart to get the Bendix unstuck. Then I spent at least two hours putting the starter back together. Getting the brushes to fit over the commutator was exasperating, frustrating, infuriating, and slowwww. I didn't finish it until two in the afternoon. Driving the touring car to town to pay a bill, I was reminded that the car really needs a rear view mirror. New ones cost from about $20 to over $50, depending on style, so I was glad to find an old one in my parts stash. I'll need to make a clamp to mount it, but that should be pretty easy. Another accessory I need to make is a pedal extension that will let me back up a Model T without my big feet getting tangled up in the pedals. In fact, I need to make one of those for every T.
Thursday, April 11, 2019
After procrastinating for weeks, today I bit the bullet and did taxes. It's one of my least favorite activities, but I kept at it and did both federal and state. I finished up and put them in the mail box about two. Then I got to work making a pedal extension. That's an activity I can enjoy.
Friday, April 12, 2019
This was accessory day. I finished the pedal extension I started yesterday, made another one, and went to work on that rear view mirror for the touring car. That meant making a clamp to fit over the windshield frame, taking everything apart to strip off rust, plating, and old paint, and applying new paint to the parts. This evening I painted the pedal extensions, and will bake them and the mirror parts until I'm ready to assemble everything sometime this weekend. I could have got the two pedal extensions and a mirror from one of the parts dealers for $80+, but I prefer the $2 I paid for new glass and the few dollars worth of welding rod, gas, and paint I used. All the other materials were scraps and hardware I had on hand.
Saturday, April 13, 2019
Another
Saturday auction was today's first activity. There was so much for sale
that two auctioneers were working at once, but not much of it was of
interest to me. A miserable cold wind didn't help. I bought a pipe
clamp for $1 and was done. I got home about noon and spent the
afternoon installing my new pedal extension and mirror ln the
touring car. My Saturday evening movie was Mia and the White Lion. In this
South African film the actors really age. It begins with the lion as a
cub and ends when he's four years old, and the kids and other actors
playing the leads are actually four years older too.
Sunday, April 14, 2019
Rounding up transmission parts was today's project. When I took the runabout engine to Mike Bender for engine work he said I really should get a better transmission main shaft and brake drum, so today I rummaged through parts and found eight shafts and a few drums that might be OK to use. I'll take them all with me the next time I go to Mike's, and we'll see if he thinks any of them are better than what was in the car. I think today was probably the peak of redbud blooming, so before I drove the touring to town for groceries I shot a picture with one of them as a backdrop,
Monday, April 15, 2019
I hate, loathe and despise bleeding brakes on my old truck. It seems a leaking wheel cylinder allowed all the fluid to drain out of the master cylinder. With some vehicles that's not a big problem. You just fill the reservoir and pump the pedal until all the bubbles are out of the line. Not so with this beast. Once the master cylinder runs dry, getting fluid back into it is the job from Hell. I was finally able to get fluid flowing again by applying air pressure to the reservoir with a shop vac. Tomorrow I'll buy a new ground cable and hope that has me ready to get some yard work done.
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Today was later. For over a year I've been leaving piles of pulled weeds and trimmed branches, thinking I'll haul them away later. Today was the day. First thing this morning, I was off to town in search of a new ground cable for the truck. At O'Reilly, Orscheln, and Auto Zone, everything they had was for twelve volts. Finally, at Bumper 2 Bumper I found a proper six volt cable. It was $25, but I was glad to get it. I installed it, changed the oil in the truck, and proceeded to haul piles of yard waste to the brush pile. With that out of the way I prepared to mow. That meant gathering up the cans, bottles, and other trash strewn along the road. On the north side of the road I found mostly cans. On the south side it was mostly bottles, and most of the bottles were Heineken, apparently the preferred brew of one particular lush. After two dozen cans and two dozen bottles I lost count. I've been picking up cans and bottles for years, but a new wrinkle this year was the trunk of a small tree with a few branches still attached.
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
This morning I went to town and fetched the Dixon mower from the small engine shop. Now that the thing is running I need to figure out how to tighten the mower belt. With the belt as loose as it is, the blade bogs down in tall grass. Meanwhile, my mowing tractor isn't ready for action either. It will start, but doesn't have the guts to turn the blades. That's not very useful. I didn't take time to work on either the Dixon or the tractor, because I had planting to do. A package of seedlings from the Arbor Day Foundation arrived in Monday's mail, and I wanted to get at least some of them in the ground before the predicted rain arrived tonight. I got five of them planted, but the other five will have to wait until tomorrow.
Thursday, April 18, 2019
A cold north wind persudaed me that this was a good morning to work indoors. I modernized my 1923 touring car a little but it doesn't show. I installed a zerk inside the big grease cup for the universal joint. That cavity holds a lot of grease, and shootoing it in with a grease gun is a lot less tiresome than filling the cup, screwing it down, unscrewing it, and repeating the process a couple of dozen times. While I was working on the touring I checked the oil in the rear axle and found it way down and refilled it. I hope I haven't damaged it driving with the level so low. In the afternoon I got back to planting seedlings, and while I was at it I got started extending the road at the south end of the woodlot. Currently the road goes down the west side and has a loop at the end. I want to extend it across the south end and back up the east side. I don't know how long that will take, but it will never happen if I don't get started on it. As for seedlings, I ended the day with three more left to plant. You're supposed to soak them for three to six hours before planting, but those three will have been in the water for two days by the time I get them in the ground. I hope I haven't drowned them. Probably not.
Friday, April 19, 2019
It seems half the jobs I do require me to stop and fix something before I start the actual job or before I finish it. Today it was making a new link for a tire chain. Tire chains in April? Yes indeed. My poor old truck has got stuck in spring mud more than once. Some years it's been bogged down in such a quagmire that I had to wait weeks for the ground to dry out enough to pull it out with a tractor. It's not that bad this year, but part of the woodlot road is slick enough that chains are a good idea. After fixing that tire chain, this afternoon I finished planting the last three seedlings. After time out to go buy a new bottle of Tordon (I'll have a lot of stumps to kill), this afternoon I wielded the clippers and the chain saw and worked on the new road extension at the south end of the wood lot. I did some measuring, and found that I'll need to clear 100 to 150 feet across the south end, and about 450 feet coming up the east side. Some of it will be easy going, and some will require a lot of clipping and sawing.
Saturday, April 20, 2019
This morning I put almost thirty miles on the touring, driving to Winfield to check out the auctions. The engine is still fresh, with less than 200 miles on it, so I'm taking it slow during the "breaking in" period. I'm driving mostly at 20-25 mph. Neither auction had enough that I wanted to keep me there. Actually the Defore auction had a couple of good items but not worth waiting into the afternoon, and Roth had nothing of the slightest interest. So I came home and worked on my new road. That project is going surprisingly well. By the time I quit for the day I had nearly all the clearing done across the south end of the the place. I'll finish that tomorrow and start the part coming up the east side. Saturday being movie night, I quit at 4:30 so I could get to town by 5:00 to eat, read the paper and do the crossword, and get to the theater a little after seven. Tonight's movie was Shazam. Most comic book movies put me to sleep, but after reading the reviews I was willing to give this one a go, and enjoyed it. Very well done.
Monday, April 22, 2019
It was almost a nine to five day. I
started at nine, but had to stop and sharpen my saw. Today I started at
the north end of the new road, heading south. I made good progress. I
didn't measure to see how far I got before quitting at 4:45, but it was
well over a hundred feet. At the rate I'm going I should finish the
project this week, IF the weather cooperates. The forecast shows a
strong chance of rain tomorrow. If things aren't too soggy, I should be
back at it Wednesday.
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
The rain arrived on schedule and I spent the day in the shop, taking care of a job that's been waiting for over a year. I installed a spare carrier on the 1923 touring car and mounted a spare tire. Little by little, I'm getting the car ready to make some trips. Another thing I need to do to it is fix the tricky ignition/light switch to make reliable contacts.
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Back to road work, I finished clearing
the way through one cedar grove, across a more open space with hedge
trees in it, and into the next cedar grove. The Osage orange branches
require extra trimming as you stack them because the branches stick out
in random directions and the thorns make them really grabby. I got
started about 8:30 and quit at 4:40, with the only break being about
noon when I walked up to the house for some cold tea, and while I was
at it took a picture of some grape hyacinths before they're through
bloomng.
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Monday, April 29, 2019
Done for real, mostly. There are
still a few small trees to remove, and I still have to spray the small
brush and the honeysuckle, but the new road is basically finished.
Today I removed branches and a tree to straighten out some tight turns,
and now I'm able to drive a circle that's a little over a quarter mile
long. Driving it a few more times will establish tire tracks to mark
the way. The forecast shows tomorrow as rainy just about all day, so
I'll be taking care of some indoor work. Fortunately the cold weather
is pretty much finished, because I'm done with fires until next fall.
Last night one of the swifts was in the kitchen. This happens at least
once every summer, but it was earlier this year. They come down the
chimney into the house and don't know how to get out, so I have to grab
them and put them outside. Once they're nesting I can't use the stove
or the fireplace until they leave in the fall. I don't want to roast my
little friends.
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
On a rainy day in the shop I worked on the touring car. I fixed the intermittent ignition/light switch so that when I turn it on it's on. I had the battery tested and found that after five years it was toast, so I got a new one and installed it. I adjusted the low pedal which has been bottoming out against the floor. Finally I turned my attentioln to the speedometer sending unit because it was out of position and causing erratic readings. I'll say it was out of position. The housing I had made from brass tubing was completely gone, and the sensor was hanging loose. So I cut another piece of tubing and made a new housing and painted it. I'll install it tomorrow and try to figure out why the other one disappeared.
HOME
BLOG LIST
MARCH 2019
MAY 2019
This morning I finished that valve extension on the touring car. In the afternoon I planted the two forsythias and the red maple from the Arbor Day Foundation that arrived in yesterday's mail. I also started work on my mowing tractor, getting ready. The mowing season will begin soon.
 Two running board bolts hold a
length of angle iron, which holds a rod attached to the sediment bulb
valve. When the handle is down...
|
 ...the valve is closed. A short piece of tubing swivels on the end of the rod, fits over the valve handle, and is held on by a small hose clamp. |
 When the handle is turned up...
|
 ...the valve is open. |
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
This was the last evening for fires, at least for awhile. Outdoors the temperature got up to the mid sixties and I didn't need a coat. But inside the house was still a little chilly so I lit fires in the kitchen stove and the living room fireplace. The kitchen soon warmed up to 85º and I had to move away from the stove because it was even hotter there where I usually sit to eat. The forecast is showing highs in the upper sixties to upper seventies for the mext week, so I'll be openig the doors and windows in the afternoons to let the inside warm up. Today I worked on the mowing tractor, taking off the carburetor and giving it a good cleaning out. That didn't cure the problem. The tractor will start up and run for less than a minute, then die. It looks like there's debris showing up in the glass bowl, so I'll have to give the tank a good cleaning. I also need to take off the starter and fix the sticking Bendix, but I can start with the hand crank until I get around to that. I almost forgot to go to town for port today. The liquor store has a 15% discount for old people on the first Wednesday of the month, so that's when I buy my supply. Red wine is supposed to be good heart medicine, so I have a cup of port with dinner most evenings.
Thursday, April 4, 2019
I hate this. Once upon a time I could drive to town and buy what I needed and bring it home. No more. I've had to shut off the water to my shower because a union joint broke and was spraying water. When we had a real hardware store I could have bought a new one, but not now. Tomorrow I'll get on the phone and call a couple of plumbing supplies in Winfield. If they can't help I suppose I'll have to order online.
Friday, April 5, 2019
Well, that was a nice surprise. When I cleaned up that union joint I couldn't find any break. I installed new pipes and put the shower hardware back on top using plenty of plumber's putty. I'll let it set up overnight and turn on the water in the morning and hope that I've cured the leaks. My first trip to town today was for plumber's putty, apples and bananas, and fuel. I took six cans in the Suburban and filled them with thirty gallons at the gasino. That's for mowing and other yard work this summer. My second expedition into town was after I found that I had cut one of the pipes for the shower about two inches too short. I had to get a couple of fittngs to make it right.
Saturday, April 6, 2019
This was auction day. I checked out the one in Winfield and didn't see enough of interest to keep me there, so I drove over to Wellington to see what Ken and Rick were selling today. That was a different story. I blew $34 and came home with two big shop vacs and a good extension cord. I want a good vacuum on duty in several places so there's no toting up and down stairs or from building to building. For my weekly movie night I went to Wichita again to see Best of Enemies. Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell heading a solid cast made it worth the drive. It's too bad that movies this good often don't make it to all the theaters.
Sunday, April 7, 2019
It was such a nice day I drove the 1923 touring car when I went to town for groceries. If it had been the 1915 runabout Shorty would have jumped right in, but she's not used to this car yet.
 Monday,
April 8, 2019
Busy, busy, busy. Putting on my last pair of clean sox this morning meant it was laundry day. After I got home and hung the wash out to dry I had to do some maintenence on the touring car. That was just taking off the transmission cover and adjusting the reverse and brake pedals. After I buttoned up that little chore I got to work on my mowing tractor. I removed the fuel filter and flushed out the tank to get rid of any debris that may have been lurking in the bottom. In examining the filter I found what may have been causing the fuel starvation that would let the tractor start then kill it in a few seconds. Bug parts? Cocoon silk? Whatever it was, I cleaned it out. I hope this will solve the stalling problem. About the time I finished flushing the tank the tree service arrived to take down the three big trunks beside and behind the shop. With one man using the saw and the other operating the crane, they got two of the trunks down. The third will wait until they do some lift repairs. Those big trees will provide a lot of firewood for next winter. |
 |
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
 |
 |
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Well, I got the mowing tractor running, but it wasn't easy. The running part wasn't bad, but I took the starter off and took it apart to get the Bendix unstuck. Then I spent at least two hours putting the starter back together. Getting the brushes to fit over the commutator was exasperating, frustrating, infuriating, and slowwww. I didn't finish it until two in the afternoon. Driving the touring car to town to pay a bill, I was reminded that the car really needs a rear view mirror. New ones cost from about $20 to over $50, depending on style, so I was glad to find an old one in my parts stash. I'll need to make a clamp to mount it, but that should be pretty easy. Another accessory I need to make is a pedal extension that will let me back up a Model T without my big feet getting tangled up in the pedals. In fact, I need to make one of those for every T.
Thursday, April 11, 2019
After procrastinating for weeks, today I bit the bullet and did taxes. It's one of my least favorite activities, but I kept at it and did both federal and state. I finished up and put them in the mail box about two. Then I got to work making a pedal extension. That's an activity I can enjoy.
Friday, April 12, 2019
This was accessory day. I finished the pedal extension I started yesterday, made another one, and went to work on that rear view mirror for the touring car. That meant making a clamp to fit over the windshield frame, taking everything apart to strip off rust, plating, and old paint, and applying new paint to the parts. This evening I painted the pedal extensions, and will bake them and the mirror parts until I'm ready to assemble everything sometime this weekend. I could have got the two pedal extensions and a mirror from one of the parts dealers for $80+, but I prefer the $2 I paid for new glass and the few dollars worth of welding rod, gas, and paint I used. All the other materials were scraps and hardware I had on hand.
Saturday, April 13, 2019
 |
 |
 |
Sunday, April 14, 2019
Rounding up transmission parts was today's project. When I took the runabout engine to Mike Bender for engine work he said I really should get a better transmission main shaft and brake drum, so today I rummaged through parts and found eight shafts and a few drums that might be OK to use. I'll take them all with me the next time I go to Mike's, and we'll see if he thinks any of them are better than what was in the car. I think today was probably the peak of redbud blooming, so before I drove the touring to town for groceries I shot a picture with one of them as a backdrop,
Monday, April 15, 2019
I hate, loathe and despise bleeding brakes on my old truck. It seems a leaking wheel cylinder allowed all the fluid to drain out of the master cylinder. With some vehicles that's not a big problem. You just fill the reservoir and pump the pedal until all the bubbles are out of the line. Not so with this beast. Once the master cylinder runs dry, getting fluid back into it is the job from Hell. I was finally able to get fluid flowing again by applying air pressure to the reservoir with a shop vac. Tomorrow I'll buy a new ground cable and hope that has me ready to get some yard work done.
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Today was later. For over a year I've been leaving piles of pulled weeds and trimmed branches, thinking I'll haul them away later. Today was the day. First thing this morning, I was off to town in search of a new ground cable for the truck. At O'Reilly, Orscheln, and Auto Zone, everything they had was for twelve volts. Finally, at Bumper 2 Bumper I found a proper six volt cable. It was $25, but I was glad to get it. I installed it, changed the oil in the truck, and proceeded to haul piles of yard waste to the brush pile. With that out of the way I prepared to mow. That meant gathering up the cans, bottles, and other trash strewn along the road. On the north side of the road I found mostly cans. On the south side it was mostly bottles, and most of the bottles were Heineken, apparently the preferred brew of one particular lush. After two dozen cans and two dozen bottles I lost count. I've been picking up cans and bottles for years, but a new wrinkle this year was the trunk of a small tree with a few branches still attached.
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
This morning I went to town and fetched the Dixon mower from the small engine shop. Now that the thing is running I need to figure out how to tighten the mower belt. With the belt as loose as it is, the blade bogs down in tall grass. Meanwhile, my mowing tractor isn't ready for action either. It will start, but doesn't have the guts to turn the blades. That's not very useful. I didn't take time to work on either the Dixon or the tractor, because I had planting to do. A package of seedlings from the Arbor Day Foundation arrived in Monday's mail, and I wanted to get at least some of them in the ground before the predicted rain arrived tonight. I got five of them planted, but the other five will have to wait until tomorrow.
Thursday, April 18, 2019
A cold north wind persudaed me that this was a good morning to work indoors. I modernized my 1923 touring car a little but it doesn't show. I installed a zerk inside the big grease cup for the universal joint. That cavity holds a lot of grease, and shootoing it in with a grease gun is a lot less tiresome than filling the cup, screwing it down, unscrewing it, and repeating the process a couple of dozen times. While I was working on the touring I checked the oil in the rear axle and found it way down and refilled it. I hope I haven't damaged it driving with the level so low. In the afternoon I got back to planting seedlings, and while I was at it I got started extending the road at the south end of the woodlot. Currently the road goes down the west side and has a loop at the end. I want to extend it across the south end and back up the east side. I don't know how long that will take, but it will never happen if I don't get started on it. As for seedlings, I ended the day with three more left to plant. You're supposed to soak them for three to six hours before planting, but those three will have been in the water for two days by the time I get them in the ground. I hope I haven't drowned them. Probably not.
Friday, April 19, 2019
It seems half the jobs I do require me to stop and fix something before I start the actual job or before I finish it. Today it was making a new link for a tire chain. Tire chains in April? Yes indeed. My poor old truck has got stuck in spring mud more than once. Some years it's been bogged down in such a quagmire that I had to wait weeks for the ground to dry out enough to pull it out with a tractor. It's not that bad this year, but part of the woodlot road is slick enough that chains are a good idea. After fixing that tire chain, this afternoon I finished planting the last three seedlings. After time out to go buy a new bottle of Tordon (I'll have a lot of stumps to kill), this afternoon I wielded the clippers and the chain saw and worked on the new road extension at the south end of the wood lot. I did some measuring, and found that I'll need to clear 100 to 150 feet across the south end, and about 450 feet coming up the east side. Some of it will be easy going, and some will require a lot of clipping and sawing.
Saturday, April 20, 2019
This morning I put almost thirty miles on the touring, driving to Winfield to check out the auctions. The engine is still fresh, with less than 200 miles on it, so I'm taking it slow during the "breaking in" period. I'm driving mostly at 20-25 mph. Neither auction had enough that I wanted to keep me there. Actually the Defore auction had a couple of good items but not worth waiting into the afternoon, and Roth had nothing of the slightest interest. So I came home and worked on my new road. That project is going surprisingly well. By the time I quit for the day I had nearly all the clearing done across the south end of the the place. I'll finish that tomorrow and start the part coming up the east side. Saturday being movie night, I quit at 4:30 so I could get to town by 5:00 to eat, read the paper and do the crossword, and get to the theater a little after seven. Tonight's movie was Shazam. Most comic book movies put me to sleep, but after reading the reviews I was willing to give this one a go, and enjoyed it. Very well done.
 Sunday,
April 21, 2019
More work on the new road today. I spent about five hours on it, and completed all the branch trimming and removal of small trees across the south end and starting up the east side. I also took out one tree that wasn't so small. It had a trunk about eight inches at the bottom. I'm able to route the road around most of the larger trees, but this one was in a spot where it just had to go. It will be part of next winter's heat. Where I have to get by eastern red cedars there are a lot of branches to cut off, but there are no smaller ones under them for me to remove. |
 |
 |
 |
Monday, April 22, 2019
 |
 |
 |
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
The rain arrived on schedule and I spent the day in the shop, taking care of a job that's been waiting for over a year. I installed a spare carrier on the 1923 touring car and mounted a spare tire. Little by little, I'm getting the car ready to make some trips. Another thing I need to do to it is fix the tricky ignition/light switch to make reliable contacts.
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
 |
 |
Thursday,
April 25, 2019  |
 It
was slow going today as I cut through the next cedar grove. Actually, thicket is a better word for it.
There were a LOT of branches, all the way down to the ground, and I
spent a lot of time not only cutting them off, but also trimming off
the smaller branches that stuck out in odd directions so I could stack
them. The exciting part of the day was when I went up the ladder to get
some high branches, and it tipped over and I fell on it and wrecked it.
I wasn't hurt, but the ladder is toast. Fortunately I have another one.
But it's a little smaller than the ruined one, so at auctions I'll be watching for a replacement.
While I was cutting trees in the
wood lot, the tree service guys came and finished removing the last of
the three big dead trees by the shop. Between those and my road
project, I'll have a lot of firewood next winter.
|
 |
Friday, April 26, 2019
After yesteday's ladder mishap I thought I would use a pair of old cabinet doors for a flat base, then I thought of something even more solid and stable. So I set the ladder up in the back of my truck. That got me up safely close to my work. It was a good day. I made great progress on the road. It's not finished, but it's mighty close. If there are no unforseen hitches I should have the whole thing driveable tomorrow. After that will come chemical warfare. I'll mix up a few batches of my magic elixir of death and spray small brush in the road, plus the honeysuckle that in some places is well along on its nefarious scheme to take over the world. |
 |
Saturday, April 27, 2019
 |
  Close, but no cigar. Shoulda, woulda,
coulda. I got close to having the new road done today, but will have to
spend one more day on it. This morning I had to do laundry and buy
medicine. After hanging the wash out to dry I shot a picture of the
touring car beside the big cottonwoods in the wood lot, then finally
got back to work on the road about eleven. Most of what I cleared was
Osage orange and cedar branches, but a notable find was poison ivy that
had grown to about eight feet tall. One of the features of being old is
seeing blood and wondering, "How did I do that?" But in tbis case
in know exactly how I did it.
|
Sunday,
April 28, 2019
Done! Well, almost. This afternoon I cleared the new road enough that I was able to drive the truck all the way from one end to the other. There are still some branches to trim and a few small trees that have to go because they force mighty tight turns, but the main body of the thing is done. One more day should get it to the point where I can declare it finished and move on to other projects. One of those will have to be mowing. Some of the grass is getting pretty tall.
Done! Well, almost. This afternoon I cleared the new road enough that I was able to drive the truck all the way from one end to the other. There are still some branches to trim and a few small trees that have to go because they force mighty tight turns, but the main body of the thing is done. One more day should get it to the point where I can declare it finished and move on to other projects. One of those will have to be mowing. Some of the grass is getting pretty tall.
Monday, April 29, 2019
 |
 |
 |
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
On a rainy day in the shop I worked on the touring car. I fixed the intermittent ignition/light switch so that when I turn it on it's on. I had the battery tested and found that after five years it was toast, so I got a new one and installed it. I adjusted the low pedal which has been bottoming out against the floor. Finally I turned my attentioln to the speedometer sending unit because it was out of position and causing erratic readings. I'll say it was out of position. The housing I had made from brass tubing was completely gone, and the sensor was hanging loose. So I cut another piece of tubing and made a new housing and painted it. I'll install it tomorrow and try to figure out why the other one disappeared.
HOME
BLOG LIST
MARCH 2019
MAY 2019