Never went off the place today. Mostly I mowed. Both sides of the road, lawn by the west drive, south lawn, east lawn, and around the brush pile behind the shop. There's more to do tomorrow. I made a video of some of today's mowing along the road.
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Tuesday, June 2, 2020
With Puff and Shorty supervising, today I took down the scaffold I used when I was rebuilding the west upstairs wall of the house. It was plenty sturdy when I put it up, but after a few years of sitting out in the weather a lot of it was rotten and will be part of my firewood supply next winter. I still have some jobs to do on the outside of the house (shingling a couple of places and spraying water seal), and for those I'll make a new scaffold of treated lumber that can be taken down in sections and stored. While I was working on this project Philip came and prepared the south field for planting soybeans. |
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Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Well, that was nice. When I went out to the shop this morning and opened the door I saw a great big snake go crawling under the shelves by the east wall. I didn't get a really good look it it, but I think it was a black rat snake. I'm always glad to see another mouse eater on the premises. Today was spray day. There was a slight breeze, not strong enough to be a problem. I sprayed all the johnson grass and other undesirable vegetation along the south side of the road, down the lane into the wood lot, along the north side of the road to the east, and the rock flower bed borders around the house. I'm not sure I used enough active ingredient in my mix, so if I don't see the stuff I sprayed today starting to die in two or three days, I'll double the dosage and hit it again. The temperature was in the nineties today, and twice I took a long break to sit in front of a fan and have a cold drink. That got me thinking about beer. I consider beer a hot weather indulgence, and don't normally buy any until high summer. But the heat has arrived a month early this year, so I may lay in a supply of non-viral Corona this week.
Thursday, June 4, 2020
The ten day forecast is showing dry weather all the way—sunny and mostly hot. Happily the temperature here is usually cooler than in town, often by as much as five degrees. My wood lot road is still undriveable with water seeping out of the ground, but I'm hoping it will dry out enough to use this year. One of my jobs today was watering the seedlings I planted recently. Some of them are much too far away for me to reach them with a hose so I carry pails of water in the truck, going very slowly to avoid spilling. In the afternoon I sawed up the old shop door I replaced this spring and stacked the remains in the garage firewood pile. When I went to town I stopped at the glass shop and ordered a new lower windshleld for the runabout. Less than half an hour later I received a call telling me it was ready, so I'll pick it up in the morning.
Friday, June 5, 2020
Each day presents a choice of activities. I have more things to do than I'll live to finish. Today I cut up most of the old boards from the scaffold I took down Monday and added the remains to the wood pile in the garage. I went to town and picked up the new windshield glass for the runabout, and will soon get back to repairing the frame so I can get it back on the car.
Saturday, June 6, 2020
It's time to get serious about early to bed and early to rise. the heat has arrived a month early this year, and I need to get up and work in the cool of the morning. The heat saps my energy. I didn't get to work cutting branches into firewood until about 9:30 today. That's not strenuous work, but it was already pretty sweaty going. I found myself taking several long breaks sitting in front of a fan. Between breaks I watered seedlings, worked on the ramps I use for changing oil in the Camry, and brought sand blasting equipment from the barn to the shop where I have a functioning compressor. I'll do my blasting in the cool of the morning.
Sunday, June 7, 2020
Well, it's about time. Last night I saw the first lightning bug of the season. They're late this year. I usually see them about the third week of May. I got started on sand blasting today, but not as early as I expected. My old blasting hood finally fell apart to the point where I couldn't fix it anymore, and I had to make a new one. I finally got started a little before ten and got my windshield frame parts mostly done. Fortunately the heat didn't get too bad. I didn't quite finish because I had to go to town for groceries.
Monday, June 8, 2020
This morning I finished blasting my windshield frame parts, and also did a couple of exhaust manifolds. Then I made some repairs to the frame brackets. The photos are on the MTFCA Model T forum. The last job of the day was getting started on removing the engine from the runabout. Later this week the short block will go to Mike the Model T surgeon in Tulsa for a diagnosis and a consultation on the best treatment.
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Two jobs today: laundry and continuing to dismantle the runabout. The first is done, of course, and I need to finish the second tomorrow.
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Out of Lisinopril pills, I had to go to the pharmacy. After that I worked all day and into the evening getting the engine out of the runabout and stripping it down to a short block. At midnight I quit with the job unfinished and went to bed. Why unfinished so late? I thought I'd just remove four capscrews and lift off the transmission. After I got the first two out, I broke one wrench and bent another so much it wouldn't get a grip. So tomorrow.
Thursday, June 11, 2020
This morning I managed to get to those other two capscrews with a socket and a breaker bar, so the transmission, flywheel, and magneto are now off. With that done I turned my attention to yard work. It's been a week since I sprayed, so I can see what I killed, what I missed, and what survived. All the johnson grass I sprayed has died very nicely, but some other plant enemies survivied my attack. So I doubled the dose of glysophate in my mixture and hit them again.
Friday, June 12, 2020
One of today's jobs was making a wood skid to hold the engine short block when I take it to Tulsa tomorrow. With the low skid and the pan, transmission, flywheel, and magneto removed, the block will fit easily in the trunk of the Camry and I won't have to use the gas hog Suburban.
Saturday, June 13, 2020
Tulsa day. I left a little after 6:30 and arrived at Mikes's place a little after nine. He checked the valves and guides and cylinders for wear, and we discussed what would be the best course of action. The plan is to install new valves and seats, hone the cylinders, and install new rings. I was pleased that more expensive measures aren't needed, and disappointed that the hard-start no-start problem seems not to have been caused by bad compression. That means the cause is something that so far has me stumped.
Sunday, Flag Day, 2020
On another lazy Sunday morning I spent a lot of time online. Some of it was actually useful research, and some was just recreational web surfing. In the afternoon I concocted another five gallons of MED and sprayed brush and little trees in the road to my north brush piles. It looks like the recent spell of hot dry days is making that road usable again. I'll try it out this week. I also took a walk down the road in the wood lot, and was delighted to see that's drying out too. The wettest, most impassable part since May last year is now mud with no seepage or pools of standing water. If this keeps up I'll be able to drive on that road in July for the first time in over a year.
Monday, June 15, 2020
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Tuesday, June 16, 2020
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Wednesday, June 17, 2020
Never went off the place today. An inspection walk showed some of the vegetation I sprayed Sunday starting to wither, so I mixed ten more gallons of the same formula and attacked more weeds. There was a pretty good breeze blowing, but I didn't have to worry about overspray as there was nothing nearby I needed to save. A couple of other jobs were pulling weeds and grass in front of the shop, and the same in front of the house. The latter will get nasturtium and zinnia seeds tomorrow. I'll skip the hollyhocks, as those get too tall for that location.
Thursday, June 18, 2020
Got 'em in. Seeds are in the ground and watered. I did more weeding in front of the shop, and watered on the east side of the house to soften the ground for weeding and planting there. Of course, after all the watering we got overnight rain that was heavy enough to leave big puddles in the driveway. The forecast shows Friday rain too. That's OK. I have plenty of indoor chores to do.
Friday, June 19, 2020
This was a good day to get a little housework done. That included vacuuming and mopping the bathroom, and stacking scattered trash lumber on the front porch to be sawed up for firewood.
Saturday, June 20, 2020
Ann came home today. My cousin Ernie and his wife were married over six decades. Today he and the other Kansas City Parkers brought her ashes down to Parker Cemetery to join the generations of family buried there. Photos are here.
Sunday, June 21, 2020
Blah. I don't feel sick, but weak and tired. No headache, but a hint of one coming on. No bellyache, but a hint of one coming on. I didn't do much today but nap and just lie around. This began yesterday, and last night I ate less than half the dinner I prepared and put the rest in the fridge. Tonight I had enough appetite to finish the leftovers, so apparently I'm recovering from whatever this was.
Monday, June 22, 2020
Well, that was a surprise. I stepped on the scales this morning and saw 1381/2. I try to maintain a weight of 140-145. That gives me a BMI of 19, at the skinny end of the normal range. That feels good to me. Certainly better than my former weights up to 235. Being officially slightly underweight means I can enjoy some extra tasty treats this week. I'll start this evening with fried onions . After taking advantage of soft ground to pull a weed patch along the west drive, I spent the afternoon with a drive for products not available here. First was a stop at the Winfield Walmart for a few six ounce boxes of Crunch & Munch. I used to buy it at the local store, but now they ony carry the twelve ounce size. That's too much for one sitting, and once it's opened it tends to get soggy and stale. Next was a stop at Dillons store in Derby for diet Squirt, a drink I like that's not available at our local Dillons. Finally it was Grace market in Wichita for a couple of gallon jars of sliced cabbage kimchi. I could get the kimchi closer to home, but not in the large size for the lowest price per ounce. Those two gallons will last well into August or maybe September.
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
We hold these truths to be self-evident... Yielding to temptation, I wasted my morning defending our country's founding principle on Facebook. Casting pearls before swine. Folks who consider themselves loyal, patriotic Americans were posting lots of stuff that was subtly and not-so-subtly white supremacist. Knowing I would persuade nobody, I still felt the need to wave the flag for that second sentence in the Declaration. In the afternoon I got some yard work done, watering plantings that needed watering, pitching piles of yard waste into the truck, and breaking up some defunct particle board to go into the firewood supply for next winter.
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
The plan was to mow. Well, eventually I did. But not nearly as much as I had expected. When I pushed the starter button on the mowing tractor all I got was a feeble click. Trying to start the thing with the hand crank was a no-go, so I put a charger on the battery and moved on to other work. That was removing big weeds across the road from the mailbox. Not just any weeds, but bull thistle. That's a particularly nasty piece of work that comes equipped with lots of very sharp stickers that can pierce through leather work gloves. Fortunately the ground where I was working hadn't dried hard enough to make the job the ordeal it could have been. I got the last weed out a little after noon, sat in front of a fan and had a cold drink to cool down, and went to town for groceries, medicine, and cat food. After dinner I took the charger off the tractor, started up, and mowed by the west drive and along the road by the west field. After a half hour of mowing I shut off the tractor to go move a hose out of the way. When I tried to restart, the starter wouldn't turn over again and I put a charger to work on the battery overnight.
Thursday, June 25, 2020
After leaving a charger on the tractor battery overnight I pushed the start button and didn't get even a click. Obviously the problem was not a run-down battery. So I did some continuity checking and determined that the starter solenoid was defunct. A trip to town in search of a replacement came up empty, so the guys at the last store I tried ordered one for me to pick up tomorrow. That was at Tousley's Bumper 2 Bumper. Earlier, at O'Reilly, they found that the nearest solenoid in their system was in Dallas. I figured I could do better than that, and I guessed right.
Friday, June 26, 2020
Today's main project was a bit of Model T work I needed to get done. Someday soon I expect to head back to Mike's in Tulsa to pick up my 1915 engine. I'll be taking along my 1923 engine pan to adjust for straightness. Before straightening the pan, I needed to fix its arms to fit the frame better. That's what I did today.
 The arms should sit flat on the
frame rail.
With both of them angled up like this I had to raise the front of the body a couple of inches to get the engine out of the car. |
 With the arm hole not matching
the frame hole it would be pretty tough installing a bolt.
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 Apply pressure with clamps, turn
it orange, and let it cool.
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 Sitting pretty. Arm flat on the
frame rail, and holes in alignment.
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Saturday, June 27, 2020
Another inspection walk down the south road through the wood lot confirmed that the dry-out continues. Even the wettest part will soon be safe to drive. The ten day forecast shows an unbroken string of hot, dry days. That should do it. Today I mowed the lane down to the woods, then mixed up five gallons of MED and sprayed stuff that has grown up in the south road. There's a lot more to spray, and some low-hanging branches to trim.
Sunday, June 28, 2020
Birthday #79. The centerpiece of today's activities was sandblasting Model T parts. I had planned to do more spraying, but spent so much time blasting and going to town for birthday goodies that I didn't get to it. The main course at dinner tonight was potato chips. Dessert was chocoate chip cookies and mint chocolate chip ice cream. I avoid heart attack foods most of the time so I can have them on special occasions.
Monday, June 29, 2020
Too much time wasted online. All I got done in the worthwhile activities department was spraying along the south road. I have a lot more of that to do, along with some chain saw surgery on low-hanging branches.
Tuesday, June 30, 2020 Back to work. In the morning I set up the blasting equipment and did more sandblasting on an oil pan and a pair of engine pans. I get only part of an item done before I have to stop and refill the blaster, so it takes more than one session to finish larger items. These pans will take more blasting. In the afternoon I mixed ten gallons of weed killer and did more spraying along the south road. When I run out of mix and have to go refill the sprayer, I put down a half dollar to mark the spot. With today's ten gallons I got a nice long stretch of road sprayed. |
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