At least once every summer one of the swifts gets confused and comes down the chimney into the house. I have to catch them and put them outside. I keep forgetting to put a screen over the chimney in the spring before they arrive. Maybe I'll remember next year. Today I got started on house cleaning. Specifically, I cleaned the ashes out of the fireplace and the kitchen stove, and sawed up scrap lumber on the front porch. I'll box it up for part of next winter's firewood.


Monday, August 2, 2021

The last pair of clean sox told me this was laundry day. While the first load was washing I pulled weeds and mowed the tall grass under the clothesline. If you've never seen how I do laundry and care to watch, the video is here. The other day I received an email from a Model T guy in California who plans to make a couple of wheels. He doesn't have a drill guide to make the bolt holes straight, so I boxed up the one I made and mailed it to him this afternoon. While I was in town to do that and pick up some celery, I stopped at the Walmart to use the Pursuant tester to check my blood pressure. Today it was 119/71. I consider numbers under 120/80 OK. Most of the time mine qualifies for that designation. It seems the BP pills are doing their job most days.


Tuesday, August 3, 2021

On a lovely not-too-hot day I put in a long session of weed pulling in the yard behind the shop. At the same time I laundered three raggedy army blankets. During cold weather when Shorty comes inside at night and sleeps on my bed, I have the army blankets there to keep my big comforter from getting dirty. In the afternoon I finished boxing up wood scraps on the front porch and setting them in the garage for next winter's firewood supply. There are several big dead trees that will become firewood too. I plan to start on those during cool fall weather.


Wednesday, August 4, 2021

This was the fourth day in a row that a swift came down the chimney into the house. That's what I call a slow learner. Something of a birdbrain. It was flapping around in my bedroom when I woke up. This time I didn't have to catch it and take it outside. I was able to take a screen off a window and let it fly out. I guess we'll find out tomorrow if it's learning to stay out. My work today was on the runabout. I was able to get it started and do the WD-40 test. It was running erratically and rough and wanted to die when I tried to throttle it down. I sprayed some WD-40 at the ports where the intake manifold is attached to the engine. When I sprayed the rear port that made the engine run smoother and a little faster. That meant there was a leak at that spot and the spray was being sucked into the engine. So I removed the manifold, cleaned it up and reinstalled it with new gaskets and hi temp RTV. That must have fixed the manifold leak. This time when I got the car started it ran normally. The problem is that it's still a hard starter. It won't start without one rear wheel jacked off the floor, and even with a wheel jacked up it takes an awful lot of cranking to get it running.  If a Model T doesn't start on the first or second pull of the crank, something's wrong. Tomorrow I'll put a different carburetor on the car and see if that helps.

Thursday, August 5, 2021 A little earlier I was sitting here in my office when I felt something moving on my hand. A tick! Not one of those teeny tiny little black speck ticks that have turned up here in recent years, but a big old fashioned watch-the-legs-move full sized tick. I left it crawling on my hand looking for a place to dig in as I went downstairs to the shop, got a tissue, soaked it with lacquer thinner, and wrapped Mrs. Tick in it. She will be cremated when I burn the trash. After the adventure of the tick I performed my daily ritual of figuring out the Cryptoquote in the paper. I always do that and the crossword. I don't usually bother with the sudoku because it just takes too long. The Cryptoquote often has a one-letter word (a or I) for an easy start, but sometimes it lacks those as well as common spelling patterns. That can make it harder to figure out. So I'm done with the paper and it's time for today's blog entry. What did I do today? I sprayed again. The active ingredient I used last time killed the broadleaf weeds well enough, but it wasn't the right stuff for Johnson grass. So yesterday I stopped at the co-op and picked up a 2½ gallon jug of Eraser concentrate, and today I went back and sprayed the surviving Johnson grass and the other weeds I missed last time. I mixed ten gallons. I had used up 7½ gallons of that when I had to leave for a dental appointment. It was just a cleaning. The hygienist commented that everything looked good, and suggested that we change the appointment schedule from every four months to every six months. That was OK with me, so I won't go again until next February. With teeth-cleaning done, I stopped at the Walmart to check my blood pressure. The result was an acceptable 118/73. When I got home from town I put the remaining 2½ gallons of the magic elixir of death in the sprayer and finished the weed war for today. I took an inspection walk in the wood lot and found that the road has dried out enough to allow driving without getting stuck, so I will soon be working down there again.

Friday, August 6, 2021

After chow this evening, and after the News Hour, Washington Week, and Kansas Week, there was enough daylight left for me to haul a truckload of branches to the northeast brush pile. Happily, the ground has dried out enough that I was in no danger of getting stuck. Earlier in the day I spent considerable time studying the Stewart speedometer I intend to install on my runabout. The car is a 1915 and the speedometer is a 1916, but I don't care as long as it works. This car is a driver, not a show car.


Saturday, August 7, 2021

Busy, busy, busy. First up was hauling piles of tree trimmings and pulled weeds to the brush pile to get them out of the way. After that I mowed an area behind the shop for a trailer parking space. I went to Winfield to check out the Defore auction. The only thing I wanted there was a small pile of cedar shingles. In the order the auction follows they would come up for sale at the very end, in mid-to-late afternoon. I came home and unhitched the trailer in its new parking spot. It still has those tractor pieces on it, and they will stay until I clear a place to dump them. I headed for Wichita in the Suburban instead of going by Camry as I usually do, because I needed hauling space.  I stopped at the auction to see if those shingles were bout to come up for sale. Nope. It looked like it would be another hour. So I told Dan Defore that I would bid up to $10 when they did come up. I'll find out Mondy if I bought them. Continuing on to Wichita I stopped to shop for Diet Squirt, which turned out to be out of stock everywhere, then made a kimchi stop at Grace Market. My final shopping was at Home Depot for two 10' pieces of 1" metal conduit. Why Home Depot and not Lowe's? Better price. Dinner was a tasty meal of a burrito de chorizo, a tamal, and frijoles refritos at El Agave. The movie was a second viewing of The Green Knight. On the way home I was stopped by a cop in Rose Hill because I have a dead headlight. So there's something else to fix. By the time I got home it was 10:40 PM and I was ready to hit the sack.


Sunday, August 8, 2021

Getting a late start I was up at eight and spent a big part of the morning schmoozing on the internet, then spent the afternoon in the shop working on the runabout. I had a devil of a time getting the car started with the Holley NH carburetor that was on it, so last week I took that off and installed a Holley G. I got a couple of easy starts with that, and I thought the hard starting problem was cured. But the car would still only start with a rear wheel jacked off the floor, and even with that help it was soon back to hard starting. When you have to pull the crank a dozen times or more to get an engine running, that is unacceptable. So today I took off the G and put on another NH. I didn't even try to start the car, as this carb had gas dripping out of it at a pretty good clip. So I had to take it off and fix the leaking float valve. I put it back on the car, turned on the gas, pulled three times on choke, flipped the switch, and tried starting. It fired on the third pull. But given recent experience, I didn't assume the hard starting was fixed. I restarted several times, and it usually went on the second or third pull, even with all four wheels on the floor. Perfect would be starting on the first pull, but I'm calling two or three good enough for now.The car ran smoothly with a little adjustment, but I couldn't get it down to a slow idle. Installing a slightly longer throttle rod fixed that. So it seems this car is just about ready to drive. I may take it for a little test run tomorrow. After dinner this evening I took an inspection walk and found even the worst parts of the wood lot road dried out enough to use. So one of my chores this week will be taking the truck and the chain saw down there and clearing away all the fallen branches blocking some parts of the road. That reminds me. I need to sharpen that saw.


Monday, August 9, 2021

When my ship comes in and I'm rolling in dough, the first thing I'll do is hire somebody to follow me around and keep track of where I leave things. Where is the NH carburetor I took off the runabout last week? I have no clue. It's somewhere in my shop, but nowhere I've looked for it. Where are the two tail lights I want to adapt for the runabout? Again, nowhere I've looked. The infuriating thing is that I had these things in my hands just a few days ago, and now it's as if they never existed. It is absolutely maddening. Anyway, I did something besides drive myself nuts looking for lost objects today. The engine in the runabout had a slow coolant leak from a tiny crack in the head, so last night I drained the coolant and this morning I used a small grinder to excavate the crack a little wider and filled it with JB weld. I'll find out tomorrow whether I've cured the leak. My other morning activity was stripping old paint and then wire brushing a pair of motorcycle lights I'll use for turn signals. I masked them and painted the interiors white. I hope the white interior will brighten them at least a little. Tomorrow I'll mask the interiors and paint the exteriors black. When I went to town for groceries the mystery of the missing tail lights was solved. I found one of them on the front passenger seat. I had intended to take it shopping for a double contact plug to fit it. That reminded me where to look for the other one, so now I have both of them in a place I'm not likely to forget. And did I find that plug to fit? Of course not. I thought I would have to conduct an online search, but it occurred to me that perhaps a Model T plug would fit. I tried one, and it did, so I can get the plugs for these lights from any of the Model T parts dealers. With both tail lights located, I spent the rest of the afternoon cutting and fitting sheet metal strips I'll solder in to eliminate the openings for license plate lighting. I'll take some pictures so you can see what all this looks like.


Tuesday, August 10, 2021

It is the season of sweat. As I write this the hour of ten PM is near and the thermometer here in my office reads 89º F. I have a fan blowing on me, and it's not bad. When it's time to turn in I'll bed down on the front porch swing to catch any breeze that comes along, and sometime after midnight I'll go up to my bed after the upstairs has cooled down a bit. I'm not complaining. I'd rather have this than freezing. And what did I do today? Body work, mostly. I set about filling the license light holes in my two "new" tail lights. I don't have enough experience with body solder to be really good at it, but I think the work doesn't look too bad so far.

Someday I'll get around to setting up. a blasting cabinet, but for now it's outdoor work.

Blasted and ready for body work. Got to fill those big side openings.

Cutting a backing brace to hold patches in place.

Puff and Shorty are watching to be sure I do everything right.

Patch cut, formed, and ready to solder in place.

Tinning to make the solder stick.

In theory this is pretty simple. In practice it's not as easy as it sounds.

Excess solder is taken off with the rasp.

Smoothng a bit with the air grinder.

There was more today, but I'll tell about that later. To be continued...

Wednesday, August 11, 2021 So here's the rest of the story from yesterday. Recently I noticed a tiny coolant leak just to the left of the #1 head bolt. I wasn't particularly alarmed by this. Several years ago I patched a similar leak near the back of the head and had no further trouble from it. So on Monday I dug out this new little crack with a small grinder and filled it with JB Weld. Yesterday I sanded it smooth and started pouring coolant into the radiator to be sure I had stopped the leak. I had, but antifreeze welled up out of the bolt hole! Apparently the inside of this head's water passages have been so rusted out during the past century that it's going to spring leaks in multiple places. So I got on the phone to Model T Haven and asked Mark if he had a replacement head for me. He did, and I'll pick it up from him at the East Central Kansas T's club meeting tomorrow night.

Today I spent a big chunk of the day going back to Wichita in the Suburban. The two sticks of EMT conduit I got at Home Depot Saturday turned out to be water pipes, not EMT. Some stock person had put them in the electrical department, but they belonged in plumbing. So I took them back today and got the EMT conduit I intended to get in the first place. While I was in Wichita  I stopped at Grace Market and got another gallon of 김치, as they only had one when I was there Saturday. Two gallons should last into October.


Thursday, August 12, 2021

Up early, I had the Suburban at the Walmart tire shop at 7:00 AM when the place opened. During yesterday's drive to and from Wichita there was a whole lot of shaking going on. I was afraid a wheel might be coming loose, but when I checked them all the lugs were tight. Loose drive shaft? Nope, all was well there. So I wanted to find out if a wheel was out of balance and jumping up and down. That was it. Along with balancing all the wheels, I had to replace a tire that was worn out. The old chariot ran a lot smoother coming home. After a shower and clean duds, I shifted into chef mode. It's the custom at ECKT's meetings for everyone to bring some grub, so I made cookies. I doubled the recipe and ended up with four dozen, and they were pretty good. When I had them on a plate, and covered with plastic wrap, and in a box, I took them out to put them in the car. There, in the trunk of the Camry, was the Holley NH carburetor I've been going nuts looking for in the shop. Why was it there? I have absolutely no memory of putting it there, and no clue why. Anyway, I left it in there and took it to the meeting tonight for show and tell. Because I drive on country roads a lot, I've installed an air filter on the carb, and I took it to show that. The meeting was fine, but Mark didn't show up with that head I was going to buy. I thought I'd go  by his place and pick it up on the way home but he wasn't answering his phone, so I don't know if he was even there. I'll try phoning tomorrow, and if he still has it I'll get to enjoy a six hour drive going to fetch it.


Friday, August 13, 2021

This morning I did get hold of Mark, and he did still have the low head. I spent the morning researching and ordering parts so I'll have them next week. I spent the afternoon driving to Iola and back to fetch that head. I was going to sand blast it after chow tonight and get it painted, but my blasting equipment got temperamental and fought me, then I ran out of daylight. I hope I can get that job done tomorrow. This evening I spent  an hour or so putting masking tape on the two rear turn signal lights and the two tail lights and did the last painting on all of them. Tomorrow I'll remove the masking tape and cook them and be ready to start assembling things. I still have to buy a couple of switches, and I hope I can get those locally.


Saturday, August 14, 2021

First up this morning was shopping for switches and sockets. I finished that and pulling the masking tape off the cans for baking, then spent the rest of the day sandblasting that "new" head. The layer of flat black paint came off fairly easily, but the rust under the paint is another story. That was mighty slow going. I had to stop and fix the equipment, cutting off a few inches of leaking hose, and that helped a little. After many years of recycling sand through window screen, I recently switched to a 1/8" mesh which sped up the recycling considerably. It removes the leaves and twigs that fall into the sand, but I did have to stop and remove a little stone that clogged the nozzle. Fortunately that doesn't happen often.


Sunday, August 15, 2021

Needing more blasting sand on a day when the lumber yard is closed, I phoned the farm supply. Yes, said the guy at Orscheln, they had two bags. When I got there, what I found was Black Diamond Abrasive, which is coal slag. A 50 pound bag is about $10, 20¢ a pound. Sand is about 7¢ a pound. Is the coal slag more than twice as good as sand? I decided to try a bag and find out. The answer is no. It does seem to work a little faster, but more than twice as fast? Not even close. Anyway, I finished blasting the head. I filled a small but conspicuous pit with body solder, and shot on a couple of coats of Rustoleum. I use a satin finish on chassis parts, including the engine, but the appearance is not consistent. Some batches of satin finish look more glossy than satin, like what I have currently. I'm not delighted, but it will have to do. I don't have time to wait for a batch I like better to show up. The paint job will cook tomorrow. The new head bolts I ordered Friday should arrive tomorrow afternoon. I'll paint them, cook them overnight, and be ready to install the new head on Tuesday. I need to have the car ready to go on a local tour beginning the 27th, and a week after that it will be time to head to Detroit for the Old Car Festival.


Monday, August 16, 2021

No new head bolts in today's mail. Maybe tomorrow. I did put the newly painted head in the oven this morning, so it should be well cured by the time I'm ready to install it. Today's main project was resuming the war on unwanted vegetation. I mixed another ten gallons of weed killer and took far too long to use it up. I lost count of how many times I had to stop and deal with balky equipment. The sprayer had two problems. One was sometimes spraying sideways. The other was that it wouldn't shut off. Both problems were caused by little bits of leaves and other trash getting into the works. The final time I cleaned it all out I refilled the tank with a cloth strainer on top of the funnel and another cloth strainer under the funnel. That finally kept the system free of debris and functioning properly. I sprayed in a lot of places, and in a few days when I can see what's wilting and what I missed I'll do some more. I took the final two gallons or so down the wood lot road to a large patch of weeds. I covered about half the patch, so I'll need to get the other half next time.


Tuesday, August 17, 2021

For a few days I haven't been hearing the swifts in the chimney, and now I know why. I found a dead one in an upstairs bedroom. Without the parent feeding them I suppose the young ones starved, or if they were big enough maybe they moved out. This is the first time a swift coming down the chimney into the house didn't learn the lesson the first or second time. This one came back multiple times, and the last time I didn't notice it and it died. I need to remember to put a screen over the chimney before they arrive in the spring. Today's main project was making a brace to keep the clothesline poles upright so the wires will be tight and won't sag. The new head bolts arrived today and I painted the heads. They will bake overnight so I can install the head and get that car running again.


Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Yesterday I made the brace to keep the clotheslines from sagging. Today I added braces to the brace to keep it from sagging. This keeps getting more complicated and elaborate. I should have just bought heavier pipe for the poles to begin with. I'm afraid installing this brace will be more complicated than making it. I'm waiting for the cool of the morning to tackle that. Tonight I got to work on downloading and copying maps to expand my home made Kansas road atlas. On my next trip I'll be going a way I haven't been before, so I need to add a few counties. I must say the KDOT website has some of the best county maps on the net. Some states don't have any county maps at all. Some of the biggest tourist states have the worst websites, with lousy maps or none at all.


Thursday, August 19, 2021

Well, putting up that brace on the clothesline poles turned out to be a lot easier than I expected. One of the poles was leaning slightly to the east, but a gentle tractor tug with a tow strap straightened it up and simplified things nicely. When I went to town for groceries I got some strap clamps to hold the brace in place. I got two of the wires reinstalled before I ran out of daylight, and I should finish up the project in the morning. While I was in town I also shopped for some tubing of the right size to make tail light sockets. Of course there is nothing sold locally that comes close, so that will have to be an internet purchase if I can find it. I also discovered that I can no longer buy the toothpaste I like, Pepsodent, at either of the drugstores where I used to buy it. The internet suggests I may find it at Family Dollar. We shall see.


Friday, August 20, 2021

These days my menu includes home grown tomatoes. A neighbor has a little stand by the road where you can pick out the tomatoes, cucumbers, and other stuff he's raised, and leave your money in the box. The tomatoes really do have more flavor than store bought ones. They are one of the joys of summer. This morning I finished work on the clothes lines, mostly. One of the wires is a little loose, but I'll deal with that later. In just twelve days it will be time to hit the road and head for the Old Car Festival in Michigan, and I have a LOT to do to get ready. First, of course, is getting the car ready to make the trip. Actually I have less than a week for that, as I'm going on a local Model T tour next Friday. Today I installed the "new" head on the engine and drained the oil to be sure the recent coolant leaks didn't leave antifreeze in the bottom of the oil pan. I should get the car running tomorrow.


Saturday, August 21, 2021

First up this morning was a drive to Winfield to check out the Defore auction. I did see something I wanted, and I estimated that they would get around to it between 3:00 and 4:00 PM. I came home and got a little bit of a start on tail/brake light brackets, and put in more research on my route to the Old Car Festival. I returned to the auction a little after three, and my guess on the time was pretty good. I didn't have to wait long to buy three boxes of player piano rolls. I paid $4.88 for about seventy rolls, a little under 7¢ a roll. One of my winter projects this year will be getting the player piano in shape to play. After buying it at an auction several years ago I've never tried to run it or find out what it needs. Maybe it needs a lot of fixing, or maybe it needs nothing. It's time to find out. After dinner at the Chinese buffet this evening, the movie was The Protégé. It's a well-done action flick. Michael Keaton gets top billing, but it's really about Maggie Q's character, and she is the real star. I've never seen her before, and I was impressed by her performance. She slays the bad guys very convincingly.


Sunday, August 22, 2021

Never went off the place today. I didn't plan it that way. I just didn't need to go get anything that can't wait. The main project of the day was working on those tail/brake light brackets, with a couple of long breaks in front of a fan with a cold drink. I'd rather have hot weather than cold, but I'm looking forward to the arrival of lower humidity. I made good progress on the brackets, and should finish them and get them painted tomorrow. I have ten days to get these lights on the car and working before I hit the road for Dearborn, along with lots of other stuff I need to do before I go.


Monday, August 23, 2021

Progress  and failure.  The progress was on the tail light brackets. I finished them, sandblasted them, painted them, and put them in the oven to bake overnight. I also painted the little nuts and bolts that go with them, and set those to baking too. The failure was on the part of the farm supply and the alleged hardware store, both of which were out of the 3/8-16 wing nuts I want to use. There are a couple of other places I'll try tomorrow. If they fail too I'll just use hex nuts until I get to a town with a real hardware store.


Tuesday, August 24, 2021

About four this afternoon as I drove down Summit Street my car thermometer read 100º F. When I got home it was 95º here. It's usually about five degrees cooler (or less hot) here than in town. The warming climate brings not only hotter daytime highs,  but also warmer overnight lows. The forecast shows 75º in the morning. That would be a nice daytime high. This morning I had to take a medical detour. For the past couple of weeks my left foot has been developing blisters. I would drain them and they would start to heal, then another would appear. The most recent three are not healing, and feeling rather raw. Worse, I noticed this morning that the foot is swollen and turning red. So I went to the clinic to have it checked. My doc of many years retired last fall, and his replacement recently bailed, so today I saw a PA.  He diagnosed a staph infection. It's not serious yet, but it could get serious. The words sepsis and amputation came up. So, I am taking a generic for Bactrim in an effort to knock this thing out, and the PA took a swab that will go to the hospital for a culture to determine a more precise diagnosis, which may suggest some other medicine. After my morning at the clinic I drove up to Winfield to buy welding rod and a fifty pound bag of dog food that was out of stock here (of course). Other stops were at the market for celery and the lumber yard for blasting sand. The lumber yard also had the wing nuts which Orscheln, Ace, and Fastenal failed to have, so I won't have to wait on those until I get to a town with a real hardware store.


Wednesday, August 25, 2021

My dwindling supply of clean sox suggested this as laundry day. All went as usual until the second rinse of the first load. When I dropped the drain hose into the shower to let the rinse water run out of the machine, nothing came out. I tossed the sopping overalls into the shower and ran all the sox through the wringer and into the basket. Then I pulled the dasher out of the machine and felt around in the bottom of the tub in search of whatever was clogging the drain. I felt something move, and the water started to drain out. When most of the water was out I could see what had been clogging the drain, and it was not a bit of cloth as I had expected. It seems I failed to get all the change out of a pocket before this or some previous wash, and a dime was blocking the hole! After I got all the coins out of the machine and back in my pocket where they belong, the rest of laundry day was uneventful. Other activities of the day included painting some parts I had missed on my new tail light brackets, working on some of the mounting hardware, putting away the blasting equipment, and unloading the blasting sand I bought yesterday. This was my Facebook comment about that last chore:
Some parts of being old don't bother me. In fact I like the accumulated wisdom (assuming it's not just dementia). But I absolutely hate being so damn feeble. This afternoon I unloaded four 80-pound bags of blasting sand from the trunk of my car and stacked them in front of the shop. Ten years ago I would have done the job in a few minutes, but today it was a twenty minute struggle. Maybe I need to force myself to take the time for a program of strength-building exercise, because this really sucks.
And so it goes...


Thursday, August 26, 2021

How did I get so little done today? The long, hot, dry spell is starting to stress some of the vegetation, so I watered a few of the small trees and bushes that were showing the strain. I spent a lot of time on those new tail lights and ended the day with only one bracket installed on the car and not much else finished. I did get to the pharmacy soon after they opened and picked up that tube of antibiotic salve I was supposed to get Tuesday. After having it smeared on the lesions all day the foot is feeling a little better this evening.


Friday, August 27, 2021

All day I mostly worked on the runabout, getting it ready for the tour this weekend. I didn't finish the taillights, but that's OK. This tour won't have any night driving.


Saturday, August 28, 2021

 

The tour began this morning at the Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum, where we got an introduction to Etzanoa, a town of 20,000 along the Walnut River occupied by the ancestors of the Wichita tribe.  In 1601 Juan de Oñate y Salazar, governor of New Mexico, led an expedition of 130 Spanish soldiers and 12 priests and a retinue of 130 American Indian soldiers and servants. The expedition possessed 350 horses and mules. They crossed the Texas Panhandle and into the present state of Oklahoma, and went as far east as Kay County. Somewhere in the vicinity of present day Ponca City they encountered a people Oñate called Escanjaques. He estimated the population at more than 5,000 living in 600 houses. They were hunters, according to Oñate, depending upon the buffalo for their subsistence and planting no crops. The Escanjaques told Oñate there was a large settlement of their enemies, the Rayados, about twenty miles to the north. The Spaniards went north,  crossed the Arkansas River and proceeded about a mile farther north, to where they found the city of Etzanoa. It was deserted. The people had received word of the Spaniards' coming, and had fled. Proceeding northward through the village for a few miles, Oñate soon realized that he and his men were greatly outnumbered, and that it would be wise to get out while the getting was good. Accounts disagree but archaeological evidence found in the Crestwood section of Arkansas City confirms that there was indeed a battle that included the use of Spanish cannons. But was it with Rayados, or Escanjaques? My bet is the former. Anyway, having failed to find the fabulous seven golden cities of Cibola, the Oñate party returned to Santa Fe and the spaniards never again set foot in Etzanoa. The afternoon part of the tour included a visit to the Burford Theater, a beautifully restored 1924 movie palace. Sunday, August 29, 2021 This morning we visited talented blacksmith Chris Hasty, whose shop is in the former Bryant Hardware, a local landmark and institution for many decades. After that, museum director Sandy Randel took us on a walking tour of the downtown historic district. By this time the heat had really thinned the herd, and in the afternoon only two Model T's, a Model A, and a modern car made the run to Dexter for a visit to the Henry Candy Company, where most of the products are old favorites we remember from Childhood, and our grandparents remembered from their childhoods.

At the candy factory.

Taking the scenic route home.

Monday, August 30, 2021 Today I worked a little and rested a lot. The rest was because of the queasy almost-but-not-quite-sick feeling I've had for several days. It's put a serious dent in my appetite, and I've shed nine pounds in a week. The work included adjusting the brake pedal in the runabout a couple of inches higher, as it was almost down to the floor. During the tour Saturday I discovered that a couple of screws had fallen out of the steering wheel and into that Lost World where dropped small objects often disappear. Rather than take time trying to find the right screws, I just put on another steering wheel. Today I took a couple of good screws out of another wheel, wire brushed, and painted them. Another job today was replacing the short hose and chuck that were missing from my Enginair tire pump. This is the old type of pump that screws into a spark plug hole and works off compression from the engine. I'll carry it in the car, but I will also carry a Ford hand pump as a backup. I hate what can happen if you're out in the sticks with no way to blow up a tire. Tuesday, August 31, 2021 Still not feeling up to par, after breakfast I lay down on the front porch swing from eight to ten. Part of the time I dozed, and part of the time I looked up at the porch roof and admired the nice job I did when I rebuilt it. When I got up I put those painted screws into my regular steering wheel, and used red Locktite so maybe they will stay. I discovered that three screws had fallen out, not two. Fortunately, yesterday I ordered a set of four just to have some backups. They should arrive tomorrow. About noon I lay down on the swing again for a couple of hours, this time with an electric fan blowing on me to assuage the heat. In the afternoon I went to town and bought a 12 volt mower battery. I've been using a 6 volt battery with a converter to supply 12 volts to a phone charger and a Garmin. But the converter has gone south on me, so I'll run everything—tail/brake lights and other modern accessories—from a 12 volt source instead. With all this stuff to do, and lying around ailing, it's obvious I won't be ready to leave Thursday morning as planned.  I'm putting it off until Saturday, and if I'm still sick then I'll just have to cancel.

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