Been a little too busy to post

 Hello everyone,

I’ve managed to get the wood stove completely cleaned and resealed( with the proper rivets!). So it’s ready to go. Got more wood cut, probably about 3 more trees should finish me off. 

Unfortunately, I have acquired a new project that needs my particular skill set. My youngest son was out in Denver for work/ vacation and his car broke down! Turns out he lost the timing belt. If you’re familiar with “new” engines, they have interference engines and non-interference. What that means is if you lose a timing belt or chain on an interference engine, you probably bend your valves, and a non-interference engine, you probably don’t. Guess what kind he has?

So, the wife and I had tickets to a show over in Illinois by St. Louis to see Heartsfield and decided to go to the show and then leave the next day to go “rescue “ the car. Actually, it was a very nice trip.

The show was great, as always with those guys. The theatre had wonderful sound and was sold out!  

The place was called the Wildey Theatre and it was in Edwardsville, Illinois. We had packed enough stuff for the trip and left there on Sunday to head west.

As I said it really was a pretty nice trip. We had to pick up the car tote on Wednesday morning in Wellington, Colorado, which is just east of the Rockies. We had kind of curved around and up into the mountains, just to add a little adventure to the trip. We took a nice scenic route up to Estes Park on Tuesday and then came down the mountain and picked up everything on Wednesday.

The pictures of the elk were taken in Estes Park, they were walking around the town! I didn’t realize that that area is considered high desert, thus the pictures of the wild cactus.

So, we loaded everything up and drove home without a single issue. Kind of surprising but none the less it happened.

Got back yesterday, and today is cleaning out the shop and making room for the car so I can pull the head off and see how much damage is done. Hoping just for bent valves and no big broken bits. We’ll see if our luck holds out!

Well, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon, 

TVI 

Back and at it again

 Hello everyone,

Well, we finished off the vacation with a couple of days at the Covered Bridge Festival, in Rockville. Pretty nice, actually. We traveled around the countryside and stayed away from the main festival haunts, with one exception. That one provided all the things we needed to complete the experience! Cinnamon rolls, and Amish breads!

We got back and started cutting wood again, the middle son got quite a bit split and stacked while we were gone. All I did was help finish what he didn’t finish splitting.

We should have this finished up this week and we’ve found about 5 or 6 more trees that need to come down. I fixed the the old gator, had to put in a new electric fuel pump, and I started putting new seals on the fire doors on the outdoor boiler. I didn’t realize how bad those seals were! I’ve got to drain the water in the boiler and replace the anode Rod, I also bought a new thermometer because the glass is cracked on mine and water gets in it. That should be this weekend and we should be ready for winter.

Actually, saw a few snowflakes dying around yesterday, seems pretty early, hope that isn’t a sign of things to come!

Anyway, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon,

TVI

Woodstock and whales

 Hello everyone,

We visited the Woodstock museum and it was very cool. Lots of facts I didn’t know and some great footage from the event I’ve never seen.

I didn’t realize it was moved to a different spot just one month before the show, man those people worked their asses off to have that thing go off on time!

After that we drove east and landed in Plymouth Rhode Island, home of our beautiful country! We finally went whale watching and it was just the coolest thing. I didn’t get any really nice pictures but we must have seen 40-50 whales. We were standing at the back of the boat looking to our left watching some and three came up about 4’ from the back of the boat and actually blew water on us! It felt like I could have reached out and touched them, unbelievable!

Well, I think we’re heading home now, there’s still a lot of work to do at home.

I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon, 

TVI

Wow, far out man

 Hello everyone,

So far the vacation has had its ups and downs, I will say mostly ups. We’ve been trying to skirt around the remnants of Ian because the damn roof vent on the van has been leaking again. 

We stopped at a very cool brewery in Honesdale, PA. The owner was a fun guy with a ton of stories to tell about the town and surrounding area. 

Well it turns out that we were only about 30 minutes from the original site of Woodstock! Well, shit man, if you’re a boomer of any kind you need to go there! So, after the best damn brisket sandwich I’ve ever had, 

and a little more conversation, the owner offered me a ladder and the next morning I tried patching the roof vent for, I think, the fourth damn time now. After that, off to Woodstock!

Down at the bottom of the hill was where the stage was setup. After the patching and the drive up there we didn’t have time that day for the museum, so we went back the next day. Found a nice little campground about 5 minutes from the place with nice showers and finished off the day.

We’re still planning on heading East to the coast and try to get in some whale watching, fingers crossed.

Well, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon,

TVI

Just an update

 Hello everyone,

As I said in the previous post, my wife and I went on probably our last extended vacation this year.

We’ve had a nice first few days, except for the rain leftover from Hurricane Ian! First two days were nice sunny and crisp, the last two days rainy, cloudy and bummers. 

First and only real planned stop on this vacation:

I didn’t realize until after I put the picture up that my thumb made an appearance!! If you’re into music at all, this is an absolute bucket list place to visit. From the very beginnings of rocks formation of blues and country to the newest techno stuff, this place has it all!

I don’t know where we’re headed from here, we kind of decided to fly by the seat of our pants and let the wind blow us in the right direction.

Well, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon,

TVI 

And so it begins

 Hello everyone,

The title says it’s time for wood cutting! It’s a lot of work for me, being almost 70, but it’s still my favorite time of year. Cool and crisp, not cold and snowy. The leaves are falling and changing colors. Plus, the work heats my house all winter, without paying the price for LP gas.

Here is the start,

Three large trees down, two were dead, one was dangerous for walking by. I’ve tried over the years to take the damaged ones if I could. 

The wife and I are leaving on vacation for a week or two, so my middle son is in charge of processing the wood that’s down. It’s mostly cut into chunks already but needs to be split, collected and stacked. We added a new spot to store wood awhile back, which hopefully makes it easier to keep the home fires burning. When we get back we’ll have more wood to cut, I’m guessing about 5 more or so good size trees

Well, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon,

TVI

It’s been awhile

 Hello everyone,

Yep, it’s been awhile, but I have been busy. Still getting the yard cleaned up and ready for fall. Ordered new chains and bars for the saws, that’s about the next project on the list, cutting wood.

Since I sold my pickup, I haven’t had a way of hauling too much around so I had an old homemade trailer sitting out in back of the barn and the wife and I decided it was time to resurrect it. The whole bottom was rotted out of it from sitting outside all of this time and the mice had eaten most of the wiring up. The hitch on it was very worn out, I have been using it on the back of the 4 wheeler to move wood and wood chips around so it moved but not road worthy.

So, found a wiring harness that I had in my picking pile, I also had an almost new hitch for a 2” ball ( the old one was 1 7/8”), but it was for a three inch tube and the one on the trailer was 2 1/2” tube. So, I met up with my brother and Sho Teacher Bob for breakfast and asked him if he had any scrap 1/4” plate laying around and he did. He cut me up a couple of pieces and I stopped by and picked them up and, Bob’s your Uncle, spaced it out perfectly.

I’m no where near the welder that Shop Teacher Bob is but, I can make it stick together pretty well. Anyway, got all that taken care of, and had to install a wiring kit in Diego for the trailer lights.

My oldest son had a full sheet of 3/4” chipboard leftover from a project and said I could have it for the bottom of the trailer. Not exactly the perfect bottom but good enough for me to use for a few years at least, as long as I park it in the barn.

So I drove up to his house this morning and stuffed that sheet in the bottom and then loaded up a bunch of junk he wanted to be rid of.

I also had the job of installing a new garage door opener for him, which I didn’t mind at all ( I got a carnitas lunch out of it, so, all cool!). I was only there about 5 minutes and he dropped a trailer hitch on my big toe! Wasn’t really his fault, it just happened. I don’t think it’s broken but, it’s pretty bruised and pretty sore.

I did stay and put the door opener all together and programmed it so it’s all working.,

So, it looks like clean the shop and help the middle son fix the gas leak on his van tomorrow and then probably start cutting wood.

Well, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon,

TVI