Well, another nice snowy day in Nebraska. Blizzard conditions, snow blowing sideways, 40 mph winds. Stayed home this morning, pushed my Inspection back to next week. Went into town about noon, 25-30 all the way. They did have Stagecoach plowed, sort of, and Hwy 43 was one lane, dodging cars, and with 40 mph crosswinds, I could only go 25 or so, winds trying to blow me sideways off the road. So switched to gravel roads, since the State Patrol had the Highway closed anyway. Got my paperwork turned in, did my Inspection, got gas and came back home, turned off on the Bennet Corner to find this....

two trucks jacknifed coming out of the Gas Station. First one had his trailer too far toward the curb and caught a snowbank, pulled the trailer off the road and stuck it, second one tried to go around him, swung too far and went off the shoulder. I got between them and took a look from the other side...

then about 300 yards down the road saw this...

one of many that just drove up on top of a drift and got high centered, stuck right in the middle of the driving lane. At least it was entertaining driving home...

Driveway had drifted in pretty good, but I didn't feel like firing the tractor up, as it is still quite windy and would blow back in anyway. So I just threw the 4WD in, and plowed my own path through the drive. Went back and forth a few times so I can get out in the morning.

 supposed to be 50 Wednesday. Go figure...

Managed to get Kyle started on re-routing the sewer lines for the Kitchen sink and washer, make room for some heat ducting for the corn furnace. He was hard at it....

he quickly got the new set up figured out, and was solvent welding away...

It all turned out good. We managed to practice sweating copper, and assmbling galvanized with both pipe thread compound and teflon tape, and he played with pipe wrenches...

So we will take photos and all into Scouts tomorrow night, probably on the laptop, since my color cartridge died and refilling it didn;t help...

We had a nice Christmas at Betty's, good pic of Maureen and Allen

and Kyle was looking way too comfortable...

We spent the afternoon, Allen and Kyle got to play airsoft with Dan and Russell, they always enjoy that.

We went home in the early evening, and Maureen got a ride in the Diamond T, then we came in and had our Christmas. Kids seemed pleased with their gifts. Tuesday we got Maureen off to Kansas, and Allen and Kyle and I went deer hunting. Kyle got a shot at one with his new rifle, at least. Just not seeing much out there to shoot at. And the bone head guys to the west of us put on a good show of how not to hunt each time we are down there. Chasing them on ATV's, using high-power rifles out of season, using fully automatic rifles. No hunters orange. Unreal. Almost hate to hunt there, someone will wind up getting shot. But hard to find ground to hunt on. Yet farmers complain about deer damage to their crops. Best let people hunt if you want the deer thinned out.

Did Inspections Wednesday and Thurs, helped Allen and his friends work on his friends' pickup a while in the evening. Today was spent typing up reports, took them in this afternoon. Allen had an MRI on his knee, won't know til Tuesday on that. Kyle had a wart removed on his foot, not sure how well he is hobbling around. NExt Wednesday I go get a wart removed off my neck, hopefully that will go smooth. As of right now, no Inspections lined up. Kind of nice for a change. Will watch some movies tonight, then work in the Garage tomorrow. Wanted to go hunting, but supposed to rain all day. Want to get the mower back together, some of those WB signs repaired and out of here. Do some measuring in the basement, get things started installing that corn furnace. Need to get that done before spring. And some more work on the D-T, perhaps figure out the vacuum advance, and perhaps the fuel gauge wiring. It would be nice to have that working. We will see how far I get.....

I managed to sneak in a day off today, last warm day for a  while. Worked on the Diamond T the bulk of the day. Had a heck of a time with the phone, darn thing ringing off the hook, everyone wanting me to come do A/C checks before it turned cold. Frustrating. One I even told her I was out of town working (which I was) and she asked if I could come back into town and get that Inspection done. I told her no, it would not be professional to leave one jobsite for another, in the middle of a job. She was a bit miffed, but accepted that. Sheesh. Anyway, I tackled the Diamond T Exhaust/Intake manifold gasket. I knew it would be a chore, but...

had to take the carb off to gain access, a couple fuel lines and some heater hoses, a few plug wires, then started in trying to loosen six manifold bolts. Incredibly hard to get to, I had to modify a wrench just to get down into the areas the bolts were. The rear one was inaccessible, so I had to remove the floorboard and come in that way...

what a pain in the butt. You had to turn each bolt about three turns, then the next, and move the manifold back from the block evenly. One bolt was so hard to get to, I had to use two wrenches and rotate them, turning the bolt one half of one flat each time. Took me three hours to remove six bolts.

Manifold gasket was definitely bad, mainly the left side lower area, that was the rear cylinder. The two ovals were still holding but fell apart when I removed it. Definitely a poor design, tho.

Here you can see the manifold pulled away from the block. I coated each manifold nut with anti-sieze compound before re-installing them. Went together a little faster than it came apart, (usually does) It was 60 out when I started on it, and 66 at 2:20. Then the front came in, it dropped 12 degrees in about 4 minutes, and continued to drop. When I finished it was 44. 22 degree drop. Went from T-shirt to coat and hat.

Here you can see the manifold pulled away from the block. Not much room to work. I will get some new radiator hoses and heater hoses while I am at it. And there is a freeze plug leaking and corroded, so I will pull that, and put a block heater in it's place. That should work. It is behind the generator, but I want to pull that and take it in for rebuild anyway. So that should be easy compared to this afternoon's project. I left the carb off, will get a kit for that and dismantle, clean, and rebuild it. Might as well. Then it should be good to go. Well, off to Peru to turn the stove on at Aunt Babe's, then swing past NC on the way home. Laters....

We bought some more lumber and started in on the deck again, it was supposed to be 55 and sunny Sunday, started out good. Kyle was in the Christmas spirit...

But it quickly turned cold, and wound up being jacket weather. We did get the truck unloaded, a few joists trimmed to length, and the headers nailed on...

then headed in for the evening. We worked on the wiring for the stairwell lights, got a ways on that.

Well, have a leak in the left rear wheel of the Diamond T. Guess the brakes are going to put up a fight. So I have to jack it up and tear it back down. Should be somewhat easier since I at least know how it goes together and apart. I am just afraid I am going to find a cracked Wheel cylinder housing. That will be fun, to try to find something like that. I hope it is something simple, but somehow that doesn't seem to be my luck.  We did work on the deck more, got boards cut and laid to near the water faucet. We had our first "campfire" in our fire ring, darn thing was so hot we had to back off a bit. Cats were curious, couldn't figure out what we were doing. Tonight is Scouts, start on the Radio Merit Badge. We will see how that goes. That can be a challenging one. I will bring a few radios tonight, and use a flip chart or erase board for a lot of it. Tomorrow is Elections, and I need to head to Peru also, so that will be a busy day. Need to send in one Radon Monitor for calibration, get that done. I have Inspections through Weds, think I'll schedule any additional ones for next week, that way I can have Thurs-Fri again to work out here. Put away all lawn chairs and glider for winter, move the concrete blocks out of the basement so I can position the corn furnace and get it ready to install. Need to get a 6-4" adapter for it as well. Need to work on the stairwell lights for basement, get that done so I can get sheetrock up. I really need to get that done so I can move windows over there, get more things put away on shelves. Make some room to work in. With a little luck I won't hear anything from anyone this week, usualy if enough time elapses everyone cools down and things move forward. Hope that is the case. Well, best scram, kick the boys out of bed, and fire up the hair cutters. Laters...

It has been an up and down time. Aunt Babe is recovering at the nursing home in Neb City, after two weeks in Madonna. I am hopeful she can be home by Thanksgiving, and so is she. Beyond that, this week has been the pits. Hot and cold. Had a furnace inspection that went sour, some insurance lady is really pissed at me. Called me up and bawled me out on the phone. So I have been waiting for the other shoe to drop on this one. And I had two Roof Inspections in Beatrice that are screwy. One supposedly I missed massive hail damage. I went and rechecked it, no damage. Turns out the guy can't get insurance because the former owner filed a claim with his insurance co for hail, and collected $4300 on it. Can't figure out how they paid out on hail damage, I sure can't see any. Told him his beef is with the former owner for not disclosing that, and frankly I didn't think he had anything to worry about as far as the roof. I would look for an independent to insure it with. Plenty of them out there. And the other one had hail damage and I took a bunch of photos, the listing Agent went ballistic, stating she had a report from the insurance company stating the roof was in good condition. So I told them to hire a third party and see what they say. Go figure. So I scheduled light the rest of the week, took Wednesday and Friday off, although I spent each morning in Lincoln delivering reports. Wednesday Kyle helped me for a while, we unloaded the blue pickup and put stuff away, worked on some wood and moved it to the horse barn, and did a few other things. Friday afternoon Allen came out, and we worked on the front deck for about 3 hours. Amazing how much you can get done in three hours, with two people and the right tools and supplies. Today was spent finishing the furnace installation in the Garage, and mounting the Antenna rotator. I didn't get it wired up, but at least it is stationary now, not blowing in the wind. Worked on the Diamond T brakes, got the rear wheel assembled, and then installed the Master Cylinder, only to find it didn't work. So took it back off (no small feat) and tore it apart, found the machinist forgot to drill one hole in the sleeve. So I drilled it out, honed it, cleaned it, etc, and reassembled it, then mounted it back on the truck, and got it working. Bled brake fluid through the Master Cylinder, the vacuum boost cylinder, and back to the junction on the frame for the splitter to front and back. The rest I will have to have help on. Hopefully Sunday afternoon. I want to work on the deck again, and perhaps the rear deck as well. Move some concrete blocks out of the basement, use them under the deck for retaining wall, and for a few additional steps in front. Slowly making some headway. Was able to listen to the football game today, and that was good. I listened to the Southwest game last night, heartbreaker. 5 overtimes, they lost on the last play of the game. Oh well, better to go down in flames than have it be a blowout. Huge headache right now, so think I'll find some Tylenol and watch a movie, then hit the sack early. Weather is supposed to be nice thru Weds, then turn cooler and snow by the weekend. not looking forward to that. And of course I have Inspections booked two a day thru Weds. Perhaps I can get some time Thurs and Fri to get back after it. We will see.   Laters...

Well, I went to Kansas with Allen last Wednesday and brought an ailing Zoom home....Allen drove Sparky back up. After massive drugs and a couple of days in bed, we managed to work concessions at the Nebraska-Texas game, which we should have won... We stopped at Madonna and visited Aunt Babe, who is recovering from a stroke, and managed to do an Eagle Scout ceremony in Waverly Sunday afternoon, and I had a gal take our photo, first time we have had a photo together in a while...it was nice to see them all in their Scout outfits again...

Allen was not happy about being torn away from the cheesecake he was snarfing...Zoom had the giggles and I look like I choked myself with my tie, Kyle was thinking "I have a really cool car in the parking lot"... it isn't Olan Mills, but oh well...

We came home Sunday from the soccer game and worked on cars, changing oil, checking anti-freeze, and washed a few. Den was rather dusty sitting my th eroad, with winds out of the north, and Kyle took advantage of that...

and of course Fuzz had to get in on it...we later washed it, and now to polish it and wax it this week, get it ready for winter...

supposed to be 50 all week, reminder that winter is coming. Still so much to do here at home, seems like I can never make any headway...have to get the trailer winterized this week, move the stove from G St. garage out here. Ran water the last two days trying to fill the lagoon up, been watering trees, everything is so dry. Supposed to freeze Friday night, hopefully I can get cannas pulled. Need to get after the deck as well, if I could just get a couple half days that would really help. First is to fix a leaking water filter in the pump house, and cut in a drain valve for the trailer...always something...

Went to Greenwood Speedway to the Scout Campout this weekend. Boys took their cars to show...

They had a good time. Later we watched the stock car races....

They had many division, including dwarf cars, which are miniature outlaw style racers that look like the old coupes and hotrods of the 30's and 40's, except they use an 1100 cc motorcycle engine. Really fun to watch. The had a demolition derby to finish the night, but prior to that they had "trailer races"  where the stock car had a trailer fastened on the rear. Race was 10 laps, and you stayed in as long as your trailer was still hooked on. One had an old red, white, and blue house trailer on, two had boat trailers, complete with boat, one pop up tent trailer, one had an old pickup camper bolte d on a trailer, a '55 Chevy had a trailer with a mechanical bull bolted to it, with a dummy on the bull, and there was a pink Monte Carlo with Big bird on a trailer...it was pretty wild...you had to drive around through or over whatever fell off someone elses car...

We had a great time with the other activities as well. Allen cooked breakfast for the adults Saturday morning, Kyle helped his Patrol do their cooking but mostly hung with the adults...which is fine, since he was way older than eveyone else there...we went to Elkhorn Sunday morning for his soccer game, they lost 3-0. He was not pleased, but oh well. We came home and changed oil in Den and the Explorer, washed the Camaro and Den, polished out some scractches in the El Camino, air up his shocks, and checked antifreeze in many of them. Supposed to be snow flurries this week...