Yesterday I opened my back door to do something, I forget what, and found Molly's twin on my porch. Surprised the hell out of me. I asked her what the heck she was doing there, but got only a blank stare and a couple cautious yips. I was able to sweet-talk her into coming in the house, she wasn't interested in water or food, and she and Molly just sniffed each other. A couple attempts to mark my rug, but I barked at her and she stopped. She was well-groomed and healthy, but no collar or tags, so I put her in the truck and went to visit the nearest neighbors. Only two were home and they didn't recognize her, so I posted on a community Facebook page and sat on the couch to wait, with one little white dog curled up on each side of me.
Within a few minutes I saw a frantic post from the owner and arranged to meet her at the gas station. She was teary-eyed with gratitude. I like that in a woman...😁
Just looked at the map, and the little critter had come nearly two miles to my doorstep. And I don't think it was the first time. A long time ago, maybe a year or two, I had Molly in the truck under the oak tree and had gone back to the house for something, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but Molly, way over south of the house! WTF? How did she get out of the truck and over there so quickly? Using my best dog-whisperer techniques, I screamed bloody murder at her for being a naughty girl, and of course she took off, never to be seen again. Turned around to look back at the truck, and there was the real Molly, wondering what all the fuss was about.
My visitor. A well-groomed version of Molly
A shortcut would have been over coyote-infested hills.
A few days after the van project, my big brother Fred arrived from Arizona. The projects this time were a ginormous model train table and a custom eight-foot-high screen door for his house in Prescott Valley. He had come up with a clever design that would allow the big train layout to be folded up and rolled to the side of the garage to make room for the car.
My first task was 3D renderings using Sketchup.
The "Wings" were four feet wide by eight feet long, making this thing ten and a half feet wide by eight feet long. That's a lot of model trains.
We were able to build the parts in my shop, but to attach the wings, we had to move outside, and then could only set the hinges on one wing at a time.
Once the train table was done, we moved on to the screen door, which we made out of two layers of nice poplar hardwood. We had planned to take another trip to town to buy the wood, but that would have been about a 90-mile round trip and would have killed half a day, no doubt.
Luckily, Brian had left enough wood here from the van project to save us a long drive.
Projects complete, we loaded up for the trip to Arizona.
This is where Fred really shines. Anything electrical or electronic.
He designed the front panel and had it printed on metal. Mesa Lines was the name our dad used on his train layouts. Keeping the tradition alive.
When we got to Arizona, we set the table up in Fred and Gayle's garage. This should keep him occupied for quite some time.
Rolled against the wall, it's only about 3 feet wide and leaves plenty of room for the car.
For the last three weeks we've been working on buddy Brian's Sprinter van.
It's starting to look like a little motor home!
The Picture Window
Nothing initiates an expensive new vehicle like cutting a giant hole in the side.
Looks "Factory" to me.
The Galley
The gray box is an electric refrigerator/freezer
Nice big sink and induction cooktop
The faucet has a long hose and will double as a shower, once he gets the sheet-metal shower pan built.
The pan will pull out from under the galley counter.
Flip-up extra counter space. Small water heater peeking out from under the bed
The new aromatic cedar ceiling with LED can lights
The Dining Room
Brian is calling the van Buck, after the main character in The Call of the Wild, a dog who goes from a relatively cushy life to adventures in the wild - a good analogy for the van life.
So we gave Ol' Buck a good place in the new table
The Bedroom
The bed and table can be removed in minutes if the van needs to haul big things.
The raised floor hides a surfboard!
The Bathroom
The toilet box will get a cushion and be a seat for dining.
Composting toilet, which I thought might be a pain, but it has a powered vent system and can go up to two months before emptying! Try that with your RV holding tank!
The Library
Brian's nifty automated locking system to keep books in place
Once the bar is in the slot, gravity drops the little locking piece in place.
The Control Panel
This van has four big lithium batteries, an inverter, solar on the roof, and more electronics than the Space Shuttle!
It's time for the faithful old Ford tractor I've been using to go back to her rightful owner. I've had her for nearly five years, nursed her through some hard times and enjoyed a lot of good times too. Without that tractor, Sábado would be a very different place.
I was mentioning this to my good neighbor Rick, the rancher up the road who has so many old tractors on his place that he has never counted them. I asked him if he had anything that might work for me, and he told me he had taken another old Ford in trade for some work he did for a guy.
One thing led to another, and I am now the proud owner of a 1954 Ford Tractor. I paid almost exactly what the tractor cost originally 66 years ago. If you want to know how much that was, you'll have to look it up. 😊
Here she sits in Rick's yard, looking kind of forlorn and in need of some love.
One of the main things restorers look for is completeness. Are all the parts there? Doesn't matter too much what kind of shape they're in, as long as they're there. This one is pretty complete. That missing gauge, along with just about any other part I might need will be readily available from vintage tractor suppliers.
It even comes with a three-way box grader. The box can be rotated to have ripping shanks plow the dirt, a scoop blade to dig and move dirt, and the blade can be rotated backwards as a drag to smooth out the dirt. I used that a lot on the other tractor to smooth out the drive after rain.
Missing a few teeth, but those can be bought.
My friend Andy does a lot of work at Rick's place and he had been tinkering with this one. He stopped by the other day and said he had it running good and asked if I'd like to come drive it a bit, since I had already bought it.
It was indeed running well and in fact my little test drive turned out to be all the way home, a bit over a mile on the county road. Andy followed in my truck with the flashers going.
Here she is. My very own tractor. Doesn't look like much now, but I once had a travel trailer that looked pretty sad, and that turned out okay...
The first thing on my list was to get rid of the front loader apparatus. I rarely used the loader on the other tractor, and it's just heavy and in the way. These were for farmers who had piles of manure or grain or other soft stuff to pick up and move. It's not much good for earth moving, and so far, I have no piles of manure to move...
The loader weighs 850 pounds, so it wasn't coming off with a pair of pliers. This picture was taken after several sweaty hours disconnecting it at the front. It's held on with several large rusty bolts that can only be accessed while standing on your head or crawling in the dirt, and on top of that, some previous owner had welded the mounting plate to the tractor! Thanks a lot, farmer!
I had to use a sawzall and metal cutting blade to cut through some quarter-inch steel, but I gott'er done eventually. The part that's welded to the tractor will have to be dealt with at a later date.
In the above picture I was taking the weight off of the back so I could knock out two large pins that attach the loader at the rear.
Once everything was disconnected, I needed to raise it way up to clear the front wheels as I backed the tractor out. Luckily I still have the other tractor, and in this case, its loader came in mighty handy.
All Clear!
What a difference. That loader is now a permanent part of my landscape, tucked discretely away in a corner where it will live forever, unless some fool wants to buy it, but he'll have to replace some parts.
I had to remove some of the sheet metal parts to get to the loader mounts, but those will go back on and then I will start tinkering with things.
These things are teflon-coated fiberglass and you just lay one down in the bottom of your oven. In a gas oven like mine, you put it on the bottom rack. In an electric oven, you put it under the heating element.
Cook whatever you want, let it boil over and drip hot cheese or other gooey stuff. Make a mess in that oven. Let it burn on. But instead of donning your rubber gloves, putting on your goggles and respirator, and spraying toxic chemicals, just pull out the sheet, drop it in the sink and rinse it with water. That's it.
After cooking pizza. This is only a little mess, but size doesn't matter. (Or so I've been told.)
I never need cleaning products of any kind, not even vinegar; just a damp cloth. You don't even have to dry the sheet if you don't want to.
After a quick wipe-down in the sink.
Luckily for me, I was able to remove my stovetop burners, lay down a sheet, and reinstall the burners. The stovetop was a bigger problem for me than the oven, because the white porcelain gets splattered almost every time I cook something, and that was a real pain in the patoot to clean.
No more. Damp cloth. I'm not kidding.
Your situation may vary.
So that's my little product endorsement. Unfortunately I don't make any money off of it.
