3-17
Well, the 460 is put back together now and after a few more
checks to make sure everything was in its proper place, it fired and then died.
I’m sure that it’s just going to need a little minor carb adjustment. It
starts, runs for a second or two, and dies. All of the carb adjustments are at
factory specs, but this thing is over 50 years old, so like me it needs some
work. Further tinkering and digging on the internet has shown me that it’s
actually a ’62 model and the coil was supposed to have a resistor in line with
it and not having one has blown the coil. I still have a coil left over from my
hot stock racing days and I may try that on it to see if it will work. It’s
almost three times the size of the stock coil and puts out almost twice as much
juice.
The weather has
turned a bit cooler, a bit like Indian summer in reverse. Just about the time
you are ready to get outside and take care of the some of the odd thousands of
things, it’s more like you might want to wait a week, or maybe two. The temps
aren’t the worst, but the ever constant wind ( have I told you about the wind
here? ) keeps even moderate temps a bit uncomfortable. I’m sure my age and
losing 40 or so pounds along with the chemo has made me even more sensitive to
the temperature.
Teresa’s chicks are
now 3 weeks old and are about twice their birth size. They’re getting feathers
and are quite rowdy now. They currently are in a plastic tub and take up about
half of the area of the tub that they are in. They will probably move outside
to a small cage we have this week barring any major weather problems. We’ve
placed the cage inside of a greenhouse that we have to reduce their exposure to
the wind.
3-24
We have been going to
an auction near here for quite a while now. It’s more like a giant yard sale
where everything is only a couple of dollars. Most of it would be considered
junk by city standards, but you can always find something of interest there.
After the yard sale part there is a livestock part where mostly what they sell
is goats and sheep, but after that they sell chickens, ducks, geese, pheasant,
etc. This evening Teresa came home with, among other things, 110 baby chicks
and 4 baby ducks. The first 100 are all males and the plan for them is to raise
them to young adult size and sell them. They cost 16 cents apiece and we expect
to be able to get around $ 2.00 for them. The other 10 are of unknown sex so
we’re hoping for at least a 50-50 mix. At any rate, all of the roosters will
eventually be sold and we’ll keep the hens for eggs. One of the ducks didn’t
make it. We think that it may have eaten too fast since they all started eating
and drinking as soon as we put it down for them. The ducks will be more for
pets and are expected to live on our pond and should help with bug control. Of
course, we have tried guineas before for bug control, and they seemed rather
good at it. What they weren’t good at is hiding from the owls and staying out
of the road. The few people that come down our road don’t seem to care about if
they hit a bird in the road and guineas aren’t the smartest of birds. We
started with 14 and are now down to 1. It runs around here all day from sunup
to sundown going “kuk-wack. kuk-wack, kuk-wack”, calling for it’s buddies and
attempting to tempt us to just shoot it and put it out of our misery.
3-28
Today turned out mild
and with light wind so we put our efforts into trying to finish the greenhouse.
This thing is about 10’ x 12’ with a square tube frame, covered in corrugated
clear plastic. Now, you might be thinking, so what. The problem with all of
this is that I took it all apart about two years or so ago and it’s been
somewhat of a puzzle to put back together. The frame offered the most headaches
since there were only a few choice pieces that actually got labeled and from
there I had to do trial and error to see what piece fit where without drilling
new holes. That way I could be sure that it went back together the way it came
apart. The plastic walls and roof have
had to wait for calm days since most of it would go sailing off if you tried it
on a windy day. Currently, there are twenty of the chicks in there, which have
thankfully been moved out of the downstairs bathroom. They had been in there to
keep a close eye on the air temp to keep them warm. The only thing left in the
house now is the three ducks that make a noise like a child’s squeak toy. The
dog thinks that they are for his entertainment and is constantly trying to get
in there with them.
3-30
Today the first set
of ten chicks were put into the chicken house that they will be in for quite a
while. The ducks moved outside to the greenhouse with the second set of ten.
The ducks didn’t seem too happy at first, but I was a bit happier to not having
3 squeak toys constantly making noise. My only solution was to turn the TV up
and Teresa was thinking I was getting more deaf.
4-11
I looked at the calendar today and then when I
started this post and thought where did the time go. In my defense, we have had
several visitors here and also making preparations for spring like trying to
get a garden put in and planting things. My part in this is mostly area
preparation and supervision. ( Yeah, like I supervise my wife) The ducks have
moves to their last temporary home before we introduce them to the pond and the
first set of ten chicks aren’t chicks anymore. The second set are still in the
greenhouse as much because we’re keeping them out of the weather as we are
trying to keep some of them contained. Every time Teresa opens the cage to feed
and water them, at least one of them flies out and has to be caught back up.
Spring has really sprung here now
with grass coming back in and trees filling in and so forth. Early morning
temps can still be on the cool side, but by afternoon most people would be
wanting to be in a T-shirt.
One of our visitors here was
Teresa’s sister’s gentleman friend Henry. He’s 83 if I heard right and has been
in farming and ranching since he was a pup, so when he came up I asked him to
look at the Farmall of ours. After listening to it attempt to start several times,
he started tinkering with the points and after a bit more tinkering found the
problem. This tractor started it’s life with a 6 volt system with a generator.
Over the years it’s been converted to a 12 volt system with an alternator. On
top of that, when they changed it to 12 volt, the coil was changed to 12 volt
with a ballast resistor in line with the run circuit. What Henry found, with
some crazy good detective work, was that the brand new resistor that I had put
on it was broken causing intermittent spark and resulting in what I had----
starts but won’t stay running. After a bit of experimenting we got it running
at least long enough to warm it up, tune the carb, and check out the
hydraulics. It still needs a few parts to make it a working tractor, but we’re
getting there. It’s main job will be to keep a lot of the acreage mowed, but
I’m sure we’ll find plenty for it to do.
Another of our visitors were our
good friends Terri and Michael. They both like to fish, and when they heard
that our pond doesn’t have any decided that that must change and ordered fish
from a local hatchery. So, this Friday we’ll be going to a feed store to meet
the truck that will have the fish. We’re getting catfish, minnows and a couple
of carp. The minnows will be for mosquito control and the carp are for moss and
algae control. The pond has stayed mostly full since we have owned the place,
so we’re hopeful that they will stock the pond for many years.
Well, it’s that time again, so
I’ll try to get this out there today.
